Springdale Shooter Drill Exercise Helps Training

Springdale SWAT team members secure a door as civilians are evacuated from the area during an active shooter training scenario Thursday, Jan. 2, 2014 at Shiloh Christian School in Springdale. Several members of the police and fire departments and many people serving as students and teachers in the school helped in the training. Police used airsoft guns and others loaded with blanks.

Springdale SWAT team members secure a door as civilians are evacuated from the area during an active shooter training scenario Thursday, Jan. 2, 2014 at Shiloh Christian School in Springdale. Several members of the police and fire departments and many people serving as students and teachers in the school helped in the training. Police used airsoft guns and others loaded with blanks.

Friday, January 3, 2014

SPRINGDALE — The toll was high Thursday: 10 injured among the 50 people who fled from a man with a gun at Shiloh Christian School. Two died.

Those casualties were make-believe, however, coming during a school shooter drill at the school. The Springdale Police Department coordinated the exercise with the Fire Department. The scenario involved two gunmen entering the school at 9:35 a.m.

The shooters, actually police officers, fired blanks to pretend to hurt students and teachers in a cafeteria, office and classroom. Jordan Cox, the dean of students, was one of the fatalities in the exercise.

By The Numbers

School, Mass Shootings In Last Five Years

DateLocationSite of Shooting*Deaths

Dec. 13, 2013Centennial, Colo.Arapahoe High School*2

Sept. 16, 2013WashingtonWashington Navy Yard*13

Dec. 14, 2012Newtown, Conn.Sandy Hook Elementary School*26

Dec. 11, 2012Portland, Ore.Clackamas Town Center*2

Aug. 5, 2012Oak Creek, Wis.Sikh temple*6

July 20, 2012Aurora, Colo.Movie Theater*12

April 2, 2012Oakland, Calif.Christian School*7

March 6, 2012Jacksonville, Fla.Episcopal High School*1

Feb. 27, 2012Chardon, OhioChardon High School*3

Dec. 8, 2011Blacksburg, Va.Virginia Tech Parking Lot*1

May 10, 2011San Jose, Calif.San Jose State University*2

Jan. 5, 2011HoustonWorthing High School*1

Jan. 8, 2011 Tuscon, Ariz.Grocery Store*6

Jan. 5, 2011Omaha, Neb.Millard South High School*2

March 9, 2010Columbus, OhioOhio State University*2

Feb. 12, 2010Huntsville, Ala.College Campus*3

Feb. 5, 2010Madison, Ala.Discovery Middle School*1

Nov. 12, 2008Fort Lauderdale, Fla.Dillard High School*1

Feb. 14, 2008DeKalb, Ill.Northern Illinois University*5

Source: Statistic Brain Research Institute

“It was a little frightening,” Cox said. “We hear shooting, and one shooter came in the office yelling at us. He shot me then left. He came back later and was yelling, ‘Yeah, you’re dead, aren’t you?’.”

In that exercise — the first of three — the shooters were cornered upstairs and shot with plastic pellets. In a later exercise, the shooters barricaded themselves, then were surrounded by members of the the Special Weapons and Tactics team. A police negotiator tried to convince the shooter to surrender.

Those evacuating the building were sent across the parking lot to Southwest Junior High School for treatment. Shiloh faculty and students, along with some students from Springdale schools, played the roles of victims.

Officers escorted and guarded Fire Department emergency medical technicians and paramedics as they treated the wounded.

Quick entry into a building is a new tactic, said James Hales, Fire Department battalion chief.

“We have about a 20-minute window to help the wounded,” Hales said. “The idea now is to get medical help in quicker with police guarding them.”

Colton Schlesinger, a student in Springdale High School’s Law and Public Safety Academy, also was a fatality during an exercise.

“You could hear the guns going off, and then they came into the room shooting,” Schlesinger said. “It sounded like the real thing.”

The possibility of having the real thing is why Shiloh hosted the event, said Ben Mayes, president of the school. His role is similar to that of a superintendent, he said.

“We were asked and we said yes,” Mayes said. “We wanted to help the police and fire, and I think the exercise helps us as well.”

The drills were a learning experience, said Kathy O’Kelley, police chief.

“We’ve learned it’s harder to coordinate a large activity like this than we thought,” O’Kelley said. “We have to have better coordination between the police command center and the fire command center. We were using our encrypted channel and the Fire Department couldn’t hear that. We need to get our communications down.”

O’Kelley said she was interested in seeing how her officers reacted to the situations. The number of observers, including ones from Rogers police, Washington County’s Sheriff”s Office and Washington County Emergency Management, was distracting, she said.

“It’s hard to write policy and not see how it works,” O’Kelley said. “This will help us write policies that should work in the field.”