Local law enforcement discuss active shooter plan, safety in Valley schools

Last week, children across the Mat-Su Borough headed back to school. For most kids, it was getting used to waking up early again, groaning about homework and teachers, and finding out which classes they had with their friends.

Behind the scenes, parents and teachers worried about student behavior and school safety. While student and staff safety have always been among the top concerns, it really became a concern after the Uvalde, Texas, tragedy in May, in which 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary School were killed in a school shooting that has many still reeling. The tragedy was made worse by the release of video from inside the school which showed a lack of action by responding police officers for 77 minutes.

In response to the Uvalde shooting, Captain Anthony April, Commander of the local Alaska State Troopers, summed it up.

“With the recent shooting in Texas, I think we all agree from our perspective as a law enforcement agency, by God, that was a failure,” he said.

He went on to say that it’s not about throwing stones, it was about not meeting the objective.

This latest shooting and response have given many pause, with some asking, “could that happen here?” It is disturbing to think that in an emergency, specifically any emergency involving children, that there would even be a question about how the law enforcement would react, but as school shootings have become a sad reality, schools and law enforcement have had to develop response plans, specific safety measures are part of the school budgets, and active shooter drills are done with the same measure of routine as fire drills.

“The common theme is ‘We’re all going’,” said April. “It doesn’t matter what is happening AST, AWT (Alaska Wildlife Troopers), APD, Fish & Wildlife, WPD, PPD, you name it, we’re all going.”

April said that the days of waiting for back-up are gone. Response and training have evolved and changed from the 1999 Columbine school shooting all the way up to the present day as information and feedback from other events has helped shaped guidelines for response.

“Without a doubt, response has changed. We are constantly learning.”

“We look at every incident across the nation, and even outside the country and see what we can learn from that situation, what were some of the pitfalls that we want to try and avoid, and how can we step up our training and be better prepared,” added Palmer Police Chief Dwayne Shelton.

One of the flaws seen in the Uvalde response was a lack of leadership, specifically who was the Incident Commander? In the weeks and months following the Robb Elementary shooting, there had been questions of who was supposed to take charge of the scene, ensuring that all law enforcement agencies were acting together and as one to the event.

When asked that question, Captain April said that if an event happens within an AST area, that typically it would be an AST commander would take charge of the scene, and likewise if an event were to occur within the city limits, the chiefs of those areas would take charge of the scene.

“From the incident side of things, the incident command is the first person on scene. We need to take care of the dynamic situation first, then from there set up command,” informed Wasilla Chief Bill Rapson.

Of course, the first on scene for most school safety incidents is the School Resource Officer (SRO). SROs are sworn law enforcement officers responsible for safety and crime prevention in schools. A local police department, sheriff’s agency, or school system typically employs SROs who work closely with school administrators in an effort to create a safer environment.

The SROs are trained as well and, in most instances, would be the first on-scene, but not every school has an SRO yet. Currently, all four major high schools in the Mat-Su Valley have an active-duty police officer on site. Palmer High School has an SRO. Wasilla has had a dedicated safety resource officer for over a decade.

Wasilla PD has three SROs right now. One is with Wasilla High School and Wasilla Middle School, as well as Iditarod Elementary and Burchell High School. Another SRO is with Houston Junior-Senior High School, and a third is with Colony High School, Colony Middle School, and Valley Pathways.

The SROs undergo many hours of training, including 40 hours of Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training (ALERT) training to become ALERT certified. Officers also go through single-response firearms training and in-house training. Recently, the Wasilla Police Department was authorized to receive tactical medical training.

Training never stops for law enforcement. This past summer, AST had active shooter training in one of the local Mat-Su school areas and WPD, PPD, Fairbanks Police Department, and other additional agencies were involved in the training.

“It’s a continuous process throughout the year,” said Captain April, a sentiment the other police chiefs were quick to agree on.

If a shooting were to take place on school grounds, the SRO is expected to be the immediate responder and in as much, will be a solo response until support arrives from police departments and Troopers.

“All of our officers are trained individually to respond. It is expected that we are trained, ready to go, and we will act as a solo unit,” said Chief Shelton. “If we are fortunate enough to have a second or third person, we’ll go in together, but we’re not waiting for back-up.”

One challenge when developing a response plan for an active shooter in the schools is the sheer size of Alaska, and the Mat-Su Borough School District, which is comparable to the size of West Virginia. That means there are schools outside of city limits, that serve much more rural communities.

For the more rural schools such as Su-Valley and Glacier View, the responsibility of responding first relies on the remote Trooper posts. For example, Glen Allen has a post which may be called upon to respond to Glacier View.

“We also have Village Public Safety Officers (VPSOs), and even though they may not be armed, if there’s an incident in the schools out there, my instruction to them is ‘you’re gonna go. Grab your firearm and go in and try to neutralize the threat,’” said Captain April.

As the video from inside the Robb Elementary School was released and people reacted, one issue that was addressed was the potential for any hesitancy on the part of people to rely on law enforcement, an issue that was quickly shot down.

“Our members of our community are pretty supportive of what we do and are pretty good at calling and knowing we’ll be there,” said Chief Shelton.

“It’s a two-way street. The citizens help foster a relationship with law enforcement, and law enforcement tries to help bridge that gap with the community so that we have a good relationship. And our SRO program is great at fostering that relationship,” he added.

While a primary part of the SRO’s duties is to respond to an active shooter, another key element of the SRO program is building trust and being transparent with the school staff on what the response is going to be so in the highly unlikely instance of a shooting, everyone will know what is going to happen, leaving no doubt that every measure will be taken to ensure the safety of students, staff, and the community.

“It’s been a positive thing in the community and the benefits outweigh the negativity,” said Rapson.

He went on to acknowledge that not everyone will agree to the presence of an SRO and hopes that the positive influence he has observed in the SRO program will ease fears as the program continues to expand outside of their working area.

“Part of that relationship-building with the SRO is we go to community meetings and council meetings so as we build the relationship with the schools, we’re also building it with the community,” added Captain April.

Another piece of the safety plan is working with the school district.

“Part of what we look at is bringing in law enforcement, the DA’s office, Department of Corrections, and also the school district to figure out what’s working and what’s not,” said Captain April.

As Commander, he said the AST is constantly meeting with the school district to ensure that everyone at the schools is safe.

“In short, our relationship with the Mat-Su Borough School District is a really good relationship. We try to come up with new ideas, be visible with the kids so they’re used to seeing us,” said Chief Shelton.

It is part of the high visibility and relationship-building that Chief Shelton hopes will lead to kids will develop enough trust in law enforcement and SROs to feel comfortable approaching an SRO when they notice something is off, or if the struggle is closer to home.

“Maybe if they are having internal thoughts, feelings, that they have somebody they can approach, talk to someone about those thoughts and feelings.”

As the school year gets underway, the AST, PPD, and WPD want parents and students to know that if they have suspicions to communicate potential threats to law enforcement.

“Obviously, if we can prevent something before it happens, that’s ideal. To that end, we encourage parents to talk with their students, and students, when they talk with their friends, if they notice something is off, to feel comfortable enough and brave enough to come forward,” said Chief Shelton.

The hope is to get information to help create an intervention before a tragedy were to occur.

“When we hear about these shootings around the country, we have a lot of people afterwards that say they noticed something about that person but didn’t say anything because they were worried about being a snitch or a rat,” said Captain April, who has been working hard to encourage people to do the right thing if something feels just not right. “If you see something, say something, no matter how minute it may be major for us.”