By Ric Routledge, Muncie Star Press (Indiana)
MUNCIE, Indiana - Within the past four months, acts of terror in schools have taken place in faraway places such as Beslan, Russia, and as close to home as Valparaiso, Ind.
In September, terrorists commandeered a school in Russia and held students, teachers and administrators hostage for three days. When police intervened, the situation erupted: 338 people died and 700 were injured. In Valparaiso on Nov. 24, seven students were slashed by a 15-year-old classmate wielding a 24-inch machete and an 18-inch saw knife.
Some local students don’t give a second thought to the possibility of such incidents happening here. “We always felt safe; we never even talked about it,” said J.W. Rinker, a recent Blackford High School student.
But the Delaware County Sheriff’s Emergency Response Team (ERT) is working with other police departments and school officials to prepare for potential school violence, as well as the full range of other scenarios that emergency response teams face.
After a week of SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics) training with the Delaware County squad, officers have experienced weapons training, tactical training, hostage rescue, barricade situations, executive protection, terrorist techniques, dignitary protection, surveillance, building searches, clearing rooms and a whole lot more.
Recent training scenarios were set up at the abandoned Harrison School, at Ball State University during a Pacers NBA preseason game; at the Delaware County Airport and other area locations.
“Most of the training is conducted out of view of the public’s eye,” Delaware County Sheriff George Sheridan said, “so we don’t make folks feel uncomfortable and don’t have to field a bunch of phone calls. We learned that through the years.”
That, and the squad doesn’t want to publicize its tactics and tools.
“The guy watching TV today may be your adversary tomorrow,” Sheridan said. “There are many examples of bad guys using police tactics they learned through TV.”
About 800 law enforcement officials have been trained by the Delaware County ERT over the 18 years that the SWAT training has been offered. The local SWAT training school is one of only three in the state.
SWAT teams pay $750 for the training, and the money is used for equipment “and to send our officers to training,” Sheridan said.
The school is well thought of by former students.
“They put on a very good school,” said Blackford County Sheriff Deputy Paul Whitesell. Whitesell and the Blackford County team attended the school in 2003. They came back this Oct. 11-15 and played the role of the bad guys for new SWAT students.
“That was a great opportunity for our guys - to do both sides,” he said. “The good guys have rules to follow, but the bad guys don’t. That experience let our guys see the bad side.”
Whitesell said Sheridan and his unit “cram an awful lot into a short time. The day started at 8 a.m. and lasted until 11 p.m. or later. But that’s part of the process - to get you tired physically to see how you perform mentally, how you perform under difficult conditions.”
Emergency response teams have gone from single purpose SWAT units to emergency response units with a broad range of responsibilities.
“If the community realized how active the ERT really is, they might lose some of that hometown comfort because the team responds to so many calls the community never hears about,” said squad member Ken Lopez.
The ERT responds to ordnance disposals 15 to 20 times a year, according to Lopez. “We do more of those now than we ever have. We’re talking about suspicious packages, and specific threats. Bomb scares at schools are handled by patrol officers who call us if they determine a need.”
The team’s scuba divers are called out four or five times a year to retrieve bodies and/or evidence.
The unit also responds to about a dozen classic SWAT calls a year, including standoffs and hostage situations, high-risk warrant services and high-risk drug cases.
“Our duties have evolved into a broader range of police-response activities,” Lopez said.
The squad has yet to respond to an actual school situation in the Muncie area, but its members are determined to be prepared.
Kaylee Taylor, a senior at Jay County High School, said she has confidence that school officials would defuse such a situation before it erupted.
“If there is someone here that is angry enough, (a school shooting) could happen here. It’s a possibility,” Taylor said. “But I believe the administrators, teachers and staff would find out before the shooting started, and would take care of it. I feel quite safe here. I’m not losing sleep over it.”
Delta High School Principal Greg Hinshaw sleeps easier, knowing that the Delaware County SWAT team is prepared for the unlikely.
“It never hurts to be proactive,” he said, “and I think that is what they are trying to do.
“We have very good kids at Delta, but you can’t know every individual, you can’t know everything about what is going on in a student’s life. And you can’t know who is going to move in tomorrow.”