Students Get Hands-on with Active Shooters

Audio tracks broadcasting the sound of gunfire permeated the San Bernardino High School campus and masked gunmen stormed the halls last Thursday, Jan. 29, but it was only a drill. With an increased police presence at the campus, local law enforcement officers met with approximately 400 San Bernardino High School public safety and business academy students to participate in an active shooter simulation that included the use of props, realistic-looking fake guns and gunshot audio to create a training atmosphere that was as realistic as possible. San Bernardino City Unified School District police Sgt. Hector Moncada said the situation was training for an unfortunate real-life possibility. “This is an opportunity for us to prepare for a situation we hope never occurs,” Moncada said. The Federal Bureau of Investigation Critical Incident Response Group defines an active shooter as “an individual actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a confined and populated area.” In an FBI report released Sept. 16, 2013, the FBI identified 160 active shooter incidents in the United States between 2000 and 2013. Findings from this report show 70 percent of active shooter incidents occurring in an educational environment – and overall, active shooting incidents are increasing annually. According to the report, there was an average of 6.4 active shooter incidents per year in the first seven years of the study, compared with the last seven years, documenting an average of 16.4 active shooter incidents annually. The active shootings are also characterized by their short duration, with 44 of 64 incidents ending in five minutes or less, with 23 ending in two minutes or less, the study shows. “Even when law enforcement was present or able to respond within minutes, civilians often had to make life and death decisions, and therefore should be engaged in training and discussions on decisions they may face,” the report stated. Last Thursday’s active shooter training at San Bernardino High also gave students a taste of everyday life as an emergency responder, Sgt. Moncada added, saying, “It is also a chance for students to experience something close to the real-life law enforcement situations in a safe setting.” Many of the students participating in last week’s drill were public safety academy students, an elective course that aims to prepare students for careers in law enforcement and emergency response, including as police officers and firefighters. Thursday’s active shooter training provided these students the opportunity to interact directly with law enforcement officers in a continued linked-learning effort, which provides students with hands-on opportunities to apply classroom learning to everyday real-world situations, shared Linda Bardere, a spokesperson for the school district. "We believe it was important for students who are interested in a law enforcement career to see what the work will entail. The real life scenarios and the classroom presentations from our partners in the City of San Bernardino Police Department made this a unique and exciting learning opportunity. We were also grateful for the support from the city fire department. They were on hand to explain how they support the community and the police during a crisis," Bardere said. "The goal was to give students the chance to experience something close to the real-life law enforcement situation in a safe setting. The students learned formations and techniques for conducting a building search...This was strictly a learning opportunity for students so they could have a better understanding of the work of law enforcement professionals," she said.