Two teens in trench coats enter the office at McIntosh High School. One young male pulls a handgun and shoots a teacher, while the other uses a rifle to take the principal hostage. The teen with the handgun runs into the media center and takes 25 hostages.

It is a frightening but fictional scenario, one that reflects the potential for tragedy that has already played out in too many communities across America. Public safety responders from around Fayette County met May 30 at McIntosh High School in Peachtree City to participate in a tabletop emergency drill that involved hypothetical gunmen, hostages and shootings.

It is the kind of thing no one wants to happen, and it is the kind of thing we should be prepared to respond to if it does, said Fayette Fire and EMS Lt. Scott Roberts and long-time Volunteer Emergency Manager George Knight at the outset of the Friday afternoon mock exercise held in the school’s media center.

“The purpose here is to get everybody together and to put names with faces,” Knight said.

Roberts said, and others acknowledged, that current county policy calls for entry into the building by law enforcement if shots are fired.

“We go in. We don’t wait outside. We learned this from Columbine,” Roberts said. “We go in and pursue. Studies show that casualties will be lower.”

That purpose got a quick dose of potential reality as Knight began to have the scenario develop. Each unfolding portion of the scenario was followed with discussion by the various agencies and school officials on what their responses would be and how those actions pertained to the the entire scenario.

The exercise began as two young males wearing trench coats and carrying duffel bags entered the building. Participants were told that the two had been expelled earlier in the year. They went to the office and asked to see Principal Tracie Fleming, who was not available.

One of the males produced a handgun, demanding to see Fleming; at the same time, a teacher entered the office and was shot in the chest. Fleming then entered the office and was taken to another room by the other male who was carrying a rifle.

The male with the handgun soon ran toward the media center, eventually holding 20-25 students and faculty hostage.

Knight and Roberts continued to have the scenario unfold, both inside the school building and outside as worried parents, masses of news media and curious onlookers flooded into the area. The scenario and its resolution included other events, both inside outside the school, geared to having all responders voicing the perspectives unique to their area of training and expertise.

Participants spent the afternoon responding to the evolving scenario laid out by Knight and Roberts, one that will hopefully never occur but one for which agencies must be prepared, Knight said.

Knight and Roberts stressed the importance of getting all the players together in one setting. Participating in the drill were representatives from McIntosh and various Fayette County schools, Peachtree City Police, Fayette Fire and EMS, Peachtree City Fire Department, Fayette 911 Center, Fayetteville Police and volunteer responders.

The mock exercise followed one held earlier in the spring at Fayette County High School. Roberts said knowledge gained at the tabletop exercises will employed at a more involved functional exercise in coming months and a full-scale exercise in the near future.

login to post comments