A SusanvilleStuff Photo Feature
by Jeremy Couso
I should preface this story with a warning that some of the images in our gallery are frightening and somewhat graphic. Most disturbing is to see this violence, real or manufactured, taking place in the hallways where we or our children went to school. What makes this training so important is its authenticity, and that authenticity is sometimes hard to watch.
There is a quiet intensity when the active shooter exercise begins – the morning briefing ends and at first the campus is silent, as it would be on a normal school day during class. Then the screaming starts. Screaming and chaos as waves of law enforcement officers clear hallways, tend to the injured and work to stop the shooting as quickly as possible. The scenarios all involve an armed assailant on campus and more than 100 role players who acted as student and adult victims.
This is the second year that the Susanville Police Department has hosted the active shooter training on the Lassen High campus and last year’s singular level of intensity was ratcheted up as new role players and rules were introduced. This year victims had realistic wounds and needed immediate and proper attention by the first law enforcement teams through the door. As some officers swept the hall and cleared classrooms others were kept busy applying pressure to student’s wounds, keeping them alive until medical personnel arrived on-scene.
Another element of realism added this year were role players acting as parents – parents who were scared and angry that law enforcement wouldn’t allow them to search for their children on campus in the moments following the shooting. Or in one case a parent who watched as their child died on the lawn from her wounds, and who could not understand why she wasn’t being allowed to help her. It was painful to watch and a credit to the role players who understood the importance of the training and put their all into the part.
The high school’s campus on Main Street was closed to the public for the day-long drill, giving the officers a chance to train in an authentic setting.
“The Lassen High School board, Superintendent, Principal and school staff have welcomed us with open arms for these types of drills,” explains Susanville Police Chief Tom Downing. “Their assistance and willingness to allow us to use their campus for the day of training is greatly appreciated.”
Observers from several local school districts participated in the exercise along with administrators from Lassen High.
The training is a massive undertaking with around 250 total participants. Months of planning, coordination and thought go into the eight-hour exercise.
“If it wasn’t for the hard work and dedication of a few this type of event would not be successful,” said Chief Downing. “Those few who put in the most work to make this successful, for two years now, are Detective Nate Horton, Officer Terra Avilla and Public Health Nurse Christi Myers.”
Officer Avilla, who serves as Lassen’s School Resource Officer, coordinated the recruitment of role players and oversaw a symphony of details that made the exercise feel incredibly real.
Detective Nate Horton, who conceived the day-long exercise last year, works with all of the law enforcement agencies involved to provide an effective training environment. Pre-planning for Horton begins with a series of strategy meetings in the months leading up to the actual drill. After the training ends Horton works with the various agency partners involved to debrief and plan for future training.
“This is a proactive approach of training for a critical incident of this magnitude which quickly overwhelms our local capabilities,” explains Downing. “Through training of this nature we learn how to adapt and overcome the obstacles through working together as a team, which in turn makes our community that much safer.”
This year Detective Horton’s lesson plan included a session with an FBI agent who was one of the first law enforcement officers to respond to the shooting at Sparks Middle School in October of 2013. His recollections of being on the middle school’s campus that morning lent extra gravity to the Lassen High training.
In the past 5 years I have had the opportunity to whiteness our rural healthcare and first responder system build a robust and efficient disaster response, in comparison to many areas of the state we are leaps ahead in actively pursuing opportunities for improvement in the preparedness realm.” -Lassen Public Health Nurse Christi Myers
Lassen County Public Health Nurse Christi Myers, also a driving force behind the training, said that her department is dedicated to a continued effort in building a sustainable response structure for all disaster situations. Lessons learned with the active shooter scenario can be applied to a range of disasters, but unlike most disasters there is a chance that a school shooting could be avoided before it happens.
“As we dive into the aspect of family reunification the human factor of these catastrophes becomes ever more apparent,” said Myers. “As we continue to train for a response such as this; we do ask that every parent in the county take a moment to get to know your kids and their friends just a little better.”
According to Myers, after an episode of mass violence people often step forward and claim that they may have seen it coming, indicating the possibility of prevention.
“Prevention starts at home,” says Myers, “know your kids, don’t be afraid to ask questions if something doesn’t feel right and always alert the proper authorities if you fear someone you know may have intentions to harm others.”
Its a sentiment echoed by Officer Avilla whose job brings her in contact with Lassen’s student population every day. Avilla urged parents to pay attention to their students as they leave for school or are dropped off each morning.
Joining the Susanville Police Department on the campus for training were representatives from the FBI, High Desert State Prison and CCC, the California Highway Patrol, Lassen County Sheriff’s Office, Lassen County Office of Emergency Services, Lassen Public Health, Behavioral Health, SEMSA, Banner Lassen Medical Center, Susanville City Fire and Susan River Fire District.
“The exercise was attended by over 160 responders,” said Myers, “this is an outstanding number for our small community and shows the dedication of all agencies involved in protecting our kids.”
“I am very pleased with the turnout of volunteers and participants this year,” said Chief Downing. “We more than doubled our participation over last year. We built upon our strengths and overcame some of the shortcomings identified from last year’s drill.”
For Chief Downing the bottom line is that, “Our public service agencies, individually and collectively, are better prepared today than they were prior to participating in this exercise.”
The drill did not end at the school, the role players were transported to Banner Lassen by local EMS where hospital staff had an opportunity to test their response structure.
“Banner implemented their incident command system,” says Myers, “and effectively treated incoming patients as they were tested though multiple complexities such as an influx of calls from role players acting as media and worried parents.”
To see our complete gallery from the active shooter training follow this link to SusanvilleSnapshots.com
To see our complete gallery from the active shooter training follow this link to SusanvilleSnapshots.com
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