Training exercise simulates active attacker at Sanborn Christian School
Emergency preparedness was on the minds of those taking part in a training exercise May 6 at Sanborn Christian School. The scenario for the exercise involved an active attacker threat, in this case a shooter. School staff, observers/players and emergency responders participated in the exercise which was organized by O’Brien County Emergency Management and Coordinator Jared Johnson.
“We have been doing tabletop training and these exercises try to bring all those together,” said Johnson. “Sometimes we do one a year, sometimes we do a couple if there is someone who wants to host.”
Although this exercise was held after the students were dismissed for the day, Johnson said it simulated 2:00 p.m. on a school day.
In this drill, after law enforcement from the Sanborn and Hartley Police Departments and the O’Brien County Sheriff’s Office arrived on the scene they entered through the main entrance, Sanborn Police as the first responder and then the others. They made a careful search through the entire building to make sure the active attacker threat no longer existed.
Sanborn Christian School staff members were able to exit the building in various stages with some exiting almost immediately. One staff member indicated she felt it was safe to leave when the sounds of the gun shots were getting farther away. Other staff members remained in the building.
“Today I saw a lot of people fleeing,” said Johnson who was with the person acting as the attacker. “We had some people staged in various classrooms. The active attacker tried to access certain doors which he could not get into, which was good. The target availability and how quickly law enforcement arrive on the scene can impact how many people get injured.”
“We had some patients who were having panic attacks,” added Johnson. “It is something that people tend to do in a high-stress environment. During training they talk about how people react in a high-stress environment: there’s the fight, flight, freeze. You never know how people are going to react. Some may immdiately go into flight mode. Some might go into freeze mode and drop to the ground and some might go into fight mode and be ready to fight. It’s difficult to know.”
Johnson stressed one thing in particular to those inside the building at the time of a threat. “If you can be safe of if you can get out of the school call 911,” he said. “Just as a reminder, in O’Brien County and, I think, in most counties across the state you also have text to 911 available as well so if you’re in a situation where you don’t want to be heard, you can text the dispatcher. If for some reason, the message goes to another county, that county can forward it to the proper county.”
Johnson noted that in another drill he had been in the building three minutes before someone alerted the front office. “In that exercise they actually went to a different door than the front door just to change things up,” he said. “We had people leaving the building but no one had a chance to get back to the front office to put a message out through the whole building.”
As Sanborn Christian School was being searched the ambulance and fire department responders began to enter the building. “We have one team, a couple of people, go in,” explained Sanborn Ambulance director Charity Verbrugge. “You have to access the patients immediately. The next team includes the fire department, and we have a really amazing fire department. They are the muscles behind us. They go in with us and bring them back to our staging.”
Normally the staging or triage area would be outside the building but in this case it was in the gym. Volunteer victims had cards attached with their vitals as part of the training for the EMS personnel. Verbrugge said the responders use a color code system. Red signifies immediate care for those who cannot survive without it but who have a chance for survival. Yellow or delayed treatment is for those who require observation and green is for the walking wounded. Black or expectant is for those deceased or whose injuries are so extensive that they will not be able to survive given the care that is available.
As the injured are being treated in the triage area, EMS personnel contact the hospitals. “We call around to the hospitals because you can only take so many people,” said Verbrugge. “We have Osceola, Spencer, Orange City, Sheldon and Sioux Center. Depending on the situation would we need a helicopter or two? You can possibly get the trauma victims out and bypass these area hospitals so they can treat the other patients.” Added Verbrugge, “This exercise was great for us. We utilized what we had learned. Any time you have mass casualties this is what you would have to do as far as a triage.”
Anthony Minderhoud, Sanborn Christian School Principal, accompanied Johnson and the active attacker inside the school. “Walking around with Jared and our shooter it was interesting to see the movements of our law enforement and how they went back and forth throughout the building,” said Minderhoud. “I was impressed with our staff. You guys improvised well. Some of the things that we have been talking about, you implemented. It was well done. My appreciation to the ambulance, fire department and the volunteers. Thanks for making it work. It was good training for us and good to be able to connect and have everybody in our building and have that walk-through.” The school indicated that it welcomes feedback from the emergency personnel who participated in the exercise.