No Easy Answers For Burlington Police In School Shooting Scenario

BURLINGTON, MA -- Burlington High School students spend 88% of the school day in classrooms, so Burlington Police have developed a clear-cut strategy for locking down schools in active shooter situations. As Burlington Police Detective Sergeant Tim McDonough told the Burlington School Committee Tuesday night, "once somebody is behind a locked classroom door, their chances are very good."

But there are two common scenarios in school shootings that Burlington Police and police departments around the country struggle with: when students are in the cafeteria or, as happened earlier this month, the shooter pulls a fire alarm to lure students and school staff out of classrooms and into the open.

Seventeen people were shot to death and numerous others injured February 14 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL after Nikolas Jacob Cruz, a former student who was expelled last year, allegedly opened fire. Cruz has confessed to police that he entered the school armed with an AR-15 after pulling a fire alarm to create a distraction and began shooting students.

"It's sad that we have to have these meetings and that we have to practice for active shooter situations in high schools across the country," school committee member Steve Nelson said.

Fornier, who is assigned to the high school during school hours, said that the police department has reached out to the fire department in hopes of finding a solution. They have looked at allowing school staff or Fornier to disabling or lowering the volume of the fire alarms during a shooting. But in both cases, the action would presumably happen after the shooting had started.

"We've been looking at it but, obviously, we have fire codes to consider," he said.

Fornier said that shootings in cafeterias and other large spaces where lots of students are gathered present "the toughest situation" for police to deal with. Fornier said in such a situation, the best hope for minimizing casualties would be for him or another police officer to "hopefully" get there in time or for unarmed students and teachers to confront and disarm the shooter.

"I don't know anyone who has come up with answers for that situation," said Fornier, who has extensive training in developing police department responses to emergency situations."There's no easy answer, other than somebody confronting an armed person."

Since the Florida shooting earlier this month, Burlington Police have been conducting outreach to reassure parents about the efforts that have gone into developing emergency responses to a wide range of scenarios. The department conducted a meeting giving an overview of their efforts last week that was attended by 21 parents. The department also compiled an extensive memo on policies and procedures that was posted Wednesday morning on Superintendent Eric Conti's blog.

"There may be some police departments that have put as much thought into school safety as Burlington, but none have put more thought and effort into it than our department...we don't just take a cookie-cutter approach," Burlington Police Chief Michael Kent said. "We don't have all the answers but we've put a lot of thought into it."

Police are quick to stress that the likelihood of a school shooting is incredibly rare, with the odds of a child being killed or injured in any type of school shooting less than one in a million. Much of the department's efforts focus on prevention and deterrence. Patrol officers, for example, are told to stop at schools in their district on each shift.

The reason, McDonough said, is threefold. It shows a police presence at schools, it gives police contact with staff, teachers and students and a chance to hear about problems, and it gives police familiarity with the school buildings they would have to respond to in an emergency.

"I want the officers out there to know the layout of those buildings," McDonough said.

Conti has advocated for having more police programs in schools and working with the department to identify and assist at-risk students. The Park & Walk program McDonough outlined is part of those efforts to give students more contact with police.

"People are understandably scared. It's a very scary time right now. I feel good that you've thought a lot about it," school committee member Martha Simon said. "What we need to work on is helping kids that are struggling."

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People dressed in white costumes as angels stand by a makeshift memorial outside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida on Sunday. Photo by David Santiago/Miami Herald via AP.

Dave Copeland can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).