N.C. Teachers, Responders Get Schooled on Active-Shooter Scenarios

Jan. 25--With Onslow County Schools closed for the day, more than 150 of Onslow County's first responders and school administrators gathered to refine their active-shooter response skills.

The presentation included more than six hours of active-shooter response training, the second seminar of its type that Onslow County Emergency Services organized this school year. The Joint Public Safety Response to Active Shooter Events training used actual active-shooter scenarios from across the country as examples so participants would know how to react to active shooters and what internal training is needed.

Due to the sensitive nature of the presentations, The Daily News was not permitted to attend the briefs nor were first responders authorized to talk about tactics, techniques or procedures relating to active-shooter scenarios.

"Active shooter is something we have been looking at for a while and working on with multiple municipalities within the county," said Norman Bryson, the director of Onslow County Emergency Services. "As we are seeing it evolve in other areas we are taking note and implementing additional measures into our plans."

Developing plans that will work in real life isn't the biggest challenge, according to Bryson. One of the major obstacles that first responders must overcome in the instance of an active-shooter scenario is the limited amount of organizational resources available on a daily basis, he said, adding that police, fire and EMS only have a certain amount of people working at one time.

"Gathering accurate information is always an additional challenge during these types of situations," Bryson said. "You've got multiple people reporting different things, and you've got to get to the bottom of things to figure out exactly what is going on and how to properly respond."

The class analyzed characteristics of previous shooters from across the country giving the first-responders insight into what they should be looking for and what they should expect if they are called to an active-shooter scenario in Onslow County, he said.

"We're also learning about prevention techniques, which will always have a much greater outcome than any response to an active shooter," Bryson said. "There's still things we need to improve on though. We need to improve on our tactics between law enforcement and medical staff. The other side is communication while we are reviewing our plan annually. It's a constantly revolving plan."

On a near-daily basis, law enforcement or EMS deal with a stabbing or a shooting in Onslow County, meaning that they are always training and learning how to respond to different situations -- something that keeps their skills honed and fresh in their mind even if it's not a mass casualty situation or active-shooter scenario, according to Bryson.

"This training has presented a bunch of different scenarios that are meant to build your awareness to the possibility of different scenarios occurring," said Timmy Silance, a trooper with the Highway Patrol. "They've thrown us some things that you wouldn't normally think of on a daily situation; and no matter how prepared you thought you were before today, they threw something at all of us that we hadn't thought about before."

Silance said the classes stressed being prepared and that first responders should be prepared for the unexpected because nothing will ever turn out how you think it will, he said.

"I don't think you can ever be as prepared as you need to be," Silance said. "There's always going to be something that surprises you. We just need to work together and bring together the different municipalities to ensure that we know how to work cohesively."

Silance said municipalities face the challenge of having individual protocols and for handling different situations. By becoming familiar with each other's procedures, the entities can work together smoothly when needed, he said.

Silance proposed a role playing scenario depicting an active-shooter scenario. In doing so, he said, the training would be lifelike and more would be gained by those who participated.

"By giving us a real situation to handle it will bring a certain reality to it all," he said. "Right now, I know what I'd do if a shooting happened but at the same time I don't know. Something like this would bring it all home for us."

For school officials such as Jay Strope, the principal of Dixon Middle School, receiving more information about active shooters will hopefully help him to minimize the threat at the school, he said.

"We haven't had many situations like that here, but in today's society, you have to be prepared for anything," he said. "I've learned about looking for clues and signals you'll likely see in shooters. They're all different, but there are some common themes."

He said he appreciated seeing the different organizations in Onslow County working together to keep schools safe. The jurisdictions involved included the Jacksonville, Richlands and North Topsail Beach police departments, the Onslow County Sheriff's Office and more.

"It takes someone speaking up and saying something to prevent something from happening," he said. "You have to build relationships with the kids so they'll tell us about these things.

"They'll hear it before we will."

Beth Purcell, the spokeswoman for the Jacksonville Police Department, said training is available for groups or businesses by contacting the Community Services Division at 910-455-4000.

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