Current and former school resource officers weigh reinforced doors, emergency training and preparedness measures following the tragedy at Silver Rail Elementary.
PORTLAND, Ore. — After a tragedy like the Silver Rail Elementary School shooting in Bend, there are always questions on how it might have been prevented — and what measures can be taken to prevent the next one.
“We don’t like to see this anywhere, but when it’s this close to home, it’s just very tragic and it’s very heartbreaking. It just has a whole different feel,” said Rick Puente, president of the Oregon School Resource Officers Association.
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Puente has worked in school safety for more than two decades. As a school resource officer himself, he provided his analysis on Thursday’s response when a 16-year-old gunman came to the campus of Silver Rail Elementary.
“I think the response was fast, quick, and thankfully for this citizen who intervened promptly alleviated I think further loss of life,” Puente said.
Police were at the school in less than five minutes after the first call to 911. A parent who happened to be driving by when the shooting started managed to halt the shooter even faster.
Puente explained that locked doors and security systems have hardened schools in recent decades, but sometimes that’s not enough.
“Those are measures in place to deter, to hopefully prevent, but they are not always 100% foolproof,” Puente said.
In this case, police say the shooter breached the school by firing on the glass in the door using his pump-action shotgun.
Rob Chadwick led FBI training on school shooting response after Sandy Hook, and said that school doors need to be better reinforced.
“We have learned this lesson, unfortunately, the hard way several times,” Chadwick said. “We learned it at Newtown. We learned it at the shooting in Tennessee a couple of years ago, where you had an exterior locked tempered glass door, but there was no security laminate, and the big difference there is that a glass door will shatter and fall without a proper security laminate.”
With the laminate, it makes it harder to enter.
“The critical piece there is it buys the people inside the school time to react, time to lock down, time to put barricades between them and this would-be shooter,” Chadwick said.
Chadwick added that everyone willing and able to help should be up on training, and that doesn’t necessarily mean with a weapon.
“Sometimes it’s a ‘Stop the Bleed’ course. Say something if you suspect there might be a developing shooter; that has really paid dividends,” Chadwick said.
In Silver Rail’s case, bystanders calling 911, a valiant teacher fighting the shooter, and the heroic father who followed the shooter inside were all examples of preparedness. Though the school lost four lives, the quick thinking of those people likely saved more.
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