By Alex Sukin ’15, Perspectives Editor
The drill ‘intruder’ dressed in a red sweatshirt and black mask entered the high school around 10:00AM to the surprise of students and faculty.
“I was thinking ‘Oh my gosh, it’s happening, I have to get out of here.’ My heart was racing. I wasn’t thinking about anything except getting outside,” Gusty Pohlman ‘15 recalled.
The entire drill ended in less than five minutes, when the Indian Hill Rangers “apprehended” the faux intruder. The students were called out of the rain—it was pouring during the drill—and from their hiding spots into the auditorium
This was the first in a series of revamped lockdown drills that will increase school safety in an active shooter situation. “Today’s lockdown strategies are simply not effective.” Dr. Macrae informed me as we sat in his office discussing his plans to improve school safety. “We need to change from a lockdown mentality to a proactive and reactive strategy.” That is why Country Day has chosen a more innovative, complex approach to an active shooter situation. This includes the Run, Hide, Fight campaign, which encourages students to make a decision about how they should respond to an active shooter based on the likelihood of their survival from each of the three options. In an April 6 article in The New York Times, the school’s new strategy was affirmed noting that a more reactive approach reflected ten years of research on large-scale shooting incidents.
In order to explain and expand on the campaign, Dr. Macrae brought in self-defense expert and former police officer, Debbie Gardner. “Run, Hide, Fight Right is my motto” Mrs.Gardner expounded. The national Run, Hide, Fight campaign is detailed in the procedures of how to run or hide, but does not explain how to fight an active shooter. “Restricting movements, thinking, and fighting—that’s easy. Teaching ‘control yourself, think on your own, fight right,’ is difficult and requires extraordinary leadership.” And Mrs. Gardner feels that CCDS is up to that challenge. “Dr. Macrae sees the school has the ability to handle these situations. It’s extremely unique. And remarkable.”
Mrs. Gardner noted with amazement that “the minute [the drill] was done, Dr. Macrae herded everyone into the auditorium for student and faculty feedback. Unheard of! Because your opinion matters. Dr. Macrae had the brilliance to have the immediate response of wanting to listen to the students. To him it was a priority to let you speak.” Dr. Macrae, Mrs. Gardner, the ‘intruder’ (who is an IH Ranger), and the IH Police Chief offered their perspectives on the drill, congratulated students and faculty on their fabulous performance, and took questions and comments. “We are not a school where the administration is going to tell the students everything. We sat in that room and found out what we could do to make this better.” Dr. Macrae said. “I thought a really insightful comment was that we should all take that brief moment to analyze what to do, and not just go right to ‘Run.’”
Both Mrs. Gardner and Dr. Macrae found the drill to be a huge success. Dr. Macrae believes it was so successful because it “got everyone talking and thinking about what they would do for different scenarios.” In addition, teachers experimented with things like keeping their classroom doors constantly locked, to see if it would increase the safety of their students. “It brought over 300 people into problem solving over this.” Dr. Macrae explained. For Mrs. Gardner, it was amazing to witness the cohesion of the school in executing such an event. She was thrilled that the community could pull together and “take an ugly subject and wrap it with courage, and love, and natural power.”
“Fear doesn’t work!” Mrs. Gardner exclaimed. “But fear is contagious as courage is contagious. Pick one, because you can’t live with both.” The Country Day community has chosen to live with courage. With the superior efforts of Mrs. Gardner, her husband Mike, Dr. Macrae, and the Indian Hill Rangers, CCDS should be well prepared if such a horrible event were to occur. “We will continue this thread of practicing the drills” Dr. Macrae said. Mrs. Gardner’s hope is that Country Day will take this practice and advice, and be able to apply it to any situation in life. “If we can give you hope rooted in truth for defeating an active shooter, you can apply that to lesser situations. When you teach principles, it applies easily to other places. We taught worst case scenario.”
Sophomore Ben Stegman concurs that the drill was beneficial. “It makes you think constantly. It keeps you mentally prepared. It keeps you ready if it ever were to happen, even though it probably wouldn’t.”
Sources:
Goode, E. (2013, April 2013). In Shift, Police Advise Taking an Active Role to Counter Mass Attacks. Retrieved April 7, 2013, from thenytimes.com: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/07/us/in-a-shift-police-advise-taking-an-active-role-to-counter-mass-attacks.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
