PORT ANGELES — Port Angeles High School students prepared for a worst-case scenario last week: an active shooter on campus.
At 8:40 a.m. Friday, students walked from their advisory classes to where they would normally eat lunch to participate in the school’s first active shooter simulation.
Students who typically eat in the cafeteria marched into an adjacent room as Assistant Principal Jeff Lunt locked doors behind them.
“This is only a drill,” an intercom voice said.
“For the purpose of this drill, the threat is coming from the west side of the campus in the cafeteria area. Please move to a safe location.”
Students who normally leave campus for lunch headed to their vehicles in the parking lot.
Others gathered on the tennis courts on the east side of the school until an all-clear signal was given a few minutes later.
“We know this isn’t going to be perfect,” Lunt said before the exercise.
“This is the first time we’ve done this, but we want our students to begin thinking about their own safety and being aware of their situation.”
Port Angeles and other school districts around the state conduct regular lock-down drills, where students hide in a classroom with the doors locked and the windows shades drawn.
“We run them when the kids are in class because that’s the easiest way to run the drill,” said Jeff Clark, Port Angeles High School principal.
“But if you put yourself in the mind of someone with malintent, you would come during the time when people are out and about.”
Clark decided to institute an active shooter drill this year for a more realistic simulation.
While the Feb. 14 school shooting in Parkland, Fla., was an “impetus” for the active shooter exercise, Clark had “always thought that we should have drills at times when kids aren’t in class.”
Another reason for the enhanced drill was the students’ own concern for safety, Lunt said in a later interview.
“It’s a shame that we have to do this, and that students have to think about that,” Lunt said, “but I know if students don’t feel safe, they can’t learn.”
Feedback from Port Angeles Police Department volunteers who assisted in the exercise was mixed.
The chief concern expressed in a post-exercise briefing was the fact that the school’s intercom system could not be heard outside.
Student attendance was taken before and after the drill. Extra counselors were on hand in case there were students who experienced drill-induced anxiety.
“We emphasize to the kids that violent crime is on the decline in the United States overall,” Clark said.
“You’re chances of being injured in a school shooting — the odds are very low.
“You’ve got a greater chance of being struck by lightning,” Clark added, “but we prepare anyway.”
________
Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56450, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
