Scenario surprises school administrators with quick, deadly consequences (with video)

Jasper — The shotgun blasts and smell of black powder at Jasper Middle School only accentuated that the perpetrator had only been in the school a bit over two minutes. He had already walked through all the JMS administrative offices and was three bullets into his second magazine.

Then he pulled the boomstick from the black equipment bag.

He had told the woman who buzzed him through the locked door of the school that the black bag, sales tag included, was a gift for his son, a student at the school.

It surprised some of the staff and administrators of the area school corporations that stood in the halls as the suspect fired and fired and fired. Random shots, but sure to find the mark of flesh in a real shooting incident in a crowded school.

This wasn’t real though. An Indiana State Trooper called out the time as the perpetrator moved through the rooms searching for random targets.

“Two minutes.”

Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. Reload. Bang, bang, bang. And so on.

After about six minutes — it took police over four minutes to arrive at Columbine — they told the perpetrator it was over. He had walked in with a hat and sunglasses and a shirt that read “Marines” on the front. Now the hat and glasses were gone and he was in a new shirt. Three pistols and a shotgun were emptied; the pistols with multiple reloads. All in less than six minutes.

Prior to running through the quick drill, over 40 school employees, emergency management personnel and law enforcement personnel attended a training session hosted by the Indiana State Police.

School administrators in the Jasper District, which covers Crawford, Daviess, Dubois, Martin, Orange, Perry, and Spencer Counties, were invited to attend as well as area law enforcement agencies, fire departments, EMS, and EMA personnel.

Sgt. Chad Dick, Indiana State Police Jasper Post media relations, gave the presentation designed to educate school administrative personnel on proper response to an active shooter situation. Including, learning how law enforcement responds to active shooter situations, and what school personnel can do to mitigate injury and the loss of life in an active shooter situation.

The scenario described at the beginning of this story is designed to give the administrators a feel of what it might be like during an actual active shooter situation. The shooter methodically walks the hallways shooting random “victims” for several minutes before the first police officers arrive at the scene.

Spectators commented on how the pistol shots were nearly inaudible while the perpetrator was firing in classrooms and offices, but once in the hallways it was different story.

“The sound of the gunfire in the hallway just sends chills down your back,” JMS Assistant Principal Phil Tolbert said.

In addition to the training, Sgt. Dick informed administrators of the $10 million in matching grants the state approved this year for school corporations to use for several school safety measures. Schools are eligible to receive up to $50,000 in matching grants for hiring specially trained school resource officers, purchasing equipment or providing special training for employees.

Southwest Dubois County School Corporation explored hiring an officer in 2012. It met with resistance from residents and school personnel and was eventually dropped.

The plan had been to share the officer with the City of Huntingburg in a program that would ensure the school corporation had a fully-trained police officer on school property each day and the city would have a part-time officer added to its ranks.

Recently appointed Southwest Dubois County School Corporation Superintendent Mike Eineman stated, with the grants available from the state, he will likely begin the process of exploring the school corporation’s options in regards to safety resources.

Meanwhile, the Indiana State Police has been tasked to serve as the lead agency in coordinating active shooter training with local school corporations throughout the entire state.

Indiana State Police Superintendent, Douglas Carter with the support of Governor Mike Pence, initiated the active shooter training program for school administrators. The program was already in the developmental stages before the tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut, and is now being offered to school corporations around the state.

“Everytime you hear something in the news, it’s a wakeup call for us,” Assistant principal Tolbert, who is responsible for JMS’s security procedures, said. “This training is important, because every time something happens, they analyze it and they have new responses and we need to keep updated.”