Local law enforcement agencies trained to respond to mass shootings and other incidents involving weapons in school at Great Salt Bay Community School Feb. 20.
Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office and Damariscotta Police Department personnel attended classroom training and, armed with non-lethal training weapons, participated in interactive “scenario-based” training exercises.
The training gives the officers an opportunity to learn the layout of the school. “It just helps us tremendously should there ever be a crisis in the school,” said Lincoln County Sheriff Todd Brackett.
The exercises also provide officers and supervisors a chance to evaluate and sharpen their tactics in a controlled setting.
“It’s fantastic practice and it’s based on putting the officer in a situation as close to the real thing as we can,” Brackett said.
The training was split into morning and afternoon sessions, with about 15-20 officers, including the supervisors in charge of the training, participating in the afternoon session.
The training began with a safety briefing. The training weapons, including handguns, rifles and stun guns, were marked with green tape. Participants, supervisors and observers geared up with helmets, chest protectors and neck guards as the training ammunition, similar to paintballs, can cause injury.
The participants watched a news report about the behavior and psychology of mass shooters and another about how civilians without law enforcement training respond to mass shooters in test scenarios.
A police officer in the latter report, by the television newsmagazine “20/20,” stresses the crucial role of training in developing the skills and “muscle memory” necessary to respond successfully in a real-life situation.
“If you don’t continue with your training, ongoing training, it’s a perishable skill. You’ll lose it,” the officer said.
Kane and Lt. Rand Maker discussed how to engage an active mass shooter in various situations.
“People are choosing targets based on how soft they are,” Kane said. “They’re going into churches, they’re going into schools, they’re going into workplaces.”
Lincoln County, despite its low rates of violent crime, needs to prepare for a mass shooting, as many of the most deadly have happened far from the cities traditionally associated with high murder statistics.
“These aren’t happening in Atlanta. They’re not happening in Boston. They’re happening in small areas like ours,” Kane said.
Lt. Maker encouraged the officers to stay positive if shot and wounded, no matter how badly. “If you think you’re going to die, you’re going to die, so don’t let that happen to you – fight the fight,” he said.
Following the classroom session, the officers split into two groups to participate in two scenarios.
In one scenario, officers responded to a classroom on a report of a student threatening to kill herself.
The officers tried to talk to the student, played by Lincoln County Communications employee Sonia Lilly, and encouraged her to talk to a counselor. The student brandished a knife at the officers, however, forcing them to “stun” her by aiming their stun guns and saying “Taser Taser Taser.”
In another scenario, a parent, upset about a custody situation, enters the school and, armed with a knife, demands to see his child, a student at the school. The principal tries to dissuade the man as officers arrive.
The officers hustled the principal out of harm’s way and convinced the parent to drop the knife and lie face-down on the floor before they cuffed him.
In both scenarios, the officers used slightly different tactics to try to defuse the situations. Some would clear bystanders, then take cover and attempt to negotiate until the actor forced their hand; others were more aggressive.
Supervisors observed the drills, directed the actors and doled out constructive criticism to the officers afterward.
Finally, the officers, in groups of three, participated in an active shooter scenario.
Actors mimicked the sounds of a mass shooting, with “gunshots” and cries of “Help!” and “I’ve been shot!” in the hallways.
The officers, with assault rifles and handguns, advanced down the hallway, where they encountered and “neutralized” the “shooter” by firing the training weapons.
Sheriff Brackett, after the exercise, thanked Great Salt Bay and the Central Lincoln County School System and complimented their emphasis on safety, knowledge of safety issues and willingness to collaborate with law enforcement.
“It was absolutely fantastic to have some of the school staff here with us today,” Brackett said.
The training gives the officers an opportunity to rehearse all options for how to respond to an emergency, from verbal commands, as in the case of the angry parent; to deadly force, in the mass shooting scenario.
“For my guys, this is our worst nightmare,” Brackett said. “Anything we can do to prepare puts us in a better place.”
