SCTCC Prepares People For The Unexpected With Threat Simulation [VIDEO]

ST. CLOUD -- St. Cloud Technical and Community College hosted the state's largest active threat training simulation on Saturday.

This is the second year the college has hosted the training exercise and Jennifer Potter, who has organized the event both years, says registration doubled in its second year.

"People have come from across Minnesota," Potter says. "It's a variety -- they're from health care facilities, businesses and industries, and schools."

Potter, who is the Director of Health Training at SCTCC, says that kind of variety helps to make the event that much more valuable.

"The purpose is to get people together from different professions and opening lines of communication so that [they'll] know what to do," Potter says.

"We don't know how we're going to react in these situations -- and so until we put ourselves in that type of situation, we don't know what we're doing."

Several volunteers participated as role players for the simulation, getting made up to look like victims of a stressful situation.

Over 50 local law enforcement and first responders were on hand for what St. Cloud police sergeant Marty Sayre says is a good training opportunity for them as well.

"I want to take [this simulation] and ultimately make it into a training tool for regional first responders," Sayre says. "To help them understand the chaos and what to expect so that we can better respond to our community."