Last week, agencies from around Oneida County and beyond held an “Active Shooter Exercise” at Malad High School.  The event was complex, and involved the participation, support, and efforts of dozens of people in order to be the success that it was.  “Success” in this case means that the exercise went the way that it was designed to in terms of its testing parameters, and generated the kinds of hard data as well as experiential outcomes that will help each of the institutions involved clarify their emergency response protocols for situations that can only be unthinkable to those that will not have to potentially deal with them on the first lines of action.  That is to say, the purpose of the exercise is to move the incident from “unthinkable” to “thought through” so that should it ever become a terrible reality, those tasked with responding to it will do so with a clear sense of how to do it.

This article will not have the space or the scope to bring you all the information that such an exercise generates.  For one thing, some of the stress-testing and protocols brought to bear during the exercise are not meant for public dissemination.  The sheriff’s office, for instance, is not best served by detailing its means of response to an active shooter situation.  Similarly, any procedures employed or weak points encountered by the schools are things that are most safely used in house to strengthen the procedures used to confront hostile situations.

What we will bring you here (with the promise that we will deep-dive some of the issues raised with the individual groups who participated in later editions) is rather an account of what happened during the drill in its broad strokes, and how it is intended to help both Oneida County officials, as well as officials across the state dial in aspects of their coordinated and individuals plans for events of the catastrophic type.

The specific incident involved in the exercise was an active shooter drill, something that is all too common on the front pages of papers across the country on a weekly and even daily basis.  In fact, in preparing this week’s paper there were two public shooting that took place just Monday night in the United States, and those were just the two that made headlines.    

1:30 Exercise Started

1:31 Gym entered

1:32 Hallway entered

1:36 Police reach door

1:37 Police entry

1:38 Suspect apprehended

1:40 Hallway warm zone
established

1:41 EMT radioed in

1:45 EMT entry into hallway

1:46 Warm zone expanded

1:48 Foyer cleared

1:51 EMS entry into gym

1:53 EMS triage established

1:54 EMS stage for transport

2:01 Ambulance leaves HS

2:07 Ambulance arrives at hospital

2:09 Request made for additional hospital assistance

Several things jump out of the timeline.  For one, the 39 minutes that are reflected here leave out the specifics of the school response and the internal chatter between officers.  As mentioned earlier, the school’s security protocols are most effective when they are not fully disclosed.  As an observer, I found that the ability for the administration to both monitor and communicate with staff and emergency responders was significantly more advanced than I would have guessed.  As principal Hannah was out of town, Middle School principal Josh Smith filled the role for the exercise.  His calm demeanor was noted as an important factor in the success of coordinating the building response.  

Through internal infrastructure within the building, the main office was able to communicate with the individual classrooms to let the teachers (and in a real event, the students) know where the threats within the building were and where the responders were.  It was also possible for Smith to observe the location of the assailant as well, as advise police as they prepared for and executed entry into the building.

Along with the communication between the school staff, the communication between the responding officers was also constant and well-coordinated.  The sheriff’s team worked extremely well and efficiently together in a high-stress environment, and ultimately with the school and the EMS, who were ready to deploy as soon as they were cleared to.

Although observers were not able to hear the dispatch on the other end of conversations, it was clear that the confusion of events was also being adroitly handled from the coordinated end of their lines.

EMTs, for their part, demonstrated a high level of unified team response, with the external observers commenting during the debriefing later that they had made excellent decisions as the event unfolded, and predicted many of the needs that are sometimes hard to anticipate.  

The exercise itself (which was really a series of interrelated group responses) was followed by a “hotwash” where the evaluators and groups discussed what they felt had gone well, and what could be improved upon.

In general, everyone involved was given high marks in the immediate aftermath.  Groups were coordinated and purposeful, and most importantly, communicated very well within themselves.  On the other side of that coin, however, many of the players involved noted that the literal hardware used for communication (radios, phone networks, etc) led to some confusion between the groups at times.  While a look back at the timeline will show that things happened quite rapidly, still, seconds become infinite in a crisis.

And that was my second takeaway as an observer—what seemed like it took forever was really just the blink of an eye.  Time dilation is a noted phenomenon in trauma, where incidents can seem to either expand or compress depending on the viewer’s response, but I hadn’t witnessed it quite so directly before.  The somber creeping realization of exactly how horrifying and overwhelming an actual event like this must be for those who have to go through them was a profound wakeup call. 

While very few of us will ever go through such a traumatic event in “real life,” that is not true of the first line responders, who deal with incredibly difficult situations all the time.  And it also isn’t true of our school employees, who at the very least deal with the prospect of such things.  And of course, students who are confronted with yearly training for active shooters are constantly reminded of how thin the line is between safety and chaos.  With exercises like this one, however, those who are called upon to respond will be much better forearmed.

Agencies involved include: Oneida County Ambulance, Oneida County Schools, Oneida County Search and Rescue, Oneida County Sheriff’s Office, Nell J Redfield Memorial Hospital, Oneida County Officials, IHLA, Idaho Enterprise, Tera Young (ISU), Dan Williams (Oneida County Emergency Preparedness Coordinator), Eric Hobson (Caribou County Emergency Services), Darin Letzring and others from the Idaho Office of Emergency Management, Guy Bleisner from Idaho School Safety and Security, and many others.