Exercise tests emergency responders' ability to protect students during crisis
RIDGEFIELD - Yellow school buses lined the curb at Ridgefield High School on Friday afternoon, but this was no ordinary dismissal.
For the first time in two decades, emergency responders and educators from across Clark County converged to test the systems meant to protect students during a worst-case scenario.
The four-hour joint emergency preparedness exercise, designed by the Clark Regional Emergency Services Agency, transformed the campus into a staging ground for a large-scale evacuation. While the simulation focused on a chemical spill near the school, the underlying goal was to ensure that in the chaos of a real disaster, every child would be accounted for and safely returned to their family.
"We are really fortunate to have CRESA coordinate this event, and there's been really good coordination between the superintendents," Ridgefield Superintendent Dr. Jenny Rodriquez said. "My dad is a retired firefighter, and grandpa is a retired firefighter, so when they asked for a school to host, I volunteered to do this, thinking of them."
The drill involved 32 student volunteers, four actual parents and roughly 24 staff playing the roles of frantic family members. The exercise moved in phases, beginning with an evacuation to the high school football field for a head count before students were bused to a reunification site.
District officials intentionally kept that site's location - the North Pacific Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists on North 20th Street - secret until the exercise began to simulate the uncertainty parents face during actual emergencies. Once students were at the church, the process of reunification began, a meticulous sequence of paperwork and identity verification designed to prevent a secondary crisis.
"The whole point of this is to make sure parents don't all come up to the front and bottleneck traffic asking for their kids," said Cmdr. Chris Skidmore with the Clark County Sheriff's Office. "The point of the parent staging here is so there's control in the worst-case scenario."
Inside the church, the atmosphere was a mix of structured procedure and the unpredictable energy of high school students. Charlotte Ellis, Ridgefield's executive director for schools and leadership, earlier had warned participants that the human element likely would disrupt even the best-laid plans.
"These are high school kids on a warm spring day," Ellis said. "So there will be no acting from them today."
The complexity of the event was the result of nine months of planning among school districts, local law enforcement and emergency responders.
"We basically had a baby making this happen," Ellis said.
Corina McEntire, the school safety coordinator for Educational Service District 112, noted that the simulation included a bit of controlled chaos, such as parents attempting to pick up children without identification or trying to take neighbors' kids home. These hurdles were included to test the resilience, communication skills and composure of staff under pressure.
"This day is so important, and I want people to know how much went into this," McEntire said. "The safety of our students and staff is so important to us, and our staff need to feel safe at this school as much as the kids do."
Organizers were careful to choose a natural disaster for the scenario instead of an act of violence. It still enabled the team to practice emergency response and communication protocols.
"We wanted to avoid traumatizing the kids, so we opted to do this instead," Rodriquez said. "But this would be the same kind of response if there was an active shooter on campus."
Student volunteers, such as River Leeling and Cadence Clark, participated to earn credit for the National Honor Society. The three hours of drilling represented a significant portion of their required community service.
While the students practiced their patience on a sunny April afternoon, the educators and officers around scanned for gaps in the plan.
The exercise revealed several areas for improvement. Some students slipped away with parents before the formal check-out was complete, and several parents arrived at the wrong entry points, causing minor confusion. These hiccups, according to McEntire, are exactly why the drill was necessary. Seeing how the system breaks down in a controlled environment allows the county to fix those vulnerabilities before a real disaster strikes.
"This type of collaboration is critical to ensuring we are fully prepared to respond in a coordinated and effective manner," Ellis said. "By practicing together, we strengthen our ability to keep students and staff safe."
As the exercise wrapped up just ahead of schedule at 3 p.m., organizers came together for an immediate debriefing, or "hot wash" in the lingo, to review what went right and what went wrong in order to best prepare for the next training event and improve emergency response.
"We'll be seeing everyone again next year," McEntire said.
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This story was originally published April 25, 2026 at 7:10 AM.