Drama students giggled and visited in the halls of Broomfield High School — then their ears pricked up the sound of muted gunshots coming down the corridor.
The teens scattered and screamed for classmates to run as a police patrol officer — posing as the gunman in Friday’s active shooter drill — charged down the hall firing blank rounds and trying to force his way into classrooms.
Beneath the sound of gunfire and police radio traffic of officers running the drill, a disembodied voice on the school sound system repeatedly announced a “security alert” or “we are in a lockdown situation.”
The exercise, which ran through two active-shooter scenarios, a reunification drill, and words from a mother of a Sandy Hook Elementary student, was orchestrated by the Broomfield Police Department and Boulder Valley School District.
Police Commander Eric Fredrick gave a safety briefing in the school’s auditorium before the four-hour training. He demonstrated the sound of the gun firing a blank, explained that it would be ejecting shells, and that told teachers to act as they normally would during a school day. He also went over the three steps: run, hide and fight. A person could choose to do one, change tactics to another, and not necessarily do them in that order, he said.
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