Following the shooting at a high school in Florida that killed 17 people, all schools are on high alert.

Shawano Police Chief Dan Mauel said his department is always visible in the schools and said they will establish even more of a presence by having at an officer walking through each school every day.

“People tend to think it’s [all] reactive if we have a school shooting, we’re just gonna react to it, obviously we are gonna react to it.” Mauel said.  “But I think there’s proactive things we can do as officers and as citizens.”

He also called on people aware of unusual social media activity, saying that if you see something that off about somebody’s comments, no matter how minor it may be, contact authorities.  Mauel  said investigating that is a top priority.

“If it turns out to be nothing, it’s nothing, it’s no waste of time,”  he said.  “If you don’t say something and something like that shooting in Florida happens, or all the other ones, you’ll remember that forever [and ask yourself] ‘why didn’t I call.’”

Mauel encouraged parents to talk with their kids about having a plan:

“Think about it beforehand, think about what if, what am I going to do.  Encourage your kids to take off from school if they have to.  Give them permission to break a window and crawl out and run away if there’s shots fired.  Run run run.  Run until you can’t run anymore, everybody’s got a phone, you go and knock on somebody’s door.  Your parents will find you, but at least you’ll be alive and you’ll be out of there.”