WA legislature examines active shooter drills

EDITOR'S NOTE: Some readers may find the content of this story upsetting due to our region's history with school shootings. While we have done our best to address the issue with care, readers sensitive to such content may not wish to read further.

OLYMPIA - Washington schools will soon have to follow new guidelines when practicing active shooter drills under legislation signed by Gov. Inslee last week.

House Bill 1941 intends to address rising mental health concerns around the state; legislators in support of the bill claim active shooter drills cause unnecessary trauma and are not preventative in a shooting.

In a Senate floor debate earlier this month, Sen. Judy Warnick, R-Moses Lake, opposed HB 1941. She witnessed the 1996 Frontier Middle School shooting across the street from her office in Moses Lake.

“I had parents in my building, whose children were in that school,” Warnick said. “I watched children run all different directions because there was an active shooter.”

She said active shooter drills prepare students for these scenarios, even if they never happen, like fire drills. In the event of a shooting, panic is inevitable, she said, but schools can ease this by preparing students through appropriate exercises.

Sen. Kevin Van De Wege, D-Sequim, urged support of HB 1941 during the earlier floor debate. He said the poorly titled bill does not entirely prohibit active shooter drills; it only requires that the drills are trauma-informed and age-appropriate.

The bill’s summary prohibits schools from conducting “lockdown drills that include live simulations of or reenactments of active shooter scenarios that are not trauma-informed and age and developmentally appropriate.”

However, HB 1941 relies on three emergency response drill types, shelter-in-place, lockdown and evacuation. Schools must complete one drill per month, also incorporating earthquake drills and pedestrian evacuation drills for those located in lahar and tsunami hazard zones.

According to the bill, schools are encouraged to work with local emergency agencies to perform a tabletop exercise, a functional exercise, and two full-scale exercises every four years. Rural school administrators should assess potential threats and hazards due to their location.

Moses Lake is considering an active shooter drill in the next year but would require student consent, said Kevin Fuhr, Moses Lake Police Chief and Moses Lake School District Board President. Having participated in several pieces of the training in the past, he understands its impact on children.

“[Active shooter drills] are as real life as you can get in a training scenario,” Fuhr said. “Kids have come out emotional because it was so real life to them.”

Law enforcement could hold an active shooter training alone, analyzing the school layout, practice clearing classrooms and other responses, Fuhr said. Students do not need to be present, nor do staff.

Fuhr said that while he sees the drills as beneficial, Moses Lake will likely only host one every few years. Active Shooter drills are labor-intensive on both sides, especially in school situations.

Last week, MLPD responded to a report of a student with a firearm and a list of possible victims at Chief Moses Middle School. Fuhr said the school’s staff, students and responding officers acted exactly as they should in these incidents.

Officers removed a student from class within minutes of a peer reporting the student to security for possessing a firearm.

“This incident was a prime example of how it’s supposed to work with as quick as we got the information,” he said.