Lockdown drill moves ahead in talks with local law enforcement

With a look ahead to next school year, MHCC Risk Management officials are in talks with the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Department to provide training for an active shooter/lockdown drill.

To counteract such incidents as the Sandy Hook and Columbine mass shootings, many schools and colleges are putting specially designed shooter drills into effect.

Mt. Hood has been in conversation with the sheriffs department to provide an active shooter response, and also hopes for a partnership with the Gresham police and City of Gresham Emergency Management.

A scheduling process, which includes training and partnerships with internal and external response teams, has reached its second year. Training for staff and students must occur before the drill can take place.

Mt. Hood takes part in many drills that prepare students and staff for various disasters.

“What drills or exercises do, in general, (is improving) critical thinking skill-sets— they help prepare you to know how to respond to any hazard,” said Risk Management Manager Staci Huffaker.

In early May, OregonLive.com reported on an active-shooter drill that took place in Halfway, a small eastern Oregon town. The school created a scenario where two of the campus staff, dressed as intruders, open fired on a staff meeting. In truth, the two “gunmen” were firing blanks, but if the simulation had been real, only two of the fifteen teachers would have gotten away unscathed, officials said.

Mt. Hood recently took part in a multi-agency, Portland metro area biohazard terrorism response drill. It also ran its regular earthquake and fire drills, each deemed a success this school year.

Training for a mass shooting threat will begin during summer and continue again in the fall. How well the training progresses will determine if a drill can be planned.

“To me, the most important part is building the partnerships,” Huffaker said.

She noted the drill is part of larger approach to campus security. “We really believe it just isn’t about an active shooter drill, it’s much more than that. It’s an all-hazards approach and knowing how to respond to any type of emergency,” she said.

She expects a drill will run sometime during the 2013-2014 academic year.