Active-shooter drills help schools prepare for the worst
With those seven words, calmly announced over the intercom system, an eerie silence overtook a bustling elementary school of 650 students in suburban Indianapolis.
From start to finish, the "intruder drill" at the Forest Dale Elementary School in Carmel took about 10 minutes — an exercise now as routine at the school as a fire drill.
More than two-thirds of school districts surveyed by the U.S. Government Accountability Office conduct "active shooter" exercises.
In one case, armed police officers with weapons drawn burst into a Florida middle school, terrifying staff and students alike.
When you get on an airplane, they talk to you about all sorts of safety procedures, but not because they expect the plane to crash, but because you just need to know, just in case, said D.J. Schoeff, a school resource officer in Carmel and a regional director with the National Association of School Resource Officers.
Playing the role of intruders, Forest Dale Principal Deanna Pitman and Police Officer Greg Dewald walked the halls, jiggled the doorknobs of darkened classrooms, checking for unlocked doors.
"Practice your lockdowns and diversify when you do those, different times of the day, and keep your focus on the other types of threats and day-to-day security issues without getting a tunnel vision focus on active shooters," said school safety consultant Ken Trump.
[...] a school psychologist, Dr. Melissa Reeves, says schools need to be prepared and conduct age-appropriate exercises like the Forest Dale drill.