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A high school in the far northwest suburbs of Chicago was locked down for about 20 minutes on Wednesday afternoon after the sound of two gunshots rang through the halls.
But the shooting -- done with blanks -- was all part of a drill to educate students and staffers at Cary-Grove High School in Cary, Ill., on what to do in the event of a real emergency. Cary is located about 45 miles northwest from downtown Chicago.
"For fires through fire drills, we prepare them for tornadoes through tornado drills and unfortunately a reality of today is that we also need to prepare them for other safety concerns that are more immediate," said district 155 spokesman Jeff Puma.
Police and administrators did a complete sweep of the building after two shots were fired at opposite ends of the school. Students were ushered to the corners of their classrooms as if a gunman were roaming school grounds.
Reaction from students was mixed.
"We learned, like, where to go and stuff, so that was helpful," said one student.
"I feel like they could have done it better. Honestly, more blanks around the school because for the most part you really couldn't hear it," said another.
Also on NBCChicago.com: Teen girl among 3 dead, 8 wounded in Tuesday shootings
Despite the difference of opinions, administrators and police said the information learned could be life-saving.
"The idea was to allow our students to have something in their head of what it might sound like in order to react more quickly," said Puma.
Many parents notified of the "code red simulation" earlier this week said the simulated gunfire was too strong a tactic.
"It's sad, but the reality is these things happen," said Cary police Chief Steven Casstevens.
A district official said Wednesday's drill wasn't the first conducted in the wake of the Sandy Hook school shooting. The first was done just four days after the Newtown, Conn., tragedy.
Previous story from NBCChicago.com: Parents uneasy about simulated school shooting
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I've heard gun fire twice in my life (I was past the age of 35) and I have to say, it sounded NOTHING like I thought it would. It actually took me a second to realize it was real gunfire.
I expected a roar like in a movie, but it was really more like a sound you'd expect from a toy, a "pop."
This may not be the best way to do it, but I do think it is wise to educate people on the sound of true gunfire. Though I'm sure that there are varying sounds depending upon the gun. If I recall, several of the Newtown survivors mentioned that they heard sounds like gunfire but they weren't sure (though they decided to assume that it was gunfire.)
If you're not familiar with guns, it may not sound the way you expect it to sound. It's far better to know, especially when every second counts...
HMMMM...It's Black history month....just wondering when white history month is?
Keeping guns away from crazy people, would work far better. And there would be no need to traumatize, or at least desensitize, the kids.
All these school shooting have that one similarity. they were carried out by people with well known mental health issues. No one they knew was surprised to find out these shooters were crazy. The only people who dont seem to know, are the authorities and the background check system.
are you kidding me? recordings of gunshots? this is to 'make it more real'? Is there anyone out there who remembers the Cold War as a child? We don't need to teach this-guns are loud, and the sound is unmistakable...
Inner-city kids and grown-ups as well know the sound...doesn't come from law -abiding citizens (not permitted in Chicago or DC, the most risky cities for the 'rest of us'...)
I live in and grew up in the rural west; the 2nd Amendment is respected here, and contrary to urban opinion, we have a much lower ncidence of gun violence here than in urban areas. The reason? Gun ownership by the law-abiding people!!! To repeat what has already been said: it is not about the weapons, people! It is entirely about those people who commit the crimes! Deal with the criminals, and you deal with the issue. Banning me, or any other law-abiding citizen from owning this or that does NOTHING to prevent violent crime...in fact, the reverse is true. I am not dumb, not Southern, and not redneck. I hold advanced degrees, and belong to NO extremist organizations...but the 2nd Amendment still rules...
lol only in jesusland
I have never heard of anyone suing the schools for making us hide under our desks for five minutes in case the then-USSR fired nukes at us from when I was at school.
(How the desks were gonna protect us, I still have no idea...?)
We weren't "desensitized" or "terrorized"
We weren't filled with years of PTSD
We weren't crying or wetting our pants during the drills
Maybe...just maybe...the fact of the matter is that we expect too little of our kids nowadays? We had it harder, tougher and with a heck of a lot less hand-holding. We surrvived and no one complained about it.
It's not about the drill itself that scares the kids...its the firing of the gun during the drill right after getting it put into their little heads about all the children who where shot and killed at other schools......
How many kids are scared of fire drills??? none that I know of.....tornado/hurricane/bad weather drills??? same.....
But they do not have a fire anywhere waiting for the kids to see or to add the effect of part of the building getting ripped off in a scenario version of these drills.
Some brilliant genius thought that using a gun in a school for drill purposes was a great idea.... I don't get it nor do I believe that these kids should be put through it.
I think firing blanks at a drill is idiotic. I worked as a school counselor in a middle school in a rough neighborhood for a decade. We had regular drills. The point is to practice enough that if the real thing happens it feels like a drill and people stay calm. You do not want to make the drill feel like the real thing. Our kids live such incredibly stressful lives, and educators decide to do simulated drills with gun shots. Do you think their attendance rates are going up or down after that? We had a real lock down and after several hours of lock down had to evacuate a class at a time of a total of 1000 students to buses waiting on the safe side of the building with law enforcement standing by for protection. Our kids and staff did awesome, because we had built their confidence that we could keep them safe through our practice drills. If we had made the practice drills traumatic we would have had a bunch of hysterical 11 to 14 year olds to deal with instead of an orderly safe evacuation.
This just shows us how far we have sunk as a society. It shows a glaring failure on every level and this is what we are putting our kids through as a result. Pretty messed up. Gotta love the way we handle things...........and don't.
Great idea! Another American first!
American public schools may produce the greatest number of drop-outs and illiterate graduates, but nobody can prepare students for real life experiences like American public schools.
As America has the highest homicide rate in the world, let's have emergency drills with sounds of real gun fire. Let's spray real bullets over the heads of students as the evacuate the classroom. Nothing like a little bit of realism to acclamate the students. And with so many female teachers having sex with their students, let's have a video teach-in showing examples of teacher inappropriately 'hit' on an attractive student. To provide some realism, let's have a real teacher-student relationship testify as to their love experience. Next, the school administrators should dig out the old "Duck and Cover" video issued by the Pentagon as a teaching tool to students who may one day be confronted by a mass killer armed with heavy machine guns.
Welcome to the contemporary America after 70 years of Big Government socialism.
Hide in the corner in a big group??? Who came up with this crap, it's like they want a high body count if something did happen! Sure it makes it easier for the teacher to keep track of the kids but it also gives the assailant an easy target! Break them up into smaller groups and place them in all the corners of the room or spread them out everywhere. Make sure each kid has something to throw and if an assailant does comes in have everyone throw their book or what ever at the assailant and rush them. If your school doesn't allow the teacher to be armed at least let them have a couple of bats in every class. If you teach the kids to be scared they will be, if you teach them to not be a victim maybe some lives will be saved. Taking the offense at least they aren't lined up for the slaughter and who knows maybe the rush will scare the assailant away, after all these assailants are cowards most of them commit suicide when confronted.
I suppose that the next drill will include paintball guns. Anyone covered in red paint will be suspended from school
do they run up and down the hallways with flame throwers during fire drills?
That is what I was attempting to make a point of in my earlier post. Fire drill never had trash cans ( or other things in a classroom) on fire, why should this be any different? Again, way too far in my opinion. Welcome to the military state of America.