Pupils hadn’t trained for crisis

Douglas’ Code Red drill was scheduled for March

When a gunman opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, the students had never been through a schoolwide drill teaching them how to protect themselves.

Broward County schools have enhanced training for teachers to cover active shooter situations, but — 19 years after Columbine and five years after Sandy Hook — there is no requirement that schools hold an active shooter drill for students.

Students at Stoneman Douglas have been drilled about what to do if there is a fire or tornado, but not for when someone like Nikolas Cruz shows up with an AR-15 rifle.

Cruz killed 17 staff and students at Stoneman Douglas on Feb. 14 and wounded 16 more.

“I know that my school, we go through fire drills every month and we have not had our lockdown drill yet this year,” junior Carson Abt told President Donald Trump during a meeting at the White House after the shooting.

She said she supported “a change that will increase all the trainings and protocols so if,

God forbid, another shooting does happen, at least all the teachers will be prepared and can hopefully keep their students calm.”

Stoneman Douglas teachers received Code Red training in January, designed for threats inside the school and classrooms that require the building to be locked down. Included in the Code Red training are scenarios that include active shooters, Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie said Friday.

After receiving the training, teachers are supposed to outline different scenarios to students and explain what they should do. A Code Red drill was scheduled for March, district officials said.

That isn’t comforting to some students.

“We didn’t have a drill where there were actors, where there was like fake blood and there was stuff like that. We had a talk, and a talk is not a drill,” student David Hogg said during a meeting Wednesday at the South Florida Sun Sentinel.

Still, Runcie said law enforcement on the scene credited the actions of teachers with saving lives.

“It was something that was top of mind for the faculty and the students,” he said of the training.

In Palm Beach County, Code Red drills are conducted twice a year, before Oct. 31 and in January, officials said.

The drills involve students, teachers and staff. During the drill, “everyone holds in place, no phones [are] used, no one comes to or leaves campus, etc., as would be the case in an active shooter situation,” district spokeswoman Julie Houston Trieste said.

Broward County requires only that schools hold one “critical incident” drill each year, which could be based on an active shooter, a bomb threat or some other emergency. Runcie said many schools will have drills that cover every scenario.

The school district also has been developing a more comprehensive active shooter training program for middle and high school faculty. The training has been done at the elementary school level over the past several years.

Broward Schools Police Chief Robert Hutchinson said his office is limited in how quickly it can roll out the new training. He said there are only four or five days during the school year when the training can be done and his instructors are able to do about 10 schools on a single teacher planning day.

Broward has more than 70 middle schools and high schools.

During a School Board workshop in January, Hutchinson said his office also has developed an active shooter awareness video for all personnel that includes a Homeland Security video. The video discusses when it’s appropriate to flee and when to lock yourself in a room, paper over windows to block the view, shut off phones and hide or get out of view.

Fort Lauderdale officials have tried to get more active shooter training to schools in their city more quickly. City police since November have asked to do the training in schools but have not received permission, City Manager Lee Feldman said.

School Board member Robin Bartleman raised the city’s concerns at the workshop in January, based on a letter she received from Feldman, saying “he has asked over and over” to be able to provide the training. “It’s not getting done and, God forbid, he’s putting us on notice that he wants the active shooter training,” Bartleman said.

Hutchinson said the district hasn’t taken Fort Lauderdale up on its offer because, when doing the training, the district wants to “make sure we’re all on the same page.” Not knowing the district’s policies, the city police could say something the district does not agree with, he said.

Feldman said Friday that he doesn’t know why that would be the case.

“The school district will not be the one that shows up [in an emergency],” Feldman said. “We’re the responding agency for the schools inside Fort Lauderdale.”

Runcie said coordination is needed. At Stoneman Douglas, police cars from many different agencies showed up.

“You can’t think that you’re just going to do it [alone],” Runcie said. “It’s all hands on deck.”

Broward schools must have one “critical incident” drill each year, which could be based on an active shooter, a bomb or other emergency.