North Carolina District Holds Shooter Drill

  • By Dian Schaffhauser
  • 08/31/10

A mock school shooting recently took place at a middle school in North Carolina near another school that had an actual shooter in 2006. Stanford Middle School in Hillsborough, part of Orange County Schools, was the scene of a Saturday drill that involved participants from the school district, law enforcement, fire, and emergency medical services. The effort, funded by a 2008 grant from the United States Department of Education Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools program has been in the planning for a year. The district has about 7,100 students and 13 schools.

In the drill, a driver in a red pickup truck showed up at the school. He stepped out of the truck, and gunshots sounded. As the simulation unfolded, evaluators documented the events for the post-drill debriefing.

Orange High School, across the street from the middle school and part of the same district, experienced real shootings in 2006, when two students were injured by a former high school student. Alvaro Castillo was found guilty in 2009 of those shootings as well as the killing of his father.

About the Author

Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.

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