After the tragedy in Uvalde Texas, school districts across the nation really began to show a stronger commitment to school safety. Like most school districts in the nation, Brownfield ISD has taken this very seriously and came together with the Brownfield Police Dept. to partner with Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training (ALERRT). Most likely you saw several law enforcement units in Brownfield last week as several law enforcement officers and agencies converged on Brownfield to take this training so they could also train their co-workers.
Current BPD Chief Tony Serbantez invited ALERRT to Brownfield to teach a course called “First responder breaching – train the trainer course”. According to ALERRT, this course is a hands-on, dynamic course designed to aid the first responder in approaching and breaching a crisis site using traditional and non-traditional methods. The course covered the use of both manual and ballistic breaching tools to gain entry into a structure under extreme and demanding circumstances that need immediate entry to save and protect innocent lives. This course was 40 hours for five days.
Marty Adcock, Regional Manager of ALERRT said when they do this style of training, it helps to have a location that is conducive to learning and training. BISD School Resource Officer (SRO) Lorenzo Mancilla asked BISD Superintendent Chris Smith if ALERRT could use the old middle school for the training. Since the school is scheduled to be demolished, BISD granted permission to use the property which also helped with training the three BISD SROs.
Smith said, “We are happy to partner with law enforcement to increase the level of preparedness across the state, but also here in BISD. It was a unique opportunity that we had so we took advantage of it.” Chief Serbantez also said, “I’m glad we were able to get this done and hopefully we’ll get to do it again.” Chief Serbantez also wanted to say thank you to United Faith Family Church for hosting the officers so there was easier access to the middle school also for providing food, plus Pizza Hut, Tenchas, and Brownfield Church of Christ for providing food as well.
