Apr 22, 2008 4:27 pm US/Eastern
Stoughton H.S. Prepares For School Shooting
STOUGHTON, Mass. (WBZ) ―
The quiet calm of the school day at Stoughton High erupted into gunfire during a practice school shooting Tuesday.
The goal of the exercise is to train and prepare police, students and staff for the worst case scenario should a school shooting actually occur.
Police rushed inside the building in search of a fake shooter in a classroom up on the third floor.
"Officers have to get there as fast as they can to stop that threat," said Exec. Officer Tom Murphy with the Stoughton Police Department.
Shots were fired and returned as police tried to stop the threat as part of an active training exercise with Stoughton police.
"This takes precedent over any book," said Murphy. "They're running through the hallways, adrenaline is flowing. There's an active shooter."
It's a situation no school or community ever wants to face but it's better to be trained and prepared just in case.
"Their reason for this is to prepare for an emergency," said school principal Brett Dickens. "Unfortunately these days my job is not just education. It's about keeping student's safe."
Officers use their own guns that are adapted to shooting non-lethal rounds.
The school's principal became a student during the training and was caught in the crossfire.
"It was very intense. I'm glad I had the opportunity to do it," Dickens said.
"It's as real as you can get," Murphy said.
It's as real as it gets without ever having this type of threat and everyone at the school hopes that threat never walks through the door.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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