Teachers pray they will never have to go through a school shooting.

But in the Weatherly School District, they are taking additional steps to prepare, so that they can potentially minimize the effects of an attack should it ever happen.

On Friday, teachers and students in grades K-12 participated in an active shooter drill, with help from the Weatherly Police Department. It’s the first of several drills that the school plans to hold in a program that is new to Carbon County.

“I definitely believe they are more prepared than they were starting the school year, and I think as we practice these drills, they will become even more prepared,” Superintendent Teresa Young said.

Teachers and students put into effect techniques that were taught during recent seminars at the school starting back in September. They have been following a program called ALICE — Alert Lockdown Inform Counter Activate.

“In November, we asked them to bring it back up and practice what you would do. They’ve had lots of time to talk about it and practice.

The goal is to make it as difficult as possible for an active shooter to accomplish their goal.

Students were informed Friday morning that at some point, they would enter the drill. When the drill began, an “intruder” started moving through the halls of the school, attempting to enter classrooms along the way.

As part of the training, teachers are taught to attempt to move their students as far away from the potential threat as possible.

A snowy day might not be the ideal time to conduct a drill, but it reinforced the fact that teachers have to be prepared under any circumstance.

“We had a lot going on — pajama day, we had a geography bee, we have a speaker — so it was a normal day,” Elementary Principal Sandra B. Slavick said.

As the intruder made his way through the school, students were nowhere to be seen. Teachers were using their training to get them out of the school.

Not only did the drill test the students and teachers’ skills, it gave administrators suggestions for small changes that may be needed to be made inside the building to ensure the best possible outcome.

The training is aimed at minimizing tragedies like the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary. This week marked five years since 20 children and six adults were killed by a shooter at the elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut.

Weatherly School District started the training after Young arrived — she came from a district where the nearest police station was 45 minutes away.

Over the course of a teacher in-service day and one day of school, they trained staff and students on the ALICE program. The school will hold additional drills as the year goes on.

Young said she hopes that the students can use the training whether they’re in or out of school.

“I think this is something they can use, not only in a school environment, this is something they can use anywhere,” she said.