Wayne Pope from Middleville attended the Barry County Church Safety Conference Saturday thinking about becoming a security team member at his church. After attending the conference, that’s what he decided to do.
Pope, retired from Pacific Bell, now AT&T, in San Diego California, took the morning active shooter workshop instructed by Skip Coryell.
“I took an advanced course in that. Coryell is a good instructor." During an exercise, Pope said he made a mistake and he learned from it. He will apply and, “hopefully, be a security team member for TVC in Middleville.”
Barry County Special Deputy Larry Jackson leads the county Church Safety Team; he has helped set up safety teams in churches in Barry, Allegan, Eaton, Ionia, Kent and Clinton counties. He was also one of the six Instructors at the conference Saturday at the first Baptist Church in Middleville. All of the workshops were filled.
While the classes for active shooter filled up first, there is so much more to church security, Jackson said; it could be anything unexpected, an illness, severe weather or something else.
He tells of when a woman passed out in the church sanctuary. He has EMT training so he took her vital signs and made her comfortable until the ambulance arrived. “It turned out to be some sort of heart problem. That happens a lot more than you would think,” he said. “You should know what to do.”
“There are bad people everywhere, and that is in the church as well…you don’t know what will happen, but training is useful in most situations,” he said.
Barry County Sheriff Dar Leaf agreed. He said active shootings are shocking, but more people are killed from looking down at their cellphone and stepping into traffic than in active shooter situations.
Five main workshops were topics at the event; CPR, AED & First Aid, Active Shooter, Legal, Team Building/Policy & Procedures/Insurance and Violence/Intruder Response (Non-Lethal).
Workshop Instructors, Coryell, Jackson, Michael Maring, Terry Johnson, Jim Yarger and Thomas Conrad each have extensive experience in their specific areas; all are certified by local, state or national organizations.
Leaf listed more than a dozen organizations that provided support for the event hosted by the Barry County Sheriff’s Office and thanked Pastor Nate Archer for providing the church for the conference.
Photos: (upper left) Wayne Pope will apply to be on the security team at the Middleville branch of Thornapple Valley Church.
(middle left) When a security officer takes down an assailant with a knife, portrayed here by Michael Maring, that’s when you pile on, Barry County Sheriff Dar Leaf said. Here, he shows where to hit the attacker for the most effect.
(lower left) Active Shooter workshop attendant (from left) Wayne Pope, and Instructors Skip Coryell and Larry Jackson take a lunch break before the afternoon workshops.
