The Selma Times-Journal

Wallace Community College nursing student Jennifer Helton is about to sustain fatal gun shot wounds to her head, chest and abdomen and she is looking forward to it.

Helton and 17 other nursing students participated in a county-wide

disaster drill Thursday afternoon outside the Charles L. Byrd Science-Nursing Building on the Wallace campus.

Although the drill is supposed to portray a vicious terrorist attack, the students try to make light of the mock situation.

Timothy Watson, captain of the Selma Fire and Rescue Department, said the drill is a joint effort among the city fire department, police department, the Dallas County sheriff’s department, ambulance agencies and the emergency room staff at Vaughan Regional Medical Center.

The drill, Watson said, will help area police and firefighters better respond to a widespread attack and train the hospital staff for a sudden influx of patients. The drill was taken so seriously that police officers guided traffic around the Wallace campus as the scheduled events unfolded.

The scenario of the attack involves a husband and wife, said Becky Casey, director of the Wallace Community College School of Nursing. A Wallace nursing graduate accidentally kills the wife by giving her the wrong medication. The husband learns of his wife’s death and has come on campus to seek revenge, shooting, killing and injuring several nursing students, police officers and ambulance workers.

Anita Ellison, emergency room director at the Vaughan Regional Medical Center, distributed tags to students displaying their various injuries or fatal wounds. She also appointed a few students as family members of the victims.

Ellison and Steven Sansom,

who also works in the emergency room at Vaughan, sprayed students with fake blood, bandaged their heads,

and taped plastic lacerations and cuts onto their clothing.

Student LuDebra Moppins fell running away from the armed attacker and sustained abrasions on her right arm during the mock attack. She said it was her first time participating in a drill.

Casey said this was the first time the Wallace

School of nursing has participated in the mock drill and said the event may be held annually.