Tabletop exercise discusses expectations and responses for when the unthinkable happens

EPHRATA — Emergencies do not respect time or place, and sometimes the unthinkable happens. Ephrata School District officials already have thought about the response if the unthinkable happened at Ephrata High School, but how would they get the information out to parents and district patrons? Getting the word out was the subject of a tabletop exercise with ESD officials, law enforcement and firefighters and the district’s insurance carriers Thursday.

“The reason we have these drills is not that we’re expecting something. We want to plan for the worst,” said Josh Sainsbury, chief deputy of emergency operations for the Grant County Sheriff’s Office. “If you plan for the worst and you’re prepared, it’s much better than something happening and you’re not prepared at all.”

A version of the unthinkable did happen at the Gorge Amphitheater in summer 2023; two people were killed in a random shooting. Kyle Foreman, GCSO public information officer, said the possibility of a shooting at the Gorge was discussed frequently, but even with all the work that had been done some things didn’t work right when getting out the information. 

The tabletop exercise included Ephrata district officials, the Ephrata police and fire departments. They considered how to get information out to parents, district patrons and news media when something happens – or even when something doesn’t happen, but it could have. 

District officials were asked to determine what would happen in the case of a threat at Ephrata Middle School, maybe not a real threat, but a threat nonetheless. The second case was the unthinkable, an active shooter at Ephrata High School.

Previous incidents have been the subject of intense study, Sainsbury said, and from that has come a list of public expectations. People will expect to get timely and accurate information, he said, and will expect the people and organizations responding to hold themselves accountable, among other things. And those expectations start the minute the emergency starts.

That does not, he said, mean all information will be shared. 

“Our agency doesn’t purposely withhold information because we don’t want people to know. There are reasons that stuff is withheld,” Sainsbury said.

The EMS case study started with a threat, unspecified, posted overnight on social media. Dave Laird, assistant principal at EHS, played the role of middle school principal, and said he would alert district security and law enforcement, then notify teachers and staff and let them know the situation was under investigation. Sarah Morford, ESD public information officer, said notifying staff, at EMS then district-wide, would be the first step. 

“As soon as that’s done, then we would switch over to the public side of things,” she said. “So we would let families know we’re aware of the situation.” 

The information would go out via the district’s messaging app and its social media, she said. The messaging platform does have a Spanish option.

Sainsbury said it was likely the word would already be out since the message was sent overnight to multiple recipients. Ephrata Police Chief Erik Koch said the investigation probably would have started overnight, and a statement might have to be released overnight. 

In the case study, the student was identified but had not been apprehended. Foreman said law enforcement probably would not release a description of the suspect, due to state laws. The juvenile’s name could not be released, he said. Once the student was apprehended, law enforcement could say a suspect or suspect was in custody, but could not identify them, Koch said.

The second case study involved an active shooter at EHS. With the spread of cell phones, Sainsbury said people would start calling not just 911, but anybody they could. 

“This (would) be elevated chaos, to the highest extent,” he said.

Assistant Superintendent Ken Murray said district officials don’t want to give out incorrect information, especially in the first minutes of an emergency. Michele Wurl, volunteer PIO for GCSO, suggested that people stick with what is known. 

“Your messaging is, ‘There are reports of an active shooter.’ You’re not trying to hide, you’re not trying to downplay it, you’re saying what you know,” she said.

Typically information would come from a public information officer, either from the school district, the EPD or GCSO, but in the case study the lead PIO was unable to reach the scene quickly. Based on other incidents, roads around EHS would quickly become blocked with first law enforcement, then friends and family, converging on the scene.

Sainsbury said that was one of the issues with the response at the Gorge Amphitheater.

“We didn’t get that message out. And then when it went out, it said (the shooting) was at the Gorge,” he said. 

That left the impression the shooting occurred at the concert venue, he said, when in reality it was in a campground some distance away. The breakdown was in the information given to the PIO, he said.

Foreman said GCSO is working to provide guidance to people where they might look for information in the case of an emergency. When that official information is delayed — and even when it’s not - rumors will be flying immediately, Sainsbury said.

In the case study, the shooter was killed by law enforcement. Foreman said clarity of communication with parents and the public is critical.

“The terminology has to be, ‘The shooter is dead,’ or the shooter is injured, or, ‘The shooter is in custody.’ It can’t be, ‘The shooter was neutralized,’ that’s a cop word. Give us a word the public understands," he said.

Morford said that in a fast-moving situation, accurate information should be passed on as soon as possible, even if it’s incomplete.

“We’re not going to get the whole story before we report it,” she said. “We’re hitting those critical points,” she said.

Murray said district officials should think about the information they plan to release to parents whose children are at other schools, giving them the status of those schools.

Foreman said whoever is releasing information must ensure it’s accurate, and that for him, he won’t release information until it has come from the person in charge of the scene or two reliable sources.

Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at cschweizer@columbiabasinherald.com.

    Ephrata Fire Chief Jeremy Burns, right, makes a point during a discussion on communication and emergency response while Grant County Sheriff’s Corporal Jason McDonald and Ephrata Police Chief Erik Koch listen.