akv
06-05-2016, 09:19
‘Terrifying’: Realistic active shooter drill tests Midstate school district, police response
By Chris Davis
Published: June 2, 2016, 5:55 pm
LEWISBERRY, Pa. (WHTM) – If someone with a gun walked into your child’s school would he or she know what to do?
Fairview Township police, other agencies in York and Cumberland counties, along with State Police, wanted to make sure.
A few weeks go they coordinated with the West Shore School District to conduct an active shooter drill, giving students, staff, and first responders a chance to practice their response. Students and parents were able to opt out of the drill if they didn’t feel comfortable being a part of it.
ABC27 News received exclusive access to be inside Red Land High School during the drill.
Here’s the scenario: It’s Friday; the weekend is almost here. No one at the school expects this day to be any different.
No one knows the bell ringing in the morning starts minute zero.
“This is, in my mind, probably the worst possible thing that could happen,” principal Holly Sayre said.
Two actors using realistic-looking revolvers and firing blanks entered the school through the front office and immediately started firing shots.
Not long after, the intercom system beeped on. “We have an active shooter in the building,” an assistant principal announced to the school. “Please initiate run hide fight.” Then the school heard two gunshots, and the announcement ended.
That came at the 30-second mark.
“You’re racing to think of what you’re going to do and then also it’s just like, ‘What do I do?'” senior Andrew Finkel said. Students and parents were able to opt out of the drill if they didn’t feel comfortable.
WSSD uses the strategy of run, hide, fight.
“It’s a model that provides students and staff options,” superintendent Dr. Todd Stoltz said.
The first and best choice is to get out. Those who were able to leave the building made their way to rally points outside the school.
“The students actually did what they were trained to do,” Fairview Township police Chief Jason Loper said. “They were not in immediate danger so they left the school.”
In a few classrooms, students and teachers took the second best option (per their instructions for the drill) — to barricade their classroom doors and hide.
“We had covered the window and the door, we had the lights off,” business teacher Trish Klinger said. “We weren’t making any noise.”
As the shooters reloaded for the first time outside the assistant principal’s office, students in the cafeteria like Fickel prepared for the last resort option — to fight. That was also part of the plan: As the two shooters entered the cafeteria, students were supposed to fight and subdue one of them.
“When they first came in,” Fickel said, “even though it was a drill, it just became so much more real.”
One minute 40 seconds after entering the office, the pair walked into the cafeteria and started shooting.
“Being reported more shots fired at this time,” a dispatcher called out on the radio.
“Within the first two minutes of the drill it went completely off-script,” Loper said. Instead of students in the cafeteria stopping one of the shooters as planned, they both continued on, reloading a second time and intercepting a fleeing class in a stairwell. Several more shots fired, several more fictional victims.
Three minutes, 30 seconds in, a trail of actors lay in their wake.
“You’re like wow, this is a real possibility,” Sayre said. She told ABC27 in an interview that hyper-realistic drills like this prime students and staff to make the decisions they need to if one day it isn’t a drill.
“We teach critical thinking skills every single day in our classes,” she said, “and this is just an extension of the classroom.”
“You know, that’s why we start off fire drills right from the beginning in elementary schools,” Loper said. “You train on how to do this.”
The school district went to police with the idea, even requesting the real-sounding fake guns. Planning took more than a year and a half.
A little over six minutes in, the first group of cops entered the school. The trio approached an actor pretending to be wounded in a hallway and asked if he heard any shots recently.
The student said yes, and pointed the officers off in the wrong direction; both shooters were actually upstairs. Still, the officers headed off in the direction the victim suggested.
It may have been the wrong way, but Loper said but it was the right decision — following the latest info they have.
“The greater detail that we’re given, the better,” Loper said.
Minute seven and a half: Two more teams of officers scoured the building. The shooters separated upstairs, each looking for more victims, following the sounds they heard in hallways.
A student actor banged on a classroom door, yelling for the teacher to let her in. The first fake gunman rounded a corner, following her yells, and fired two shots. The student collapsed on the floor.
“You know, a student was murdered right outside my room,” Klinger remembered. Close to the 11 minute mark — that’s when the drill became real for her.
“This poor girl started banging on the door screaming my name, begging me to let her in,” Klinger said. “And that’s where it became terrifying to me.”
With seven students inside the room, she couldn’t risk opening the door for the actor; that comes from training.
After all, the other shooter was tasked with trying to get into classrooms. “Hey, I need in! There’s a shooter out here,” he yelled, banging on doors. “Come on, let me in!”
Minute 12: After firing a shot or two down the hallway at approaching officers, the first shooter set down his revolver and surrendered. “Subject in custody, second floor,” the radios rang out.
Three minutes later, as they entered the library, another team of officers heard two more shots, one aimed toward them. About 15 minutes after his first shot, the second shooter’s final one was for himself.
“Our two known active shooters are in custody right now,” the incident commander called out to dispatch.
Roughly 60 cops swarmed the building (many more would have bee there if it were real) and started opening classrooms, disassembling barricades, and getting headcounts inside.
Triage began, officers and paramedics carrying the wounded outside for treatment. The groups involved started their reflection.
“How do we improve upon our weaknesses if those weaknesses aren’t identified?” Loper said.
One weakness police already found, before even reviewing the hours of video recorded during the drill, communication between different agencies across counties needs to be improved.
For the school, they already picked out an inconvenient rally point for students as something to be addressed. “It’s a lot of those little things that now that we can go back, we can talk, we can change our plans,” Sayre said.
“We never could have conceived of this when I first started teaching,” Klinger said. “And I think it’s very sad that we’ve come to the point where we have to practice.”
But that’s the reality, police and the school district said; they need those plans to respond, to get kids out safely and onto buses, to make sure everyone is accounted for.
More importantly, they said, they need to practice.
“If we’re never training our staff and students to respond to emergency or critical situations, I don’t know how they would ever be equipped to make decisions,” Stoltz said.
After the evacuation, students climbed onto buses and were taken to nearby Cedar Cliff High School. There, parents arrived to pick them up.
Every detail in the planning counts, from the 911 call to reuniting kids with parents. Reunification takes time: Parents had to show identification and have their pictures taken, then reunited with their kids one by one.
It’s is an arduous, painstaking, necessary process, like the drill itself.
“And even when you can’t do the bigger drills,” Loper said, “you do it on a smaller scale.”
If it were real — whether in a school, or a mall, or a park — every minute, every second, every decision could mean life or death.
“It’s that mental preparedness,” Sayre said.
No one ever wants to be in this situation; but if, the hope is that life-saving decisions will come easier.
“Everybody,” Klinger said, “will learn something from this experience.”
http://abc27.com/2016/06/02/terrifying-realistic-active-shooter-drill-tests-midstate-school-district-police-response/
By Chris Davis
Published: June 2, 2016, 5:55 pm
LEWISBERRY, Pa. (WHTM) – If someone with a gun walked into your child’s school would he or she know what to do?
Fairview Township police, other agencies in York and Cumberland counties, along with State Police, wanted to make sure.
A few weeks go they coordinated with the West Shore School District to conduct an active shooter drill, giving students, staff, and first responders a chance to practice their response. Students and parents were able to opt out of the drill if they didn’t feel comfortable being a part of it.
ABC27 News received exclusive access to be inside Red Land High School during the drill.
Here’s the scenario: It’s Friday; the weekend is almost here. No one at the school expects this day to be any different.
No one knows the bell ringing in the morning starts minute zero.
“This is, in my mind, probably the worst possible thing that could happen,” principal Holly Sayre said.
Two actors using realistic-looking revolvers and firing blanks entered the school through the front office and immediately started firing shots.
Not long after, the intercom system beeped on. “We have an active shooter in the building,” an assistant principal announced to the school. “Please initiate run hide fight.” Then the school heard two gunshots, and the announcement ended.
That came at the 30-second mark.
“You’re racing to think of what you’re going to do and then also it’s just like, ‘What do I do?'” senior Andrew Finkel said. Students and parents were able to opt out of the drill if they didn’t feel comfortable.
WSSD uses the strategy of run, hide, fight.
“It’s a model that provides students and staff options,” superintendent Dr. Todd Stoltz said.
The first and best choice is to get out. Those who were able to leave the building made their way to rally points outside the school.
“The students actually did what they were trained to do,” Fairview Township police Chief Jason Loper said. “They were not in immediate danger so they left the school.”
In a few classrooms, students and teachers took the second best option (per their instructions for the drill) — to barricade their classroom doors and hide.
“We had covered the window and the door, we had the lights off,” business teacher Trish Klinger said. “We weren’t making any noise.”
As the shooters reloaded for the first time outside the assistant principal’s office, students in the cafeteria like Fickel prepared for the last resort option — to fight. That was also part of the plan: As the two shooters entered the cafeteria, students were supposed to fight and subdue one of them.
“When they first came in,” Fickel said, “even though it was a drill, it just became so much more real.”
One minute 40 seconds after entering the office, the pair walked into the cafeteria and started shooting.
“Being reported more shots fired at this time,” a dispatcher called out on the radio.
“Within the first two minutes of the drill it went completely off-script,” Loper said. Instead of students in the cafeteria stopping one of the shooters as planned, they both continued on, reloading a second time and intercepting a fleeing class in a stairwell. Several more shots fired, several more fictional victims.
Three minutes, 30 seconds in, a trail of actors lay in their wake.
“You’re like wow, this is a real possibility,” Sayre said. She told ABC27 in an interview that hyper-realistic drills like this prime students and staff to make the decisions they need to if one day it isn’t a drill.
“We teach critical thinking skills every single day in our classes,” she said, “and this is just an extension of the classroom.”
“You know, that’s why we start off fire drills right from the beginning in elementary schools,” Loper said. “You train on how to do this.”
The school district went to police with the idea, even requesting the real-sounding fake guns. Planning took more than a year and a half.
A little over six minutes in, the first group of cops entered the school. The trio approached an actor pretending to be wounded in a hallway and asked if he heard any shots recently.
The student said yes, and pointed the officers off in the wrong direction; both shooters were actually upstairs. Still, the officers headed off in the direction the victim suggested.
It may have been the wrong way, but Loper said but it was the right decision — following the latest info they have.
“The greater detail that we’re given, the better,” Loper said.
Minute seven and a half: Two more teams of officers scoured the building. The shooters separated upstairs, each looking for more victims, following the sounds they heard in hallways.
A student actor banged on a classroom door, yelling for the teacher to let her in. The first fake gunman rounded a corner, following her yells, and fired two shots. The student collapsed on the floor.
“You know, a student was murdered right outside my room,” Klinger remembered. Close to the 11 minute mark — that’s when the drill became real for her.
“This poor girl started banging on the door screaming my name, begging me to let her in,” Klinger said. “And that’s where it became terrifying to me.”
With seven students inside the room, she couldn’t risk opening the door for the actor; that comes from training.
After all, the other shooter was tasked with trying to get into classrooms. “Hey, I need in! There’s a shooter out here,” he yelled, banging on doors. “Come on, let me in!”
Minute 12: After firing a shot or two down the hallway at approaching officers, the first shooter set down his revolver and surrendered. “Subject in custody, second floor,” the radios rang out.
Three minutes later, as they entered the library, another team of officers heard two more shots, one aimed toward them. About 15 minutes after his first shot, the second shooter’s final one was for himself.
“Our two known active shooters are in custody right now,” the incident commander called out to dispatch.
Roughly 60 cops swarmed the building (many more would have bee there if it were real) and started opening classrooms, disassembling barricades, and getting headcounts inside.
Triage began, officers and paramedics carrying the wounded outside for treatment. The groups involved started their reflection.
“How do we improve upon our weaknesses if those weaknesses aren’t identified?” Loper said.
One weakness police already found, before even reviewing the hours of video recorded during the drill, communication between different agencies across counties needs to be improved.
For the school, they already picked out an inconvenient rally point for students as something to be addressed. “It’s a lot of those little things that now that we can go back, we can talk, we can change our plans,” Sayre said.
“We never could have conceived of this when I first started teaching,” Klinger said. “And I think it’s very sad that we’ve come to the point where we have to practice.”
But that’s the reality, police and the school district said; they need those plans to respond, to get kids out safely and onto buses, to make sure everyone is accounted for.
More importantly, they said, they need to practice.
“If we’re never training our staff and students to respond to emergency or critical situations, I don’t know how they would ever be equipped to make decisions,” Stoltz said.
After the evacuation, students climbed onto buses and were taken to nearby Cedar Cliff High School. There, parents arrived to pick them up.
Every detail in the planning counts, from the 911 call to reuniting kids with parents. Reunification takes time: Parents had to show identification and have their pictures taken, then reunited with their kids one by one.
It’s is an arduous, painstaking, necessary process, like the drill itself.
“And even when you can’t do the bigger drills,” Loper said, “you do it on a smaller scale.”
If it were real — whether in a school, or a mall, or a park — every minute, every second, every decision could mean life or death.
“It’s that mental preparedness,” Sayre said.
No one ever wants to be in this situation; but if, the hope is that life-saving decisions will come easier.
“Everybody,” Klinger said, “will learn something from this experience.”
http://abc27.com/2016/06/02/terrifying-realistic-active-shooter-drill-tests-midstate-school-district-police-response/