James E. Bazzell Middle School and Allen County-Scottsville High School faculty and staff spent three hours Monday hearing the Kentucky State Police explain options in the event of the unthinkable---an active shooter walking the hallways of their school.
“This possibility is something you have to think about now,” explained Kentucky State Police officer Tucker Carmichael. “Even here in Kentucky, it’s not about if we will ever have a shooter in a school, it’s about when it happens. We hope and pray something like what we will talk about today never happens but we have to look at response options if, God forbid, it did.”
The professional development training focused on explaining and demonstrating three options to the school personal. Officers were quick to point out that the training was not to replace any current polices or procedures but explain options for the school district to consider.
“You have three options,” Carmichael explained in his opening remarks. “First is flight, second is shelter-in-place, and the third option is to fight.”
The first option explained was the flight option. In this scenario, the classroom teacher---upon hearing gunfire---would quickly access the situation. If the gunfire appeared to be coming from a distant part of the building, the teacher could instruct her students to flee to the nearest exit and away from the building.
The second option---and very similar to the procedure currently in place in the district---is the shelter-in-place option.
“Lock your door and then barricade your door,” Carmichael said. “Reinforce the door using whatever you can find---a book case, a teacher’s desk, student desks, or whatever you have. Anything in the room is in play. Make it as hard as possible for anyone to get in the door. Also, spread the kids out around the room, turn off the lights, and stay as quiet as possible.”
The state trooper also drove home a key point when talking about the shelter-in-place option---a point which reflected a change from past procedures.
“Spread the kids out,” Carmichael emphasized. “You may have been told to get the kids together in a corner or perhaps in a storage room or office in the room. But, in one of the school shootings, children died because a teacher had clustered the kids. The shooter found the kids together in a bathroom and opened fire. So, have the kids spread out and hide behind anything they can.”
The third option centered on what to do should a shooter enter a classroom.
“This is the final option but if you have no other recourse, you have to fight,” Carmichael said. “It does not matter how big or how small you all, you have to do whatever you can and use whatever is at your deposal.”
Teachers were divided into eight to 10 member groups, placed in a classroom setting, and exposed to different active shooter scenarios. The training included the firing of an automatic weapon loaded with blanks---to let teachers know what gunfire in the building would sound like. A designated “teacher” in the classroom and the “students” would then be asked to respond accordantly.
In one scenario at the high school, the cat-like response from the teachers to barricade an unlocked door---using a table and their own bodies---blocked the door so securely that three troopers on the outside could not push their way into the room. The training officer pointed out that, in reality, a shooter would be able to fire through the glass and causalities would result. However, other lives would be spared by preventing the shooter from uncontested access to the room.
In another scenario, the “shooter” entered the room quickly---since the door was not locked and before a barricade could be put in place---only to be met by the pretend students going after his arms and legs in an attempt to separate the weapon from the individual. The officers again pointed out that attacking a shooter is a final option---but a response that would have to be carried out before allowing unrestricted entrance into the room and toward the students.
Carmichael also drove home the point that being prepared to respond in a matter of seconds could be the difference between life and death.
“There is no check list for dealing with an active shooter,” Carmichael noted. “You will be the first responder. The actions you take in the first few seconds or few minutes determine who lives or who dies.”
The training and classroom scenarios were witnessed by Allen County School Superintendent Randall Jackson and District Safety Director Brian Carter. The pair learned about the KSP training at a conference last year and decided to bring the training to Allen County.
“We are always looking at ways to improve our safety and the safety of our students,” Jackson said. “This training is just one more thing we can do to help our teachers be prepared.”
Carter liked the training approach because it extended beyond just a “set-around-a-table-and-talk” method.
“We have talked about what to do and went over our procedures time-after-time in our meetings,” Carter pointed out. “But, we were trying today to simulate as real-life as possible. We have to be prepared. Today was learning for all of us.”
Carter admitted that the training raised some questions---questions that will be addressed in the coming days.
“We will be talking about what we have seen today and we will be reviewing all of the procedures we currently have,” Carter added.
In the reflection session which followed the training, Carter reminded teachers that the first step in securing the classroom is to make sure classroom doors stays locked at all times.
Monday’s training sessions will be repeated for teachers and staff at the Allen County Intermediate Center and the Allen County Primary Center on a professional development date in September.