Areas identified for improvement after the drill were mostly logistics — such as giving the number of people injured instead of just saying there are injuries.
(Photo by Indiana University)
(TNS) — “It’s 9 a.m. on a breezy, cold Tuesday morning.”
After that opening line is where the similarities between Tuesday’s scenario and actual Tuesday ended.
In the scenario, an upset and recently fired teaching assistant left Hodge Hall, the undergraduate building of the Indiana University (IU) Kelley School of Business, and returned with a gun.
But the masked gunman in a black coat and red IU t-shirt was an actor. He was one of about 150 participants — actors, police and various IU staff — in the first full-scale active shooter drill on the Bloomington campus.
“Active shooter is unfortunately at the top of the list of everyone’s concerns,” said Debbi Fletcher, director of the IU Emergency Management and Continuity for the Bloomington campus.
IU has a lot of policies and procedures for safety and response, but a full-scale drill with actors is an opportunity to try those out as realistically as possible and find areas for improvement, Fletcher said.
And the areas identified for improvement after Tuesday’s drill were mostly logistics — such as giving the number of people injured instead of just saying there are injuries.
Since the drill only included students as actors, it was timed to be at Thanksgiving break to keep disruption to a minimum. But the next step will be a smaller-scale text alert drill that would get students and everyone else thinking about what to do if an active shooter was on campus, Fletcher said.
This drill included IU and Bloomington police as well as the Bloomington Fire Department and various IU administrators and staff from emergency management and continuity and other areas such as communications and Residential Programs and Services.
“Communication is always a problem,” said IU police Chief Laury Flint, adding that communication becomes more difficult when more people are involved. She said everyone expects information instantly, so the drill showed participants the time it takes to confirm information and spread it to others.
But Flint was pleased with the drill overall.
“We’re doing a lot of things right,” she said.
Police conduct emergency response drills often, but everyone else doesn't, so this is a chance to practice response during the scenario and to de-brief and talk about what the follow-up, such as planning of a vigil on campus, would be, Fletcher said.
Since January, IU has been reviewing its plan in the case of an active shooter at all campuses and each campus is planning some type of drill, Fletcher said. She said the full-scale drill comes after other types of workshops and smaller-scale drills.
Actors in the drill — some with makeup to simulate bullet wounds or other injuries — were encouraged to react as they think they would in that situation.
“Don’t be embarrassed about screaming,” Cinda Haff, lead actor controller, told the actors in a preparation session. She also told them to reach out for help if they find themselves more anxious or worried after the drill.
“We all hope we are preparing for nothing,” she said.
A lot of the time, it’s not until after a shooting that people say they noticed something different, Flint said. That’s why she said the public needs to report what they notice to the police.
“Hindsight is 20/20,” she said.
Fletcher agreed. Yet, she said even with drills and making improvements, it’s impossible to have a perfect response.
Even schools like Florida State University, which had a textbook response to the shooter earlier this month, and Purdue University, which had an on-campus shooter in January, are still learning, Fletcher said.
“Prevention is a difficult thing to do,” she said.
©2014 the Herald-Times (Bloomington, Ind.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
After that opening line is where the similarities between Tuesday’s scenario and actual Tuesday ended.
In the scenario, an upset and recently fired teaching assistant left Hodge Hall, the undergraduate building of the Indiana University (IU) Kelley School of Business, and returned with a gun.
But the masked gunman in a black coat and red IU t-shirt was an actor. He was one of about 150 participants — actors, police and various IU staff — in the first full-scale active shooter drill on the Bloomington campus.
“Active shooter is unfortunately at the top of the list of everyone’s concerns,” said Debbi Fletcher, director of the IU Emergency Management and Continuity for the Bloomington campus.
IU has a lot of policies and procedures for safety and response, but a full-scale drill with actors is an opportunity to try those out as realistically as possible and find areas for improvement, Fletcher said.
And the areas identified for improvement after Tuesday’s drill were mostly logistics — such as giving the number of people injured instead of just saying there are injuries.
Since the drill only included students as actors, it was timed to be at Thanksgiving break to keep disruption to a minimum. But the next step will be a smaller-scale text alert drill that would get students and everyone else thinking about what to do if an active shooter was on campus, Fletcher said.
This drill included IU and Bloomington police as well as the Bloomington Fire Department and various IU administrators and staff from emergency management and continuity and other areas such as communications and Residential Programs and Services.
“Communication is always a problem,” said IU police Chief Laury Flint, adding that communication becomes more difficult when more people are involved. She said everyone expects information instantly, so the drill showed participants the time it takes to confirm information and spread it to others.
But Flint was pleased with the drill overall.
“We’re doing a lot of things right,” she said.
Police conduct emergency response drills often, but everyone else doesn't, so this is a chance to practice response during the scenario and to de-brief and talk about what the follow-up, such as planning of a vigil on campus, would be, Fletcher said.
Since January, IU has been reviewing its plan in the case of an active shooter at all campuses and each campus is planning some type of drill, Fletcher said. She said the full-scale drill comes after other types of workshops and smaller-scale drills.
Actors in the drill — some with makeup to simulate bullet wounds or other injuries — were encouraged to react as they think they would in that situation.
“Don’t be embarrassed about screaming,” Cinda Haff, lead actor controller, told the actors in a preparation session. She also told them to reach out for help if they find themselves more anxious or worried after the drill.
“We all hope we are preparing for nothing,” she said.
A lot of the time, it’s not until after a shooting that people say they noticed something different, Flint said. That’s why she said the public needs to report what they notice to the police.
“Hindsight is 20/20,” she said.
Fletcher agreed. Yet, she said even with drills and making improvements, it’s impossible to have a perfect response.
Even schools like Florida State University, which had a textbook response to the shooter earlier this month, and Purdue University, which had an on-campus shooter in January, are still learning, Fletcher said.
“Prevention is a difficult thing to do,” she said.
©2014 the Herald-Times (Bloomington, Ind.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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