Centerville Schools to host ‘Run, Hide, Fight’ school safety presentation

A free presentation about keeping safe from active shooters is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 12 at the Centerville High School Central Theater. It is open to families, students, staff and Centerville-Washington Twp. community members.

Centerville City Schools partnered with the nonprofit Centerville Safe, Centerville Police Department and the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office to host the “Run, Hide, Fight” approach to active threats.

Centerville Police Officers Brad Eshler and Jason Stamm, who are both school resource officers at Centerville High School, will facilitate the presentation.

The event comes on the heels of a school shooting in Georgia on Wednesday, where a student shot and killed four people, with nine others wounded.

In addition to practicing emergency drills throughout the year, other precautions Centerville Schools take to avoid active shooter threats include locked school doors, call boxes at front entrances and a visitor management system. School buildings have security film in strategic locations, school resource officers throughout the district, improved radio communication and surveillance equipment, school counselors and mental health resources, and a 24-hour anonymous tip line to report school safety concerns.

The district also has a supply of free gun locks to distribute to community members to help secure firearms.

Centerville Safe was founded in 2019 by a group of Centerville City Schools parents who wanted to do more for school safety and security. Superintendent Jon Wesney said this is the fourth time the district and Centerville Safe have offered this particular program for the community.