Watch now: How LPS is working to keep sports events safe using new national training | Education

This week, Lincoln Public Schools — working with local law enforcement and other agencies — became one of the first school districts in the nation to host a sports event risk management training session led by the National Center for Spectator Sports Safety and Security.

The center, based at the University of Southern Mississippi, offers a number of courses for organizations focused on threats to sporting events. But it only just recently began offering a course tailored for high school competitions.

Kyle Poore, a security coordinator at LPS, had worked with the center before and invited local agencies to attend training sessions in Lincoln this week.

Among those represented were the Lincoln Police Department, Lincoln-Lancaster County Emergency Management, the Omaha Police Department, the Nebraska School Activities Association and others.

“We probably haven’t had this level of collaboration where it’s bringing everyone in at the same time,” Poore said.

LPS trains to prepare for disasters in schools, like reunification drills in which students are safely relocated to another building, but nothing specifically aimed at sporting events, Poore said.

The NCS4 training, which continues Tuesday, is more pencil-and-paper learning than simulation, with teams going through activity-based modules to improve planning, risk assessment and training.

Participants also studied scenarios, like one from the Indiana State Fair in 2011, when a gust of wind from a thunderstorm knocked over a stage, killing seven people.

The advice is timely with the College World Series coming to Omaha later this month. Assessing threats to the public is front of mind for many following a wave of gun violence across the U.S., including last month’s shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, that left 21 dead, including 19 children.

“We used to think years and years ago when I started in law enforcement — 25, 30 years ago — that it was more so the target was the stadiums, the facility, and that’s not the case now,” said Joey Sturm, an instructor with NCS4. “It’s the crowd, it’s people and … we need to plan accordingly for that.”

Sturm takes an all-hazards approach with his training, running the gamut from more common weather-related threats — such as storms or excess heat — to shootings or power outages.

The vast majority of games, he points out, go off with very few issues.