Gunfire rings out in Tiverton schools during 'active shooter' drill

Police, firefighters and teachers (children were off Friday) train for the unthinkable

By Bruce Burdett
Posted 2/16/18

TIVERTON — First at the high school, later at Fort Barton Elementary, School, police cruisers and ambulances swarmed in from the perimeter Friday as the sound of gunfire rang out inside. It was only a drill ...

It was …

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Gunfire rings out in Tiverton schools during 'active shooter' drill

Police, firefighters and teachers (children were off Friday) train for the unthinkable

Posted

TIVERTON — First at the high school, later at Fort Barton Elementary, School, police cruisers and ambulances swarmed in from the perimeter Friday as the sound of gunfire rang out inside.

It was only a drill, one planned for months — with the actual date set a few weeks ago.

But, on Wednesday, the real thing happened in Parkland, Florida.

Concerned that such an exercise might prompt panic so soon after the tragedy, Acting Police Chief Pat Jones sent out a social media bulletin beforehand.

“We know this comes at a time following the shooting in Florida. However, we look at this as an opportunity for public safety to work with school officials to prepare and hopefully prevent unspeakable tragedies in our community. We want to ensure our citizens and parents that we take the safety of our schools and our children as an absolute priority.”

Friday being a professional day, there were no children present, but both schools were packed with teachers — around 130 took advantage of the chance to practice an ALICE (Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate) active shooter drill.

Officer Liam Black (school resource office) and Lt. Daniel Raymond (both trained in the ALICE program) worked with the teachers while police and rescuers mustered outside.

The drill was in two parts — a location drill in which teachers and staff sought to locate an armed intruder and get word out to rescuers — and then an evacuation drill in which all inside sought to make an organized break to safety.

Carrying a shotgun loaded with blanks, Officer Black portrayed the armed intruder and roamed the hallways.

Even from a hundred yards outside the high school on Brayton Road (where several reporters and photographers were kept), the booms of the blanks could be heard clearly — inside the sound would have been frightening, the chief said.

After taking instruction from Tiverton Police Lt. James Costa, a team of officers ran together toward the main entrance behind the cover of a clear shield — from there they headed to the location that they had been told the shooter had been spotted.

Minutes later a team of firefighters followed, escorted by a couple of police officers.

“Cops first, cops first,” a supervisor shouted to the group as they sprinted for the entrance.

All wore tactical vests designed both to stop bullets and to be stuffed with medical gear — “enables them to keep their hands free,” the chief said.

At Columbine and some of the other earlier school shootings, police response units waited to enter until they had overwhelming force on their side.

That tactic has changed, Chief Jones said.

Now the school of thought is that the first responders to arrive get in as quickly as they can to prevent a shooter from having time to inflict carnage —to make the shooter focus on police pursues rather than on student victims.

The belief these days is that some of the shooters “are playing a sick game — they study one another and try to rack up” the biggest body count they can, he said.

The chief said that his officers can arrive at any school in town “within a few minutes.” Response can be faster if the town’s one resource office happens to be present in the building that day.

Superintendent of Schools William Rearick said the drill was a first for the school and that more will follow.

“All of the teachers were paired off, nobody was alone, they were in groups of two or three in classrooms, the superintendent said.

“But everybody was fine,” the superintendent said. He said the teachers got to experience what it sound like to have a gun going off in the hallway — “It is loud, if you are near it it is very loud.”

After the location drill, teachers got their chance to practice evacuation — the principal was calling out locations, he said, so teachers knew when they had the best chance to make a break for it … “Intruder is now in library hallway …”

He added that the teachers were thankful for the training and said it was a good experience, even those who somewhat apprehensive.

Friday’s drill was for teachers and staff but Chief Jones said he expects students will be involved soon as well.

It’s a sad reality, he said, for which we all need to prepare.

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