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School district participates in live shooter drills

  • Charles City Police Chief Hugh Anderson talks with teachers and staff at Charles City Middle School on Friday as part of an active shooter training exercise. (Press photo James Grob.)

  • Some Charles City school staff members physically take down an armed classroom intruder during active shooter drills Friday at Charles City Middle School. (Press photo James Grob.)

  • Some Charles City school staff members physically take down Bonnie Lore, a school bus driver playing the role of an armed classroom intruder during active shooter drills Friday at Charles City Middle School. (Press photo James Grob.)

  • Bonnie Lore, a bus driver for the Charles City Community School District, was pelted with ping-pong balls as she played the role of an armed classroom intruder during active shooter drills Friday at Charles City Middle School. (Press photo James Grob.)

  • Stacy Ashley, a cook at Lincoln Elementary, played the role of an armed classroom intruder during active shooter drills Friday at Charles City Middle School. (Press photo James Grob.)

By James Grob, jgrob@charlescitypress.com

On the 19th anniversary of the deadly school shooting at Columbine, teachers and staff in the Charles City school district spent much of the day learning ways to handle live shooter situations.

Friday was a scheduled professional development day, with no students at the school, and Charles City Police Chief Hugh Anderson gave a presentation to the teachers. Then active shooter drills were conducted with the Charles City Police Department throughout the day.

Anderson spoke with the teachers assembled in the middle school gym for nearly two hours, and didn’t hesitate to go into details — some of them sordid and disturbing — as he described specific school shootings.

Middle School Principal Rick Gabel said he thought the presentation was effective.

“It could be shocking to someone listening to it for the first time, but it’s reality,” Gabel said. “The first training I ever went to, the presenter said, ‘You guys are teachers, you are educators, you are nurturers. You are trained to be that way. When something like this happens, you have to flip, and it’s not easy to do.’”

There have been 208 school shootings since the Columbine shooting in 1999, according to Anderson, and he talked about a shooting 33 years earlier at the University of Texas in 1966, which he described as the first school shooting.

“Police responded with pistols to a Marine sniper with high-powered rifles in a clock tower,” Anderson said, explaining how the police were simply out-gunned.

At Columbine, Anderson said, authorities secured and surrounded the building, which was an error in judgement because it allowed the two shooters to roam the school freely for four hours.

For those who believe that such an event cannot happen in Charles City, Iowa, Anderson pointed to shootings at Coral Ridge Mall in Coralville, at the Drake Relays in Des Moines and in nearby Parkersburg. He also talked about a shooting at a school similar in size to Charles City, in Red Lake, Minnesota.

Anderson also mentioned mass shootings at Virginia Tech and Newtown, among many others.

He discussed the many things law enforcement has learned over the years regarding mass shootings. Among those things — teachers are the first line of defense in an active shooter event.

He advocated what he called a “Run-Hide-Fight” policy when dealing with a shooter in a school, and he said that “hide” should be in small letters, as he believes hiding is a last resort. Teachers and students should first look for a way to escape and get out of the danger area, and if they cannot, they should do what they can to fight back, if they are able.

He cited many examples of teachers, students and other school personnel confronting attackers, and even in cases when it didn’t ultimately stop the attack, it distracted a shooter enough to save some lives.

Anderson stressed that a teacher should find a makeshift weapon — something easy to move and run with, such as a stapler, a book, a folding chair, a tape dispenser — to be used against an assailant.

“If you’ve got a baseball bat, grab a bat,” Anderson said.

He said that there was no simple formula for dealing with an active shooter event, as each situation is different, and teachers need to improvise and be resourceful.

“I think Chief Anderson projected that scenario well,” said Gabel. “We have to have thought-out plans ahead of time, we have to react to the situation. There is no preset criteria. It’s a very troubling scenario that could go many different ways.”

After Anderson’s presentation, teachers and other school staff broke into various groups, went into classrooms and went through different active shooter drills.

Gunfire could be heard in the hallways — just blanks, but loud enough so teachers would get the idea — and active shooters would attempt to enter classrooms.

Staff were shown how to react or defend themselves in a variety of ways, and learned about the different scenarios that could unfold. Different options included escaping, hiding, barricading the door and fighting back — either physically or by throwing things at the shooters. All were viable options — all led to different reactions. Teachers threw ping-pong balls at the assailants to simulate “weapons.”

“It forces our people to think about safety,” said Gabel.

Gabel said he was pleased that the local police are able to work with the school district.

“When Chief Anderson said he could do this, it was a perfect fit,” he said. “Our partnership with the Police Department has gotten stronger and stronger over the last 10-15 years.”

Gabel said that he wanted the public to know that there are preliminary plans to talk with students about this training and preparation, and there are also plans to have a public forum, where people from the community can come in sometime and hear about this training.

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