SHS plans active shooter training

Active shooter trainings are common, but not usually to the extent that will be seen in Sundance this May.

Sundance High School is about to play host to what might be the first large-scale training scenario to be held in Wyoming while school is actually in session.

It’s a “stress test”, explains Emergency Management Coordinator Ed Robinson.

The idea is to provide an opportunity for everyone who might be involved in responding to a real event to experience exactly what would happen if the call went out that a shooter had set foot on campus.

Planning Protocols

Scheduled for mid-May, the training was requested by Principal Jim O’Connor. Even with all the preparation in the world, he explains, it’s not possible to guarantee that you’ve addressed every issue that might crop up in a real-life scenario.

A hands-on exercise can reveal weaknesses that can then be tackled with practical improvements, as O’Connor says will be the case following this training.

The planning process itself has already helped to iron out some kinks in the protocols. One example O’Connor gives of a hitch spotted ahead of time is that school staff would ordinarily refer to a specific room according to the teacher who resides there, rather than by its number.

As deputies are not in the building on a daily basis, they don’t “speak the same language” and wouldn’t know which room was being referred to. This led to the school providing the Crook County Sheriff’s Office with a document detailing room numbers and associated teacher.

The school has already introduced such measures as ALICE and on-site training for law enforcement.

But never before has a full-scale scenario been attempted – one that includes not only the students and faculty of the high school and the Crook County Sheriff’s Office, but also Wyoming Highway Patrol, Sundance Volunteer Fire Department, Sundance EMS, the Crook County Memorial Hospital, Dispatch and Life Flight.

Empowerment

On the day of the scenario, at a pre-appointed time, an actor playing the active shooter will enter the high school, prompting a 911 call. The Sheriff’s Office will respond to the call and implement its response to an active shooter event.

However, as any deputy with the Crook County Sheriff’s Office will tell you, it’s not a good idea to rely on law enforcement to protect you during an active shooter event. Even though the Sheriff’s Office is closely located to the campus, says Undersheriff Alex Jessen, there is no avoiding the reality that it will take a few minutes for the response team to prepare and travel to the site.

In a situation like the one planned for this training event, a few minutes is a very long time.

For that reason, the ultimate goal of this training is not for law enforcement to apprehend the suspect.

The hope, says Robinson, is for a success state in which deputies arrive on scene to find the shooter already brought under control by students or faculty.

Reaching this success state is what prompted the Sheriff’s Office to introduce ALICE trainings a few years ago, empowering members of the community to protect themselves during an active shooter event. All who have taken part in ALICE training have been taught how to engage, barricade and evacuate, as the situation demands.

This training scenario is something of a “next step”. Jessen explains that law enforcement already takes part in regular training opportunities and has already designed and locked down its response, but the schools and the community don’t often get the chance to practice protocols and look for potential ways to improve them.

“We know we have holes,” acknowledges O’Connor. “But we can’t identify them all without effort.”

Agency Involvement

The training has been billed as “full-scale” because it involves more than just the school campus and law enforcement. For this scenario, every agency who might play a role in a real response has been invited to participate.

Though only the actor playing the shooter will know their “plan”, for example, the scenario has been designed to involve a number of casualties. This aspect has been included to enable the city’s medical services to participate.

EMS will need to “triage” the wounded and transport them to the emergency room, offering an opportunity for the hospital to test its capabilities with a larger number of cases arriving at once than the emergency room would ordinarily be asked to deal with, as well as its communications and security measures.

Life Flight is also participating, and will remain on standby in Spearfish until called in for transport.

Public Awareness

Months of planning have gone in to the training, which will begin with a safety briefing for all involved.

Before the day itself, students at the high school will be receiving a full overview of the training scenario before an evacuation drill scheduled in April.

Following the training, a debrief will take place in the auditorium for all agencies. Counseling services will be available for any participant to make use of if they are feeling stressed following the events of the day.

Any student has the opportunity to opt out of the training, says O’Connor, and can stay at home while it is ongoing.

Members of the community are likely to notice that town is a little busier than normal on the actual day. Access points to the SHS campus will also be blocked while the event is happening, and the public should also be aware that simulated injuries and simulated gunfire will be involved.

Constructive feedback will be welcomed from any stakeholder who is involved in the training – or even members of the community who observe the event as it plays out and spots issues or things that could have been done better. Observers from all agencies will be on hand to observe the training and look for areas of improvement.

In the future, says Robinson, the Sheriff’s Office hopes to repeat this training scenario in Crook County’s other communities.