The Farmingdale School District hosted an active shooter walkthrough at its high school, which included scenarios where lockdowns were initiated, armed security responded immediately to the scene and then coordinated with local law enforcement to eliminate and recover from the threat.
The district said the drill was one of the first in Nassau County, allowing local law enforcement to feel more prepared in cases of emergencies inside school buildings.
The July 25 training saw officers from various departments spend several hours inside Farmingdale High School as they performed carefully planned scenarios designed to simulate real-time threats and test rapid response capabilities.
According to Farmingdale Assistant Superintendent Samuel Thompson, district employees were not present in the building during the training, and after the exercises, school officials debriefed law enforcement.
Thompson said the real-life training grounds help law enforcement familiarize themselves with the possible environment.
“So many of them haven’t been in a school since they attended,” he said. “It’s different to go to the Nassau County training facility vs. a tangible, real, hands-on school building.”
The district said the objectives of the drill centered on improving communication and coordination with school personnel, local law enforcement and armed security contractors.
Thompson said the training was planned months in advance and resulted from a conversation held with school district administrators from across the county and local law enforcement.
“It builds our readiness and our confidence because it’s something you never want to experience, and the only way to prepare for that type of threat is to practice it,” Thompson said.
The district said its armed security team, Upfront Security, Nassau County Homeland Security, the Nassau County Police Department’s Problem-Oriented Police Unit, the Nassau County Bureau of Special Operations and the Farmingdale Village Fire Department participated in the drill.
Farmingdale was the only school district in the county to host a walkthrough.
“We take the safety of our students and staff seriously,” Thompson said.
Thompson said following the drill discussions were held with school officials and law enforcement to continue training inside school buildings at a later date.
U.S. Rep. Andrew Garbarino, chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security, joined Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder and former Homeland Security Committee Chairman Peter King on Tuesday, Aug. 5, to discuss Nassau’s various potential safety threats during the county’s weekly “Terror Tuesday” briefing.
The meeting came in the aftermath of a recent New York City shooting that left four dead in midtown Manhattan.
The K-12 School Shooting Database shows there have been 134 school shooting incidents in 2025. The threat to schools has drastically increased in recent years, as the database tracks more than 100 school shooting incidents each year since 2017 and over 300 school shooting incidents in each of the past three years.
