'I Don't Want To Die!' LI Mass Casualty, Active Shooter Drill Educates

(This story contains photos and videos that may be disturbing).

NORTH FORK, NY — Covered in blood, the students pleaded for help in the bleachers at Greenport High School Saturday morning. "I don't want to die!" one teen cried in anguish.

"Where is my friend? Where is she?" another girl screamed.

"Wake up! Wake up!" a girl shouted, trying to rouse a boy shot on the field.

"Please, find my mother!" another begged.

The teens were volunteers from local NJROTC and other groups, participating in a chilling and realistic mass casualty incident drill. Covered in theatrical makeup, the teens had "blood" dripping from bullet holes, some feigning fatal injuries on the field.

The drill was grim in its timeliness: Although it had been planned since February, the drill took place just days after 19 children and two adults were killed in the Uvalede, Texas school shooting.

The Greenport Fire Department hosted the multi-agency mass casualty exercise on the grounds of the Greenport High School campus.

Numerous fire and police vehicles were staged both on school grounds and Moores Lane in Greenport, which was closed for the duration of the drill, said Southold Town Police Chief Martin Flatley.

(Video by Lisa Finn / Patch)

Led by Chip Bancroft, owner of Firehouse Training Plus, who conducts training for the Greenport Fire Department, which hosted the event, the MCI drill took place on the football field.

Training was held for the entire 8th Division, with firefighters and ambulance personnel from Jamesport to Orient, and also Westhampton Beach, North Sea, Mastic, and East Moriches participating.

"We wanted to do something to test their incident command ability," he said. The drill included multiple agencies.

Before the drill began, Bancroft addressed the teens — who were readying to play their roles in the simulated shooting — urging them to embrace their parts realistically, screaming and acting as they would if the scenario were real.

"I want to thank you. This doesn't work without you. You guys are our greatest asset," he said. Although Saturday's exercise was just a drill, the goal was to educate not just first responders, police and fire personnel, but also to teach young people the importance of speaking out if they see or hear a threat on social media.

"Don't feel shy or embarrassed," he said. "You are extra important." Especially, he said, with school threats rampant, with two reported in Riverhead this week alone and one in Westhampton Beach.

Bancroft also told the students, especially those who played the roles of teens killed in the "carnage," that they had to be prepared to lie on the field for about an hour, and to be tagged in black, the color meaning that they could not be helped. "There's no way to save you," he said.

Another volunteer "chaplain" gave the students in those roles last rites, speaking in a non-religious way and giving "enduring comfort" speeches to the victims at the end of their lives.. "We don't want anyone to die alone," Bancroft said.

(Video by Lisa Finn / Patch)

Before the event, theatrical blood was poured on the young people from large thermoses.

Students were fully engaged in their roles, taking their responsibilities seriously. One student, 17, from Mattituck High School, who participates in the NJROTC, said while he felt it was sad to have to stage such exercises, preparing was the best way to start to address the issues and hopefully, work toward finding answers. Giving back and public service, he said, was in his family.

(Video by Lisa Finn / Patch)

A Westhampton Beach student who also serves as a junior member of the Westhampton Beach Fire Department, said he was happy to be involved and help.

Support was available for the students, should they feel any trauma or anxiety due to the exercise.

HUGS, Inc. Prevention Educator Jackie Kanarvogel said while it is unfortunate that such trainings need to exist, they are necessary. As the mother of an 18-month-old daughter, Kanarvogel said she understands even more deeply the anguish parents endure, wanting to keep their children safe.

As for the student volunteers, she said, "They are very brave."

HUGS offered a full debriefing after the event.

Father Michael Savo, of Sachem-Holbrook, watched as his son participated. As a paramedic himself, he said he'd be responding should such a tragedy take place in his community.

His son, Chase, 15, attends Sachem East and said he worries a little when hearing about school shootings but felt it was necessary to prepare for the worst.

Members of the community were also present. Alison Shelby of Greenport, whose daughter is grown, said she was still visibly shaken by the events unfolding. "If you don't feel this, you're crazy," she said. "I feel like crying and throwing up at the same time. It's heartbreaking."

School and home are the two places children should feel safe, she said — and yet, the perpetrators school shootings are largely young people, themselves.

Southold Town board members Jill Doherty and Brian Mealy, and Mattituck-Cutchogue Board of Education member George Haase, were also present at the drill.

Doherty said she was an auxiliary member of the Mattituck Fire Department for 25 years and said the exercise was important for first responders, to coordinate with other agencies, for laymen to see the training involved, and for the potential recruitment of other volunteer firefighters.

Mealy said, as a former longtime Mattituck-Cutchogue BOE member, "My heart is the safety of students."

While the drill was "disturbing," he said, it was critical to be prepared, with all agencies participating. "Lack of communication can be deadly," he said.

For years, Mealy said the Mattituck-Cutchogue school district has been preparing for a worst-scenario. Flatley agreed that efforts have been ongoing in all North Fork school districts, with the Rave panic button app used in all districts to alert officials of an active shooter or other emergency.

He and Doherty agreed that there is a need to address mental health issues among young people, as well.

Haase said he was visibly impacted by the drill. "When the kids started screaming, chills went up my spine." But, he said, "Things like this do happen and we have to be prepared. We have to do what we can to keep the children safe."

Kym Laube, executive directors of HUGS, Inc., said she was proud of the young people for stepping up. "The bottom line is, you can be part of the problem, or part of the solution. These kids were part of the solution."

(Video by Lisa Finn / Patch)

Healy also commended Suffolk County Sheriff Errol Toulon for his Sandy Hook Promise, and his commitment to keeping students safe.

The second half of the exercise was spent inside the school, where a chilling active shooter demonstration was given. Police demonstrated emergency casualty care administered by a rescue task force, with the goal as helping as many as possible to survive.

Demonstrations of how police are briefed before entering the school with a shooter inside were also given.

Holding plastic guns, with the students screaming "Help!" in the classrooms, the police officers, walking shoulder to shoulder, engaged in a simulated exercise of "threshold clearing" classrooms.

Entering the classroom was a heart-aching sight as police with guns perused the space and "cleared the room," the weapons a start dichotomy to the brightly colored pencil cases, children's toys, and construction paper art projects.

(Patch video courtesy Jill Doherty)

Describing the planning, Bancroft said the reason the football stands were chosen was because he didn't want to hurt any local businesses that have been hit hard by the pandemic. That's why, for example, no stores or theaters were considered for the drill, Bancroft said.

The event felt terrifyingly real, he said. "It's going be chaos," Bancroft said, before the drill.

With the Texas shooting devastating the nation, the training couldn't be more timely, Bancroft said. "It's copycat time right now," he said. "Look out."

On Wednesday, a 15-year-old student was arrested after he threatened to "shoot up the school" in Riverhead, police said. Also this week, an 18-year-old was charged with making a terroristic threat after making threats against Westbury High School, police said.

Bancroft, former chief of the Westhampton Beach Village Fire Department, said 24 agencies were involved, with local ambulance companies and fire departments converging at the scene and sending crews and equipment; the Suffolk County Police Department sent its "flight for life" aviation unit, he said. Suffolk County's major emergency response vehicle was also be onhand, he said.

A car was ignited and firefighters extinguished the blaze; the exercise also included a "flare", purportedly sent into the woods by the shooter, which the first responders also extinguished.

For years, Bancroft has been a strong proponent of preparedness. A retired Air Force chief and self-professed "military guy" who's also worked as a deputy chief on Plum Island, Bancroft has brought individuals from areas where horrific mass shootings have left communities shattered, including the Columbine shooting and the Coral Springs tragedy in Florida — to learn firsthand from those who have been on the proverbial front lines.

"I'd rather be prepared for the worst," he said.

Communication in the heat of the moment is critical, Bancroft said. On the East End, many departments work independently, he said. "That's not bad, unless something big happens," he said, adding that it's important to learn to work as one unit during a mass shooting. All involvedin the drill had a unified command system, involving fire, police and EMS.

"They have to learn how to talk to each other," he said. "Communication is always key."

Throughout his whole career in handling such events, since 1982, Bancroft said communication has always been an issue. "It's historical," he said.

Bancroft credited President George Bush for instituting the National Incident Management System after 9/11 so that agencies nationwide can communicate in an emergency.

During the worst of times, first responders often have to make rapid-fire, wrenching decisions. "There are some you know you can't save. You save as many as you can. People can be talking to you, and you know they're bleeding out and aren't going to make it. So you walk by and put tags on them."

While it's not easy, Bancroft said it's critical to focus on the task at hand. "It's important to know what you can and can't do," he said.

As for those who think that a mass shooting can't happen on the bucolic East End, Bancroft reminded, "It can happen anywhere at any time."

It's important, too, for young people to be prepared. "Things are changing," he said. "Kids are different nowadays, stressed. They've been in the house for a long time during the pandemic. Who knows when those social skills will come back."

The drill seemed very, very real, with gruesome details, including crushed egg shells mixed with blood to look like brain matter, he said.

For Bancroft, the satisfaction comes from doing his best to prepare communities to face unthinkable situations, such as how to talk to frantic parents who show up at the scene, asking for their children.

"We're doing this to be able to provide better service, to streamline service so that if, God forbid, something happens, we can mitigate it more quickly," he said.