SC has one of the world's best active shooter programs. Schools use it now more than ever. (2024)

It has been 95 days — mostly spanning a long summer break —since the last shooting at a South Carolina school.

John B. Staley III, a Berkeley County detention officer, was shot and killed in the parking lot of the Mevers School of Excellencein Goose Creek around midnight May 26.

Some 56 days earlier, on March 31, a 12-year-old boy shot and killed Jamari Cortez Bonaparte Jackson, also 12, at Tanglewood Middle Schoolin Greenville.

Last year, South Carolina had nine school shootings, the highest number in almost half a century. The number of weapons found at schools across the state has doubledsince 2018, according to an earlier Post and Courier analysis.

With the number of school shootings increasing over the last decade, school resource officers, police, firefighters and emergency medical services are working together throughout the state to train and be well-rehearsed in what to do in the event of an active shooter.

About a decade ago, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division developed a program specifically to address active shooters, said Capt. Wayne Freeman, SLED's training lead for the statewide active shooter and complex coordinated terrorist attack program. This was after agency officials sawthe results from a state preparedness report in 2011 and 2012, a report in which officials in all 46 counties are interviewed to see how prepared they are for emergencies.

Every single county said they were not at all prepared for armed assault.

Since then, SLED's active shooter program has expanded to include sheriffs, chiefs of emergency responders and even coroners, Freeman said.

“We’ve been in every county in the state and every school district in the state, and we expand our partnerships daily,” Freeman said.

The program has quickly grown to become one of the best in the world. Freeman said SLED has developed so much over the years that people from around the country, even the world, reach out to them about training at various conferences they go to.

“We've trained personnel from England, Scotland, Ireland, South Korea, Iceland, Germany, Australia and New Zealand,” Freeman said. “There's no telling who you'll run into, because everyone is interested in active shooter training.”

Before SLED had an active shooter program, South Carolina had 24 school shootings. Since then, there have been 20.

Funding for its active shooter training has come from from the federal Department of Homeland Security, as well as state funding and grants, said SLEDChief Mark Keel.

Over the past 10 years, SLED has been awarded more than $3.1 million in federal grants for emergency active shooter and other threat training.

In 2017, SLED applied for the Complex Coordinated Terrorist Attacks Grant to help combat active shootings and received over $1.5 million. Keel said the funds go to active shooter training in several locations, such as schools, places of worship and businesses.

Freeman said the training program SLED teaches changes constantly.

“We literally look at it on a daily basis. This is all (my program does) for the state of South Carolina. We have no other job responsibilities outside of staying abreast of current trends,” Freeman said.

How school districts prepare

Sirens from “The Purge” and recorded screams ring through the halls. Smoke billows around the doors. Bullet casings litter the floor. People lie on the ground, clutching injured arms or legs. Others lean against classroom doors decorated with bright welcome signs and superhero comics, screaming for help.

What could have seemed like the setting of a horror movie was Dunston Elementary School in North Charleston. On Aug. 4, the Rescue Task Force — comprising police officers, firefighters and emergency medical technicians — took part in active shooter drills.

No students or teachers were in the building.

Deputy Chief Ken Hagge said the addition of sirens, screams, smoke and “victims” were intended to put trainees in a high-stress environment.

“We try to get their blood pressure up. Our training is similar to a baseball coach. If you’re breaking down a baseball swing, you break it down each time, and then you put it into use,” Hagge said. “That’s basically what we do here. Our training unit has them working on all of these different situations.”

Kyle Jamison, a sergeant with the North Charleston Police Department, reminded members of the task force to be sure to communicate during the drills — something that would becritically important in a real active shooter situation.

“We know historically no matter what — whether it's radio communication, or just verbal in high stress environments — the ability to communicate clearly tends to drop,” Jamison said.

Michael Reidenbach was a police officer and a school resource officer before becoming executive director of security and emergency management for the Charleston County School District. He said his prior experience has helped him gain better perspective into active shooter training.

Orientation fornew hires — which is “a fairly regular occurrence, typically once a week,” he said — includes a briefing on the district's emergency response plan, which includes armed intruder response. He also said school staff has more in-depth training once a semester.

The district will have at least two active shooter drills during the school year,Reidenbach said.

“Those drills are never meant to scare, but they’re meant to prepare,” Reidenbach said.

Berkeley County schools in early August hosted a school resource officer summer training, said Tim Knight, the district's safety and security officer. The program, now in its ninth year, includes a day dedicated to active shooter training.

Knight said there will be at least one “full-scale active shooter drill” during the school year, which will be designed more for the school faculty and staff than law enforcement.

“Those drills... they’re to test our policies, our security protocols,” Knight said. “We’re testing our administrators and our teachers.”

Active shooter drills during the school year when students are present can be beneficial and can be done without scaring students and teachers, said Freeman, of SLED.

“There's usually almost no need to involve the kids in drills and exercises. When you do, it can be in a very planned...almost banal environment, just like how you treat fire drills,” Freeman said. “The psychological research done on it shows the more you practice in a non-fear-based training methodology, the better your performances.”

Lessons from Uvalde

After 19 students and two teachers were killed May 24 in a shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, law enforcement in South Carolina took note of what went wrong and what they could learn from it.

During the training in North Charleston, Sgt. Renate Dalton asked who among the crowd of police officers, firefighters and EMTs had watched video footage of the law enforcement response in Uvalde.

“What were those officers doing? Standing around, playing on their cellphone, getting some hand sanitizer, not going to direct the threat,” Dalton said. “It is our job to go direct the threat and save these people. That's our job. That's what we signed up for.”

According to aninterim reportfrom a Texas House investigative committee, school officials and law enforcement shared the blame for not being prepared and for being slow to respond to the shooter. The school failed to make sure doors were locked, even knowing some were faulty. Law enforcement failed to establish an incident commander and reliable communication.

“At Robb Elementary, law enforcement responders failed to adhere to their active shooter training, and they failed to prioritize saving the lives of innocent victims over their own safety,” the report reads.

The school board in Uvalde on Wednesday fired its schools police chiefover the shooting response. Officials have reported that nearly 75 minutes passed between the time police entered the building and when the shooter was killed.

Before the active shooter training inBerkeley County,Knight saidhe met with every principal in the district to discuss what happened at Uvalde and what they can do to be better prepared.

“Our focus this year is to just get back to the basics of making sure the gates are locked, making sure exterior doors are locked, making sure the classroom doors are locked, making sure our teachers know our emergency protocols,” Knight said. “If a couple of things were different with that situation in Uvalde, there’s a good chance (the shooter) would have never been able to get inside that school.”

Knight said the district's active shooter training was adjusted to include at least one scenario that would be similar to what happened in Uvalde.

SLED didn’t necessarily learn anything positive after what happened in the deadly Texas school shooting, Keel said.

“The thing that we learned is what we already knew: You don't wait. When you have children in a classroom, you respond immediately, it doesn't matter if it's one officer or 10,” Keel said.

Freeman agreed, adding that what happened in Uvalde reinforced that law enforcement officers in South Carolina need foundational training. He said SLED integrated it into every program they had available: The priority is to go immediately to the shooter, even though officers might encounter injured children and staff.

“... Because if we don't take them out, then guess what? More people could possibly die,” Dalton said.

Jamison told a story about what some responding officers were afraid of when they responded to the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, where 20 first graders and six school employees were killed in whatis considered one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history.

“The kids in those classrooms, all they had were books and pencils. Officers were afraid that the shooter was armed with a rifle, and they weren’t armed with a rifle,” Jamison said. “Well, you’re armed with a vest and a pistol, so you still are better equipped than a fifth grader with a book and a pencil.

"If you’re afraid to respond to something like this... it’s time to get out.”

Much like students listening to a teacher give instructions, the police officers, firefighters and medics sat in small seats inside the North Charleston school library, nodding intently as they looked up at Dalton and Jamison. In those moments, it wasn’t just the Rescue Task Force huddled in the room. It was a group of people who understood that, at some point, they may have to put their lives on the line to save those of students.