Parents have to put immense in extracurricular sponsors and coaches.

Athletics and academics teams alike travel all over the region, nation, and soon internationally. Whether in the county, a few counties away or a few states away, threats remain the same.

If put in an unsafe situation, how far will the adult in charge go to make sure the students are safe?

For Talana Hinson, Cassville speech, debate and drama teacher, that question could be answered as such: locked Glendale High School bathroom with pink 3-inch block heels in her hands ready to bop any assailant that attempted entry.

Six Cassville students were with Hinson at Glendale, four in the middle of competing in the finals. At about 7 p.m., 10-15 gunshots rang from outside the building. Later it was determined a man walking by suffered a non-life-threatening gunshot wound, and the shooter is still on the loose.

From how she and others have described the scenario, the building was placed on lockdown and all were being ushered to the gymnasium/auditorium.

Not knowing if there was an immediate danger or not, Hinson broke the mold, but in the best way.

Instead of going to a large room where everyone was being contained, Hinson rounded up her contingent and took them to a nearby bathroom, which they later found out was out of order.

Locked from the inside and requiring a key to be unlocked from the outside, there they waited.

For an hour, Hinson stayed near the door listening, holding her heels in case she needed to engage in the third portion of run, hide, fight.

Her students backed her, some finding makeshift weapons of their own should they be needed.

While the individual that ultimately unlocked the door nearly got the business end of Hinson’s heel, all turned out well, and everyone returned home safe and sound.

Student safety in recent years has become paramount as school shooting have become more and more frequent.

While this was not the case in Glendale Saturday and the gunshots were not directed at the school, the reaction was, appropriately, as if they were.

Training given to Cassville teachers and students was employed, and employed effectively.

A few years ago, after the mass shooting at The Capitol, a newspaper in Annapolis, Md., our staff took a run, hide, fight training from the Monett Police Department.

Part of the exercise was for the officers to give us a few seconds head start in the run and hide drill. For us in the former Monett Times office on Broadway, the prime location clear to everyone was our dark room, a narrow, turning hallway that let out into a small room where no light is emitted.

In that situation, in our own office, hiding may have been a bit easier. For what it’s worth, in that drill I challenged myself to not go to the most obvious spot. Could I stay hidden from the officer but not in the darkroom?

The answer was no. I wound up in about 20 seconds covering myself in a pile of old insulation. I was the second or third person located out of about six, and I was itchy for the rest of that day.

Executing run, hide, fight was harder than it sounded, and even the darkroom — though it would have provided a good opportunity to fight — was not completely safe. Ultimately, the officer located everyone inside, and if fighting failed, the outcome with everyone staged in one area could have been disastrous in a true active shooter situation.

In the Glendale scenario, would Hinson and the students have been safe if they had followed the crowd into the gym? Yes.

Would they have had the same amount of control over the situation — behind a door they locked and so prepared to defend themselves? Not hardly.

These types of situations are exactly what training is for, and Hinson deserves all the credit in the world for the actions she took in that moment.

Cassville should take pride in having a teacher ready willing to take any action necessary to protect her students. I know she is not alone.

As a parent with two girls in the district, if one of my girls was there, I would be riddled with anxiety. However, I know they would have been in good hands — pink, 3-inch block heel-filled hands.

Kyle Troutman has served as the editor of the Cassville Democrat since 2014. In 2017, he was named William E. James/Missouri Outstanding Young Journalist for daily newspapers, and in 2022, he won a Golden Dozen Award from ISWINE. He may be reached at 417-847-2610 or ktrout-man@ cassville-democrat.com.