A lesson that could mean the difference between life and death was taught Friday at one Lackawanna County school.
All one has to say is Columbine"or Virginia Tech and you probably think back to some of the most devastating school tradegies our country has ever experienced. On Friday, teachers and police officers were faced with the question what if something like that happened here?
Imagine a gunman enters Valley View High School in Archbald, firing shots every few seconds, prepared to take his own life. That was the fake scenario at the high school. Police fired blank rounds for affect.
"It is loud. I think we need to hear it so we know what to listen for," said teacher Jennifer Mauro.
About 140 teachers from the middle and high schools did drills with six local police departments and the Lackawanna County SWAT team. They simulate a school shooting, using blank rounds and some teachers acting as students.
Teacher Eileen Mcconnell said, "The bullets, the fake bullets. The sound of it kind of goes right through you. It's unsettling."
"That's the problem. I think we tend to think it can't happen here but in the video that they showed us, where they reinacted Columbine, it could happen here. It could happen anywhere," Mauro added.
Pretend victims, pretending to be shot, laid in the path of the responding officers going after the fake gunmen. The officers go right past the "victims," but their police chief said they did the right thing by ignoring them.
"They know they're supposed to bypass the victims on the ground. They're going after the bad guy. That's their job," explained Blakely Police Chief Guy Salerno.
It was a lesson for local officers, too. They were shot with paint rather than bullets to show where they would have been shot if it were a real emergency.
Archbald Police Officer Louis Chirico was one of the reponders who would have been hit. "I took out the shooter to my immediate front but what I didn't see was there was a shooter off to the side that we didn't pick up on. So we learned real quick," he said.
Many of the teachers there said this was the most realistic simulation they've ever seen. Lackawanna County SWAT representatives said they try to do exercises like this every year with different school districts.
All one has to say is Columbine"or Virginia Tech and you probably think back to some of the most devastating school tradegies our country has ever experienced. On Friday, teachers and police officers were faced with the question what if something like that happened here?
Imagine a gunman enters Valley View High School in Archbald, firing shots every few seconds, prepared to take his own life. That was the fake scenario at the high school. Police fired blank rounds for affect.
"It is loud. I think we need to hear it so we know what to listen for," said teacher Jennifer Mauro.
About 140 teachers from the middle and high schools did drills with six local police departments and the Lackawanna County SWAT team. They simulate a school shooting, using blank rounds and some teachers acting as students.
Teacher Eileen Mcconnell said, "The bullets, the fake bullets. The sound of it kind of goes right through you. It's unsettling."
"That's the problem. I think we tend to think it can't happen here but in the video that they showed us, where they reinacted Columbine, it could happen here. It could happen anywhere," Mauro added.
Pretend victims, pretending to be shot, laid in the path of the responding officers going after the fake gunmen. The officers go right past the "victims," but their police chief said they did the right thing by ignoring them.
"They know they're supposed to bypass the victims on the ground. They're going after the bad guy. That's their job," explained Blakely Police Chief Guy Salerno.
It was a lesson for local officers, too. They were shot with paint rather than bullets to show where they would have been shot if it were a real emergency.
Archbald Police Officer Louis Chirico was one of the reponders who would have been hit. "I took out the shooter to my immediate front but what I didn't see was there was a shooter off to the side that we didn't pick up on. So we learned real quick," he said.
Many of the teachers there said this was the most realistic simulation they've ever seen. Lackawanna County SWAT representatives said they try to do exercises like this every year with different school districts.
