Saturday’s school shooting drill at Riley Avenue School went better than organizers might have hoped, with one exception — and it was a big one. Building principal David Enos used a panic button in his office in an attempt to alert police of the emergency but the alarm company did not call the police for seven minutes, Riverhead Ambulance Corps Chief Joseph Oliver said.
“The alarm company didn’t know [the drill] was happening,” Oliver said. “For them it was a real-life thing. Seven minutes is an obnoxious amount of time.”
Oliver, who was inside the school building as an observer for the duration of the drill, said the police were dispatched only after principal David Enos called 911.
“It took so long, the principal kept asking, ‘Did you get the call? Did you get the call?’ He finally called 911. That’s how the police got dispatched,” Oliver said. The call to the alarm company came in as a burglary alarm, not a panic alarm, Oliver said.
Riverhead School Superintendent Nancy Carney said what happened underscores the importance of having drills like the one Oliver organized Saturday.
“We had been told it went straight to the police department,” Carney said in an interview today. “That’s how we found out it goes to the alarm company.”
Carney declined to identify the alarm company or to discuss whether all school buildings were equipped with panic alarms.
“We won’t discuss specific security measures in place at the schools, for security reasons,” Carney said.
“The issue was addressed right away,” she said. The district’s new director of school safety, James Gresham, who was hired by the board of education last month to fill the newly created position, was addressing it.
In a written statement emailed this afternoon, Carney said the district was “very fortunate” to participate in the drill.
“The ability to increase the health and safety of our students, faculty, and staff is of the utmost importance and we embrace opportunities to do so,” she wrote.
“Of course, the purpose of emergency drills is to test the systems and procedures that are in place and make changes before an actual emergency arises. We were very impressed with the overall response of all the participants. As we do after every drill, we debrief and address any areas that need our attention. We identified several areas where we can improve, including the proper procedures to use to initiate emergency response,” Carney wrote.
Carney had nothing but praise for the emergency workers who responded to the “active shooter” situation staged at Riley.
“The systems they have in place are very impressive. Everyone knew their jobs. It was like clockwork,” she said. “It was very impressive.”
Oliver, who conceived the drill and worked for about a year to organize it, agreed.
“The responders, the school district personnel, the students, they were all phenomenal,” he said.
“It took longer than I would have hoped to get EMTs inside the building — almost 25 minutes for the first ambulance crew to get in the door,” Oliver said.
EMS workers can’t enter a building until police clear it, which doesn’t happen until the shooter is “neutralized,” he said. In this drill, the shooter turned his gun on himself.
Among the things being tested was the procedure followed by EMS with fatalities.
“I wanted to see how quickly they saw the DOA and how they handled it,” Oliver said. “Without being told, they marked the patient as a ‘black bag’ on the foot so the next provider doesn’t waste precious time. The next crew that came in immediately saw the mark and moved on, exactly as they are supposed to do,” he said.
“Everybody did an awesome job and we learned a lot,” Oliver said. A January 2015 meeting is planned at Riverhead Fire Department headquarters for all involved agencies to review everything, Oliver said.
“I pray to God this never happens but my mind is at ease — if it does, we’ve got it covered,” Oliver said.
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