Following a summer of mass shootings, local and state police are not only thinking about how they would respond to a gunman in a school, but how to teach the public what the best practices would be in the event of an active shooting incident.
Between Aug. 1 and Aug. 5, seven local officers will receive training from the Sig Sauer Academy, based in Epping, New Hampshire, on not only how to best respond to a gunman intent on carrying out a mass shooting, but how to train other police to do so as well.
Rutland Town Police Chief Ed Dumas told the Rutland Town Select Board at its July 19 meeting that Deputy Chief Ted Washburn arranged for the training to take place and all that was needed to proceed was board approval, which it granted.
There will be two officers from the town, Rutland City and Rutland County Sheriff’s Department attending, Dumas said, plus one from the Pittsford Police Department.
Meanwhile, Vermont State Police will host 10 or so public forums at or near each barracks for the public to learn what they should do in response to a gunman or similar threat. The session in Rutland will take place Aug. 10 at the State Police barracks from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Register at bit.ly/727Rutland online. The one in Berlin will take place from 6 to 7:30 p.m Aug. 29 at the Berlin National Guard Armory. Online registration for that is at bit.ly/727Berlin.
Dumas said that the standard response to a mass shooting has evolved through the years since the Columbine massacre in 1999. The old way was for police to surround the shooter and wait for a more heavily armed team to arrive, which didn’t work. The practice then became to wait for the first four police officers to arrive, then it became the first two. Now it’s expected that the first officer to arrive will look for the shooter and stop them.
“If you’re the first officer there, the thought is the quicker you can confront the bad person, or the person who’s trying to kill innocent people, they’ll be more focused on you than the people they’re killing,” said Dumas. “If you are the first officer there, you go towards the noise, the gunshots, and you’re going to do your job, that’s what we train them to do, and nobody is going to tell them otherwise, I would hope.”
In late May, a gunman killed 19 elementary school students and two teachers at a school in Uvalde, Texas. The response to the incident was roundly condemned, as police opted to surround the shooter rather than stop him immediately.
Dumas said police are required to train with their weapons on a regular basis.
“Usually every few years we try to do something that’s out of the box, more dynamic than just shooting holes in targets, something that makes you think a little more,” he said.
The department put out a public notice saying that this active shooter response training would be taking place, so as not to alarm anyone should they witness it. The live fire portion will happen at the city’s shooting range off Post Road Extension in Rutland Town while some portion of the training will take place at Rutland Town School. No live fire will happen there, though police might wear body armor and other tactical gear, plus emergency medical technicians will be present as well.
Christopher Sell, superintendent of the Greater Rutland County Supervisory Union, said Tuesday that drills and training sessions like these aren’t uncommon for schools, though the thinking around how realistic they should be and how much students should be involved has changed through the years.
“With school safety, it’s like with everything else, I think we’re constantly reviewing our plans and making sure that we’re up to date with what’s best practice,” he said.
Parents will often contact local school leaders following news of a massacre to ask if the local plans are up to date and that their children are safe, said Sell. Drills and simulations are part of that planning.
“There has been a shift away in the past couple of years from what they used to do, like in a lockdown situation, where you would go through, and you would replicate a scenario where students would huddle in a corridor, pull down the shades, lock things down,” he said. “I think there was a bit of concern with trauma, particularly around our younger kids, with this drill in terms of what’s going to happen.”
Shooter drills involving staff and students are now more of a discussion than a live-action experience, he said.
“I’ve heard stories of schools that have had very realistic drills, and there have been some real issues as a result of that because of the traumatic impact,” said Sell.
The sessions State Police are planning for the public is part of an initiative called “SURVIVERMONT,” said State Police Lieutenant Hugh O’Donnell on Tuesday. They’re the result of a federal grant awarded to Vermont Emergency Management. They incorporate three principles, those being See Something, Say Something; Run, Hide and Fight; and Stop the Bleed.
The first is that people should be more aware of their surroundings and not be shy about reporting suspicious activity. O’Donnell said this can be something obvious like a suspicious package or someone carrying a weapon, or it can be more subtle such as a change in a co-worker’s behavior.
The Run, Hide and Fight concept, he said, holds that when you know there’s a gunman, you should first seek to escape. If that’s not possible, hide or barricade yourself, and if that doesn’t work, physically defend yourself against the gunman.
The Stop the Bleed portion of the training focuses on how to deliver first-aid treatment, especially to bullet and shrapnel wounds. Attendees will learn to pack wounds and how to use the tourniquets found in most first-aid kits. O’Donnell noted the Boston Marathon bombing of 2013 where casualties were relatively low owing to the fact there were people and equipment on-scene able to control the level of bleeding.
Those interested in attending one of the sessions must RSVP, said O’Donnell. The plan is to hold a few of them first, then video record one so others who couldn’t attend can benefit.
keith.whitcomb @rutlandherald.com
