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Members of the Santa Paula Police SWAT Team exited the department’s armored vehicle during the February 9 active shooter drill held at Isbell Middle School. |
Active shooter exercise held last week at Isbell Middle School
February 17, 2017
By Peggy Kelly
Santa Paula News
After a search of the campus, a lone gunman surrendered without further incident at Isbell Middle School, where an active shooter exercise took over the campus for a portion of a morning.
Santa Paula Police have been staging such exercises for years in preparation for something that — just decades ago — was unthinkable: a shooter on campus.
The February 9 exercise was observed by Santa Paula Unified School District elected officials and administrators as well as a sprinkling of the public and City Councilman John Procter. SPPD Officer Hector Ramirez, Isbell’s Resource Officer was also involved in the training.
“We want to do everything we can to be prepared,” said Jeff Argend, the SPUSD Safety Director who works with SPPD personnel for weeks on such excises.
Students enjoyed morning break on the quad before they headed back to class: their role would be to remain in a locked down classroom during the incident.
“That’s a key element to us,” said Argend, “that the students not observe the exercise.”
Officer Eric Burnett explained the procedure to the observers before the public address system was activated and cries of “Lockdown, lockdown, lockdown” signifying the start of the exercise was heard.
A SPPD SWAT vehicle entered the quad and seven armed officers entered the buildings to start the search, going from one end of the campus to the other.
After an extensive search gunshots were heard and the “shooter” — a SPPD member — ran with a weapon and took refuge in a stairwell. He surrendered peacefully and followed the commands barked out by Sgt. Jeremy Watson, a member of the SWAT team.
In previous exercises held at Santa Paula High School the lockdown was extended while the campus was searched.
“SWAT would conduct a methodical search,” to make sure there were no other shooters, weapons or explosives on the campus said Burnett.
Senior Range Master Dave Manning, who helped coordinate the exercise, noted that in a real life situation, SWAT “Would be here after the fact. We’d have personnel from SPPD, from all the other law enforcement agencies…the first job of every officer is to get to the scene and stop the killing.”
Traffic control, he replied to a question, is secondary to saving lives but there are evacuation plans and points for every campus, as well as specific areas for families to be reunited with their students.
Half of SPPD Officers are SWAT trained said Burnett who noted that even uniformed officers unable to suit up would go into emergency response mode and form teams to find and stop the shooter.
Something new in the last few years is allowing medical help to proceed immediately to victims; before, fire and EMTs would be held back until an area was deemed safe.
Manning noted that in such cases a team of officers is assigned to medical help.
One observer at the active shooter drill was Dr. Jake Donaldson, a family practitioner in Santa Paula.
Donaldson had notified the school district of his concerns regarding the exercise.
“I applaud the school and superintendent for trying to be transparent, trying to do right by the kids, but in medicine we do find,” there is more harm than good in medications, as well as in efforts in emergency preparedness.
Donaldson questioned, “institutionalized racism” that could cause students and police to distrust each other, “not view each other as allies.” He also noted “increasing militarization” of police where such exercises — with police personnel wearing SWAT menacing equipment and utilizing large armored vehicles — more resembles an invading army than a response to help.
“Of course you would want that,” if the scenario was real, but Donaldson said a shorter, less intense exercise with officers in plain clothes even involving students would make more sense and be less traumatic.
Although school shootings are always highly publicized, he noted the odds of being involved in such an incident are miniscule.
