Unpleasant, necessary preparation

At 1:02 Friday afternoon, shots rang out in the front foyer of Orange County High School. Within seconds, three students lay gravely injured. A fourth victim, a teacher, lay screaming and crying in the hallway, begging for help. Another teacher lay sprawled around the corner. Shell casings littered the hallway around her. Five minutes later, Orange County officers were pounding through the hallways, securing the area as shots rang out on the second floor above. Across town at the Taylor Education Administration Complex, superintendent Dr. Bob Grimesey made the call alerting school officials that there was a "live" shooter at the school.

Thankfully, what happened at Orange County High School on Friday was just a simulation drill. However, the above situation has been an unfortunate reality throughout the nation, forever changing the lives of the students, teachers and community members affected. It is because of this reality that Orange County law enforcement officials decided to hold an active shooter drill and hostage negotiation drill at Orange County High School on Friday.
"We want to see how prepared we are, how trained we are and how well fire, rescue and the schools respond," Orange County Sheriff's Office Sergeant Becky Mardeusz said.
Mardeusz and Orange County Sheriff Mark Amos said the drills took six months to plan. More than 50 students volunteered to participate in the scenarios, playing casualties, hostages, students on lock-down and injured victims. School staff members also participated, enacting the already established school emergency plans.
"Part of the [drills] were scripted [involving] a few of the volunteers," Mardeusz said. "The rest [were instructed to] react how they would normally."
In fact, during the hostage negotiation drill when the acting gunman took several hostages into the cafeteria’s kitchen, dozens of students took the opportunity to escape through nearby doors.
The men portraying gunmen in Friday's scenario, John Robert Clemente and Rick Putman,are graduates of the Orange County Citizen's Police Academy.
According to Amos, the drills were based on situations that could happen any time someone brings a gun in anywhere, not just in a school. He said two years ago, a real-life situation happened at a county middle school when a child was believed to have been the victim of an attempted abduction. He said officers responded appropriately during that occurrence and things went smoothly. It later turned out the story had been a hoax.
The Orange County Sheriff's Office, the Town of Orange Police Department, the Gordonsville Police Department, the Virginia State Police and the Blue Ridge Task Force all participated in Friday's exercise. Rescue squads from Lake of the Woods and Orange County also responded, carrying out victims on stretchers. A school bus was sent to pick up evacuees during the active shooter drill.
Amos called the exercise a success.
"I feel the exercise went extremely well, we were able to identify our strong points and identify some weak points, both with our office and the school system," he said. "A debriefing was conducted after the exercises and several points were addressed. This was the first time that this type of drill has been conducted and I was extremely proud of the way all organizations came together as one. I feel, overall, Orange County is prepared for such an event."
Orange County Public Schools Director of Facilities Ann Bledsoe told school board members Monday night of the successful drill reporting all agencies appear well prepared for emergency situations. She said it was a truly collective effort of all agencies and even though it was just a drill, there was an eerie feeling being in the building hearing shots.
Mardeusz said she hoped the drill would be something that could be repeated periodically. She said the drill allowed everyone to get trained at the same time.
"The purpose was to see how all of the agencies' response plans worked together," she said. "I believe the drill was a success and hope to have more in the future."