Training day keeps cops, schools prepared to respond
BY JOHN ROSZKOWSKI jroszkowski@pioneerlocal.com February 14, 2012 8:00PM
Police officers from Mundelein, Vernon Hills and Libertyville participate in a first responder active shooter drill at Carmel Catholic High School in Mundelein on Tuesday while actors play injured people. The officers include (from left) Vernon Hills Officer Jeff Cielak, Mundelein Investigator Jason Seeley, Libertyville Detective Bob Uliks, Mundelein Officer Tony Glogovsky and Libertyville Detective Chad Roszkowiak. | Ryan Pagelow~Sun-Times Media
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Updated: April 15, 2012 1:45AM
MUNDELEIN — A call goes out over the police radio of shots fired at Carmel Catholic High School. The school’s emergency siren blares.
A man carrying two guns runs through the hallways firing on students and staff, injuring several people. Two other gunmen enter the school and also begin firing.
Police arrive on the scene within minutes and begin scouring classrooms in search of the gunmen. Two of the gunmen are killed in a shootout with police and the third man is captured.
Fortunately, this chilling scenario was not real but a simulated training exercise conducted Tuesday by Mundelein police in conjunction with other area police departments, and school officials at Carmel High. The drill was conducted during a staff in-service training day and no students were present at the school.
The purpose of the drill was to train police and school officials on how to react in the event of a real emergency. The mock scenario was designed to simulate a Columbine-like shooting drill with armed intruders attacking the school.
Mundelein Police Chief Raymond Rose said everybody hopes that nothing like that will ever happen in Mundelein, but given previous school shootings that occurred in Columbine, Virginia Tech, Northern Illinois University and other schools across the country, police and school officials need to be prepared to respond.
“There are 58 people since 2007 that have been killed in school shootings,” he said. “This is not something new. I know it’s disturbing and we don’t want to talk about it, but we have to talk about it. The question we have to answer is ‘Are we ready’?”
To make the drill seem as realistic as possible, undercover officers dressed up as gunmen carrying weapons, and Carmel faculty and staff assumed the roles of shooting victims or bystanders. Police conducted the search for the gunmen wearing black tactical gear and carrying assault-style weapons. Blank shells were used to simulate firing.
Sue Gille, an administrative assistant who works in the dean’s office at Carmel, observed the drill and found it to be very life-like.
“When the shooter ran down the hallway and began shooting, it was very realistic,” she said. “I literally had tears in my eyes because it freaked me out a little bit. It was very scary, but I’m also glad because if it helps one officer or person know what to do (in that situation) it’s worth it.”
Rita Markham, attendance secretary and assistant registrar at Carmel, said during the drill she portrayed an employee who was in the hallway who observed two of the gunmen and stopped an officer asking for help. Even though she knew it was only a drill, it had a real-life feel.
“You realize the seriousness when you see the police and gunmen running through the hallways,” she said. “I realized how important it was to be observant and ready. It makes you more painfully aware of the risks if something like that were to happen,”
The goal of the drill was to simulate a real-life scenario so school officials and police will make the best decisions in the event of an actual incident.
“We want to make sure if an event like this were to ever occur that they’ll be aware of what they should do,” said Rose.
Carmel High Principal Lynne Strutzel thinks the exercise was a good learning opportunity for school officials and police; the school identified some areas in the emergency preparedness plan that need improvement.
One area, for example, where they found a deficiency is that school officials in the administrative offices could not hear what was happening on the other side of the building during the drill, which could have been an issue in a real emergency.
In addition to Mundelein, other police departments participating in the drill included Libertyville, Lake Zurich, Vernon Hills, Grayslake and Lake County sheriff’s deputies, and officials from several other schools in the area observed the drill including Vernon Hills High School, Lake Zurich High School, Carl Sandburg Middle School in Mundelein, St. Joseph’s School in Libertyville, St. Mary of the Annunciation School in Mundelein, and Santa Maria del Popolo School in Mundelein.
Rose said many of the lessons learned in the training drill, such as securing the building and tending to the wounded, could be applicable in any type of emergency situation, including natural disasters such as tornadoes.
“We can replicate this response to any type of crisis or disaster that occurs,” he said.
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