Active-shooter training gives police, teachers real-life training

LIMA — It may have only been training but the loud pop from a rifle and the muzzle flash when it was pointed at each person made it seem very real.

So did the crazy rants of an upset man turned active shooter. He screamed at teachers and students in the classroom at West Middle School before pointing the gun at them and pulling the trigger. Teachers and their students curled up in balls against the walls, most with their eyes shut and scared to death.

The scenario ended three minutes after it began when a Lima Police Department officer with a pellet gun rushed in and shot the attacker.

The three minutes seemed like an eternity for the victims who all were Lima City School District staff playing teachers and students Tuesday evening. There also were some city employees mixed in.

Lima Senior High School math teacher Rachel Massie said the scenario was so real all she could do was cower against a wall hanging on to another person.

“I was so helpless,” she said minutes after it ended. “I looked down the whole time. I was so fearful of being shot even though it was a pellet gun.”

Most described feeling helpless as the crazed gunman fired shot after shot while they waited for help.

Patrolman Dave Vastano said the three minutes it took for officers to arrive is a fast response. Depending where officers are, it may be 10 minutes, he said.

The training, called Rapid Deployment for Police Officers, is designed to create as close to the real situation as possible. And it does work, it does speed up the heart rate and gets the adrenalin flowing, he said.

The training in a high-stress situation is invaluable for officers and teachers. When confronted with a life-or-death situation, training will always take over and the officers will go into autopilot, Vastano said.

“We want to get a better feeling with the officers of going through scenarios and get the civilians to see what the response is going to be like,” Vastano said. “We want to get people conditioned that, God forbid, we never have to use this training but we will continue to train if something like this happens.”

Officers also were presented with different scenarios such as people screaming or running toward them.

In the first scenario, a police officer playing an upset boyfriend arrived at the school to take his girlfriend, a teacher, away. When she wouldn't leave, he pulled a gun and started shooting. The next scenario featured an upset parent whose son was being bullied. When a teacher told him to tell his son to suck it up, he and his son pulled guns and began shooting. That scenario played out over three minutes with the father taking a hostage before police barged in and a shootout began that left the gunman dead and numerous others dead or injured.

Other scenarios were played out Tuesday after school with teachers allowed to use specialized training they received to lock down their classrooms, leave the school, or, as a last resort, attack the attacker. It not only gives teachers a real-life experience of what it would be like to stare down the barrel of a gun and see the muzzle flash, it also gives responding officers a chance to play out the scenarios under a high-stress, fast-paced setting.

“What this does is it gives them a chance to work out any kinks they have before going into a real situation,” Vastano said.

Officers had many obstacles along the way including pupils running at them. Vastano told teachers in a debriefing officers running into a situation may not know who the bad guys are so the key is to obey commands and show the officers your hands.

“Do you see how confusing this can get?” Vastano asked.

Officers may treat all people like potential suspects until they clear them, which they explained was just part of the rescue scenario.

While Vastano and the 20 officers from Lima, which represents a quarter of the department, hope they never confront such a scenario, they have to be prepared. In the last 13 years there have been numerous school and workplace shootings, Vastano said.

The most memorable school shooting in recent memory happened in 1999 at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo. Two students killed 12 other students and one teacher, and wounded 21 other people before killing themselves. It was one of the deadliest school shootings in American history.

Vastano said he wants teachers as prepared as possible.

“I want them to be there and done that,” he said.

The first officers on the scene are now trained to go in and meet the active shooter, unlike 15 years ago when they established a perimeter and waited for the SWAT team. History has shown the gunman will just keep killing during that time, Vastano said.

“We changed our thinking. We need to get someone in there as soon as possible. There's a lot that can happen and it has to be stopped as soon as possible,” Vastano said.