A janitor at Raisin City Elementary School in California wore a mask, carried a fake gun and ran around campus as if he were an active shooter during a drill.
The incident occurred just before summer break and was authorized by Central Valley superintendent Juan Sandoval, reports Your Central Valley.
Teachers and parents of students, however, said the drill went too far. Students and staff did not know it was a drill and were terrified, said teacher Kim Copper.
“I thought this might not really be a drill, and what am I going to do,” she said.
Copper and her students tried to stay quiet as they gathered in the corner of the classroom, she continued.
“All of a sudden someone came pounding on the door and tried to open it,” Copper said. “I had one boy, he was trying to be very quiet about it, but he was sobbing.”
Sandoval is defending his decision, saying it was only a drill.
“No, I don’t think it was wrong. It was a drill. Because usually these drills become routine to students and we wanted to make sure this was realistic,” Sandoval said.
CS readers on LinkedIn, however, criticized the unannounced drill after the original story ran on CampusSafetyMagazine.com.
“This sounds like a really good way to get shot and a healthy dose of PTSD for the poor cop that K5’s this guy…” said one person.
“This is beyond being unsafe, it’s absurd. So many professionals in the school security space have promulgated best practices for putting on drills safely and with minimal trauma. Why aren’t these being followed?” said another commenter on LinkedIn.
After the drill, all teachers shared a video with the kids and talked about the incident, he explained.
Despite his intention of trying to better prepare his staff, Sandoval admits he didn’t tell anyone about the fake active shooter.
When asked about the terror students and staff felt, Sandoval replied, “Well when it’s a real situation, it’s worse than that. The teachers and students need to know this is reality.”
He also said the drill helped him and his office staff identify issues that need to be fixed during lockdowns.
“The district will be updating its active shooter training procedures and coordinating with law enforcement to improve our training effort,” the school board president wrote in a statement.
