COLLINSVILLLE, Ill. – Preparing for school shootings will be the focus of important training taking place this week in Collinsville.

The training is getting underway Monday morning at Collinsville Fire Station #1 on South Clinton in the downtown Collinsville area. It will continue through Thursday and will include health care workers and area firefighters.

Organizers said those health care workers and disaster preparedness experts from two hospitals, including Children’s Hospital, will teach firefighters a variety of topics. Those include triage skills, techniques for stopping bleeding, and pediatric airway management skills.

We’re told that firefighters from Collinsville, Glen Carbon and Maryville will be attending the training as well.

This all comes about a month and a half after the deadly shooting at Central Visual and Performing Arts High School in south St. Louis.

On October 24, a former graduate of the high school opened fire inside the school, killing a student and a teacher and injuring several others. The shooter was killed by police. That tragedy left many people shaken in the community.

CVPA students have been attending classes virtually, and students at the Collegiate School of Medicine and Bioscience, which shares the same building with CVPA, just went back to in-person learning one week ago.

In addition to valuable hands-on training, there will also be lectures and time for questions and comments about first responders preparing for worst case scenarios after the tragedy at CVPA.