By Town Crier Staff

Students and parents volunteered to spend their spring break trapped in a classroom with a mock gunman at Los Altos High School last week as part of an evacuation training for emergency workers. The daylong training program April 16 was the first time police, fire and school officials came together to coordinate an emergency plan, Los Altos Police Sgt. Bob Lacey said.

The training included 35 officers from the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s SWAT team and the Los Altos SWAT and Hostage Negotiation teams, as well as fire, medical and school personnel.

The teams worked on campus lock- down procedures and classroom evacuations, using an armored truck to move students away from the mock gunman.

Lacey said the exercise helped police logistically should they ever need to evacuate the campus. The exercise was a precursor to a citywide emergency plan that the police department is putting in place, he added.