KISSIMMEE -- Police received training Tuesday on what to do in a Columbine-like situation at schools.
The training looked like a bonafide school shooting, with a mock gunman in place and school children acting terrified.
"It was really nerve wracking, like we were really nervous," said Valerie Rosaro, 14, one of the students who volunteered to run through the hallways of Central Avenue Elementary School for the drill.
"We don't have the luxury to wait anymore. We have to act, and we have to act now," said Kissimmee police Sgt. Jaime Alberti. "The longer we wait, the longer we spend thinking about things, and the more people are dying. So our responsibility is to go in and eliminate threat, which is basically to take the guy out."
Members of the police department created scenarios to which the officers in training and children had to properly respond.
"The screaming kids, the chaotic of shots going off, it replicates exactly what's going to happen," Alberti said.
Police said the tragedies at Columbine High School in 1999 and Virginia Tech in 2007 changed the way officers are trained. They said a shooting at a school creates a whole host of other problems.
"As the situation is developing, there are officers responding from different locations that are not familiar with that school, which is why we're having this scenario during the summer, so everyone knows how to respond here," Alberti said.
Officers hope they never have to use the training they received, but history has shown such events can happen.
"Now I know what to do," Valerie Rosaro said. "I I think everyone should do this."
The Active Shooter Training session takes place each year at a different school.
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