Active shooter drill at Canby High School helps emergency responders prep for the worst

June 22--It's just after 10:35 a.m. when two police officers sprint into a parking lot near the football field at Canby High School. One is carrying a rifle. The other grips a pistol.

They pause at the bottom of stairs leading into the school with their guns aimed at the entrance as two more rifle-carrying Canby officers run to join them and all four go inside.

They're trying to stop a man in dark clothing who walked through those same doors with a rifle minutes earlier and began shooting.

But the officers are carrying blue replica guns and the grim scenario Wednesday thankfully was a drill.

After the Orlando Nightclub shooting earlier this month that killed 50 people and two other shootings at Oregon schools over the last two years that have left 12 people dead, it's important to be ready for similar case, police and fire officials said.

"No one wants this to happen, but it's a reality that does occur," Canby Police Chief Bret Smith said. "This is a great opportunity for our agencies to work together, but it also lets the community know that we're very aware of this important threat that has occurred here and other communities around the country and it gives them confidence in knowing that we're preparing for it."

They've already learned some ways to improve their response -- how to help wounded people and where to park police cars, said Canby Fire Division Chief Todd Gary. By the time the agencies and volunteers run through the drill several more times over two days, they expect to learn even more.

"The world's changing and we have to learn from those events so if we have the event here, we don't make the same mistakes that were made then," Gary said.

As the scenario continued, someone called 911 from one of the classrooms saying the shooter was there with them and shooting people. The officers encountered a man lying on the floor about 15 feet from the school entrance. A teen boy was sitting nearby in the doorway of a classroom on their right. He had his knees up to his chest and his head down on top of them. He was shaking.

The four cautiously walked in a tight formation down the hallway in search of the shooter. One officer took the lead, with two in the middle and one at the rear who repeatedly turned back with his rifle to make sure no one was behind them.

It was 25 minutes before the officers found the shooter in a classroom dead of a self-inflected gunshot wound with two other victims. By then, police and paramedics escorted or carried nine other people into a math classroom near the entrance where their wounds were assessed. Ten people total were injured in the scenario, including the shooter. He and a faculty member were killed.

The Canby Police Department has done similar training on its own, but this marked the first time police and fire agencies coordinated their efforts, Smith said. At least 30 people from the department, Fire District and School District participated in the scenario.

The Molalla police chief, a Clackamas County medical examiner and workers from the county's emergency management department were among those who observed. A Molalla police officer also was among the officers who went into the school during the scenario.

The joint drill has been in the works since January. The scenario was designed around lessons learned from emergency responses to previous mass shootings in the area, Gary said.

In the past, police cars have inadvertently blocked ambulances that needed to get through and the drivers aren't available to come back outside to move them. He said police now park far enough away to allow a clear path for other emergency responders.

During the drill, police officers and firefighters loaded five people onto disposable stretchers called "MegaMovers" and dragged them into a math classroom where paramedics waited. The stretchers allow one person to move a victim instead of needing a group of people to do the lifting.

"We learned that you can't just grab ahold of somebody and then drag them down the hall," Gary said.

When they did the drill a second time, they focused on making sure paramedics announced they were approaching officers to make them aware of their presence.

"I'm sure that when Molalla is going to do a drill, it's going to be better for having participated in this drill today," Gary said. "And the next time we come back to do a drill we're going to be better here because we're constantly learning."

-- Everton Bailey Jr.

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