MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) - An after-school active shooter drill at a Vermont elementary school has raised concerns from several parents who were upset that some children heard words like “intruder” and “active shooter.”
A school resource officer said the children, who were on the playground during the drill were not meant to hear what was happening, but direct language is needed to avoid confusion in a real crisis.
Several parents complained on social media about the terms that were broadcast at Union Elementary School during the drill Monday, the Barre-Montpelier Times Argus reported.
Superintendent Libby Bonesteel said the drill was part of state-mandated training for all four schools in the Montpelier-Roxbury Public Schools District.
The drill was meant to train faculty and staff, so students in an after-school program were sent to the playground, school administrators said. But some students could still hear the public address system, they said.
Cpl. Matthew Knisley, a Montpelier Police Department school resource officer, said it was a standard drill that uses direct words to describe the threat.
“The trend, nationwide, is going to plain English, instead of code words,” Knisely said. “We don’t want, in crisis, anyone trying to figure out what a code word means before reacting to something. As we say, ’practice like we play,’ when we do these drills, to communicate what we would be reacting to.”
But he said children were not meant to be a part of the drill, which is why they were sent outside.
’We don’t want it to be part of their daily thought,” Knisley said. “We want kids to be engaged in learning and feel safe.”
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Information from: The Times Argus, http://www.timesargus.com/
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