What happens behind locked doors after a gun-related threat to Beaufort County schools?
Beaufort County students hid behind locked classroom doors on three separate occasions last week: after a hoax active shooter threat at Beaufort High School and two threats of a gun on campus.
As dozens of parents and guardians stood outside Beaufort High School last Wednesday, anxiously waiting for updates from police and wishing to be reunited with students, what was going on inside?
The first thing that happens is a voice over the school intercom saying, “This is not a drill. It’s a mandatory lockdown.”
Here’s what a lockdown means for students and staff in Beaufort County schools and how they prepare.
Preparing for a threat
Each Beaufort County public school conducts an active shooter drill once every three months for a total of three times a year, according to school spokeswoman Candace Bruder. This is one more drill than South Carolina mandates public schools conduct yearly.
These drills follow mandatory staff instruction given twice a year by the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office.
The Civilian Response to Active Shooter Event course was created in 2002 by an active shooter response training center at Texas State University. The center provides an eight-hour course to certify police officers who then teach the course to school staff.
The course isn’t specifically for schools and also is taught to businesses and at community centers and churches. It is built on the “avoid, deny, defend strategy,” according to the center.
“Try to avoid the incident all together,” Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office Cpt. William Angelo said. “If you’re outside of the school on a playground, and the shooting is going on in the school, avoid going into the school.”
If avoiding the situation doesn’t work, staff are taught to deny the threat access to where they are, by locking doors for example. Angelo cited that, in the history of school shootings, no active school shooter has breached a locked classroom door.
“If they do gain entry into your room, you just defend yourself as best as possible,” Angelo said.
During these drills, school principals, vice principals and student resource officers evaluate their schools performance. SROs are police officers who are specifically assigned to middle and high school campuses in Beaufort.
“Are they secure in their doors? Are there any security problems that we noticed during these lockdowns? Are our kids just roaming the hallway? Stuff like that,” Angelo said.
Then, based on their evaluation, they make improvements if needed.
“We go in there, we evaluate and then we approach the school personnel and we say, ‘Hey, this is what we found out, or this will be observed and we need to work on that,’” Angelo said.
In the course of a normal school day, SROs are tasked with other security measures like making sure all outside access doors are locked. Visitors are required to buzz into schools and provide a driver’s license upon entry.
During a threat
The district declined to provide exact security plans for safety reasons. However, once an active shooter threat is announced, staff members are expected to follow their training. Then, it’s the SROs job to address the situation.
“The SRO, their job is to find the threat, basically. When it comes in there to go directly to that threat and locate that threat and deal with the threat they’re presented with,” Angelo said.
The SRO could determine there is no issue, handle the situation themselves or call for backup.
“As Wednesday’s (call) came in, it was an individual that was armed with a weapon, so every officer responds to that school and then every officer has a job once they get there,‘‘ Angelo, who was at Beaufort High School on Wednesday, said. “We set up a command post, and command starts delegating jobs to individuals.”
Even before officers got there, Angelo kept them updated on what was happening so when they arrived they wouldn’t be confused.
Once officers were on the scene, jobs included looking for the suspect, working with firefighters to determine if anyone is injured and securing the area.
“We have to set up security to make sure that people aren’t trying to gain entrance into the school to slow us down,” Angelo said. “We don’t want parents rushing into school, because that causes a bog down of our resources inside.”
Communication
During an active shooter threat, parents and guardians receive communication to the phone numbers and emails they provided when registering their child at the beginning of the year.
“School communication can be a combination of principals, staff or the district communications department,” Bruder said. “We also coordinate messaging with law enforcement for accuracy.”
Once police determine there is no longer a threat and that the lockdown can be lifted, the district communicates via email and text whether there will be an early release, and when and where students can be picked-up.
Parents or guardians who need to change their contact information should contact their school’s data specialist, Bruder said.
This story was originally published October 11, 2022 at 10:54 AM.
