CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WCHS) — Kanawha County Sheriff's Office Sgt. Josh Lester knows tragic events can happen anywhere, that why deputies underwent some hands-on training recently.

“Fortunately, we've never had to do this, but we see it happen so much,” Lester said. “It's one of those things, you feel like it's a matter of time before it hits our area and we wanna be prepared when it does come."

The training for worst-case scenarios was held at Herbert Hoover High School. Lester said the goal is to make reactions and response second nature for first responders.

"By doing this, we hope this repetitive training over and over and over will make the response smooth and seamless in the event that we do have something so that we can save as many lives, if not all, as possible if something like this ever happens in our area,” Lester said.

Deputies are spending the week conducting drills inside the school and taking a realistic approach on how to handle the dangers.

Kanawha County Schools Communications Director Chris Williams said they appreciate law enforcement's willingness to learn and improve.

"The world we live in today, anything can happen at any time,” Williams said. “You don't want to think that it can happen, but it can. The best way that we can prepare for that is doing this type of training."

Kanawha County Schools has made plans to install new state-of-the-art security systems in all schools to help with the prevention of these kinds of incidents.

“These security cameras that we are getting, they are very information driven,” Williams said. “We're able to give access to people who need access when they need it."

According to the Sandy Hook Promise Action Fund, gunfire was the fourth leading cause of death for children in West Virginia.

Kanawha County Schools wants to reassure students and parents that they won't let them become another statistic.

“We want students to feel safe when they come to school, we want parents and guardians to feel safe when they drop their students off to school,” Williams said. “We want kids to learn, that's the whole point of school is to get an education, right?"