A floor plan of Bristow Elementary School in Bowling Green, Ky., shows the various routes through the school, Tuesday, April 1, 2014. (Alex Slitz/Daily News)

Heavily armed Warren County sheriff’s deputies moved through Bristow Elementary School on Tuesday to locate a threat — Capt. Brent Brown holding a stuffed monkey at gunpoint while crouched down behind an easel in the preschool classroom.

Tuesday’s training exercise, conducted during spring break, showed how long it took deputies to find a room with a navigation system and without. The navigation system trimmed response time to the threat from three minutes, 34 seconds to 38 seconds. The sessions will continue today as the sheriff’s office trains all dispatchers and sworn personnel except court security officers. Emergency responders from several agencies in and around Warren County attended Tuesday’s sessions.

Bristow, a Warren County school, is the pilot school for the Fast Path navigation system. It is a uniform, internal labeling system that will allow emergency responders to know exactly where they are in any school, regardless of where they enter, and know how to navigate the school’s hallways to locate the incident or threat, whether it is an active shooter or a student with a medical emergency.

Inside the school, the front entrance is labeled zero. From there, the Fast Path signs hang from each hallway ceiling listing the hallway number as the largest number on the sign. Other numbers indicate directions for other hallways and also differentiate between the school’s levels.

“Anything that can contribute to school safety, we’re all for it,” Warren County schools spokesman Don Sargent said. Sargent attended one of the training sessions. “This seems like something that will decrease response time. It’s another piece of the puzzle in ensuring school safety.”

A representative for the Bowling Green Independent School District also attended the training.

Deputy Chris Shelton brought the idea back from the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office after attending an educational session on the Fast Path system created by Franklin County Deputy and school resource officer Montey Chappell, who is a former Marine, Secret Service officer and a retired Frankfort police officer.

Chappell started by deciding which direction to have people go once inside a school and then came up with a labeling system for all entrances and hallways and a system of letting people know whether a door leads to a dead-end hallway or to another major hallway. 

First responders have already used the system in a live situation in Franklin County when a student fell and broke her leg, Chappell said.

“As a school resource officer doing active shooter training, the No. 1 question is how do I get (first responders) there?” he said.

Warren County sheriff’s office dispatcher Debbie Shelton saw firsthand the benefit of the system.

“Obviously, I hope we never have to use it. It makes sense to have a better idea of how to direct your units,” Shelton said. “It takes some of the guesswork out of it.”

One of Shelton’s colleagues, dispatcher Denishia Morris, agrees. Tuesday’s training exercise was the first time Morris had seen the inside at Bristow. Understanding the navigation system will help her to tell deputies or other emergency responders which way to go once they are inside the school.

“I believe it takes a lot of confusion out of it,” Morris said. “It will definitely cut down response time once they get here.”

— Follow news editor Deborah Highland on Twitter at twitter.com/bgdnnewseditor or visit bgdailynews.com.