MANATEE COUNTY, Fla. -- It’s 8 in the morning and school's in when suddenly the fire alarm goes off. Then the unthinkable. Four shots ring out from inside the school at Bayshore High School.
“We’ve got an active shooter intruder on campus in a lockdown, this is not a drill.” It’s the message heard over the loudspeaker school-wide.
“It became real the burden became extremely heavy,” said Wendell Butler, principal of Bayshore High School.
Butler felt the burden of protecting more than 1,500 students and staff.
Another announcement comes over the loudspeaker, ‘Now wearing green shirt, entering doors, heading west’ is followed by another gunshot.
The announcer, one of the school resource officers, tells everyone the intruder has a rifle.
Fortunately, Wednesday was just a drill an active shooter training drill for 200 principals, assistant principals and school board staff in Manatee County.
School districts are finalizing plans this summer for added school security. But in Manatee County, keeping kids safe starts with keeping staff trained on what to do in an active shooter situation.
“It was as real as it could possibly get without being real,” said Charlie Kennedy, school board member.
The media wasn’t allowed inside. The school district provided photos.
Kennedy said, “Even though you know it’s a drill, the adrenalin is going. It's not something I ever want students to go through.”
SROs responded to the mock drill too.
“They did so good I had to tell them to stop doing so good to let the scenarios run longer,” said Andy Ramdath with the Manatee Sheriff’s Office SWAT team.
The SROs performance made a couple of school board members think twice about putting guardians in elementary schools over School Resource Officers.
“That’s the conversation Sheriff Wells and I will have this Friday,” said Scott Hopes, school board chairman.
Kennedy added, “I think that’s a debate I want to revisit.”
For now, the drill gave staff the practice they needed just in case the next time ---it’s real.
Butler said, “We want to make that response time is as minimal as possible so we can save as many lives on campus.”
By law schools will have to do active shooter training every nine weeks, but it won't be as extensive as Wednesday's drill.
The Manatee school district chose guardians over SROs for elementary schools because of the cost. The state did not fully fund the school security program, leaving it up to school districts to pay for it.
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