DEBBIE JACOB
NO PLACE I have ever visited or lived has impressed me more than Nashville, a city in the southern US state of Tennessee. From my first visit about seven years ago to do research for a book I was writing, Nashville wowed me as a place that runs like a well-oiled machine. We caught a glimpse of the city's efficiency on March 27 during the Covenant School shooting.
It's not surprising that experts hailed Nashville's response as a textbook case in dealing with mass shootings. It's merely an example of how that city values and exhibits leadership, organisation and collaboration. Videos of the police officers who responded to the call of the mass shooting at the Presbyterian school show that police, teachers and dispatchers worked together in a well-planned and well-practised collaboration. Swift and methodical action resulted in the shooter's death within 14 minutes of the emergency call.
Watch those videos and see how calm everyone is. They know their jobs, and they trust in collaboration. In their press conference, police officers and first responders Mathis and Michael Collazo spoke about the exemplary work the dispatchers did in relaying information to them. Those dispatchers also liaised with local hospitals, putting them on alert and organised school buses to take the children to a safe place.
The police organised gathering points in nearby churches. Psychologists were made available to everyone, from the teachers and officers to the officers' family members, because, as Collazo pointed out, 'Our families are with us in this too.'
If you watch the videos of the officers who served as first responders to the Covenant School shooting, you will see impeccable preparation and seamless work among officers who never worked together. They were cool and collected because they had been prepared with classes and practice exercises to deal with mass shootings. Their families spoke to reporters about all the times those officers missed family gatherings because they jumped at the opportunity for more training.
Teachers did an admirable job in keeping children locked down. Some teachers got children out of the school and some teachers remained behind at strategic places to provide information for arriving police officers. Those teachers are calm and informative. A school employee sat near an entrance and had the keys ready to open the door for officer Rex Engelbert. Inside, the school police systematically cleared rooms until they heard gunshots, the signal they needed to locate the shooter.
What we should be noticing is the pride everyone takes in their jobs, their service and their preparation. Notice the way they credit each other and the joy they take in collaboration and swift action. I saw this at every level when I stayed in Nashville, a city with a population of 693,000 people.
I'm contrasting that action in Nashville with the inaction, ineptitude and carelessness that I often experience in Trinidad. Take just a little
