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Thursday’s “Thurston County Safety Summit,” held at the North Thurston Public Schools district office on College Street in Lacey, was convened by Thurston County Sheriff John Snaza and North Thurston Schools Superintendent Raj Manhas. Local police from Olympia, Lacey and the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office were in attendance, along with officials from the Olympia, North Thurston, Tumwater, Rainier and Yelm school districts.
Thurston County Sheriff’s Lt. John Price, Commander of the Thurston County SWAT team, gave a presentation about how law enforcement’s response to school shootings has changed over the past 15 years, a span during which school and other mass shootings have become all-too commonplace in the United States.
Law enforcement’s old philosophy in the event of an active shooter on campus was to have the first responding law enforcement officer wait for backup of at least two or three other officers before entering a school to try to engage a suspect, Price said. But statistics show that most active shooters’ goal is to kill as many people as he can as quickly as possible, and the average duration of a school shooting incident is only three to four minutes, Price said.
Therefore, the first responding officer at an active shooter event is now encouraged to go in alone and try to neutralize the threat, Price said.
“The first responder on scene takes action,” Price said. “The solo responder is guaranteed an avalanche of resources coming in and will not be alone for long.”
Snaza pointed out that the philosophy of taking action immediately and not waiting for backup is especially important if there ever was a school shooter in an out-of-the way school, such as Rochester or Rainier, where it would take longer for a mobilized response to arrive.
Price said that the Thurston County SWAT team, comprising officers from law enforcement agencies around the county, train for active shooter events during simulations, including one that took place at The Evergreen State College last summer. During the trainings, SWAT team members practice military-style tactics, relying on “speed, surprise and violence of action,” to “close in aggressively and finish the fight,” he said.
Price also presented sobering statistics gathered from school shootings across the country over the past 15 years. They show that 98 percent of school shooters act alone and 75 percent of them have multiple weapons. They also have a less than 50 percent hit rate on their targets during their assaults.
Price said nearly every law enforcement officer he knows would be willing to take a bullet to save a child.
The most common age range for school shooters is between 13 and 15 years old -- 38 percent of school shooters fall under this age group. About 30 percent of school shooters are between 16 and 18, Price said.
John Bash, Deputy Superintendent of North Thurston Public Schools, reminded attendees that under state law, all schools must have a “comprehensive school safety plan” that takes into account what to do in the event of an active school shooter. Schools must also have a school mapping system made available to first responders in their area so the responders will know their way in, out, and around a school.
Price said it is not enough to merely have a school safety plan. He also emphasized the importance for schools to hold evacuation drills and have contingency plans in place, if, for example, a school’s intercom breaks and a teacher in an isolated classroom is unable to communicate a threat to others. Price suggested walkie-talkies in classrooms as one example of such a contingency plan.
Olympia Schools Superintendent Dick Cvitanich shared information about a working group consisting of his schools’ principals, administrators, the Olympia Police Department and others, who have been reevaluating their schools’ emergency plans. He added that all Olympia schools have completed a lockdown drill. Cvitanich also has asked all of the schools’ principals to do a personal assessment of their buildings, setting up walk throughs with police, and looking at check-in procedures. He said the Olympia schools will be looking to control the things they can to enhance safety.
Bash also raised the issue of preventing school shootings before they happen. He said that under state law, schools must have policies addressing harassment, intimidation and bullying by students. Lacey Police Chief Dusty Pierpoint said that intervention with students who most pose a threat to school safety is something that’s already going on, due to the open lines of communication that exist between the police department, their school resource officers, and school administrators.
Others in attendance raised the issue of making mental health treatment and counseling available to troubled students, but that would cost more money, something that is in short supply for most school districts.
Parents also have a role in helping prevent school shootings, Olympia Police Cmdr. Steve Nelson said. Nelson explained that parents have a responsibility to keep guns out of the hands of their children, and to monitor their children’s social media presence for unusual or threatening activity.
Also on the issue of prevention, Evergreen Police Services Chief Ed Sorger said that Thurston County Crimestoppers has started a new “Text-A-Tip” program that will be publicized in the North Thurston Public Schools, encouraging students to text tips to police about suspicious activity on campus.
Several in attendance during Thursday’s meeting made the sobering observation that if a student has access to guns and is determined to shoot others on campus, there no failsafe method to prevent that from happening. At the same time, educators pointed out that it is next to impossible, and not ideal to turn public schools into “armed camps.”
Jeremy Pawloski: 360-754-5445 jpawloski@theolympian.com
