News

Sheriff says lockdown creates model for crisis response

By Bill Moss, Published: October 7, 2015

The woman who carried a gun onto the campus of the Apple Valley Middle School never became a shooter. She never even got into a school building.

But for several hours on a Thursday morning in late September, the Apple Valley and North Henderson High School community was cast into high anxiety. Provoked by social media rumors, parents streamed toward the Fruitland Road campus shared by the two schools.
“The last thing we want is concerned, distraught folks getting into a situation that might be dangerous or volatile, which is really going to hinder our efforts,” Sheriff Charlie McDonald said.
In a somewhat spur-of-the-moment decision, McDonald ordered his command staff to open a crisis center at Ebenezer Baptist Church. The staging area allowed sheriff’s deputies to intercept parents trying to reach the campus.
“Things went out on Facebook,” McDonald said. “I heard that folks had heard that somebody with a gun had gotten inside the school. Fortunately we were able to greet folks as they came in, and the first thing I would ask is, ‘Have you got any information?’ The first thing I was able to say is, No. 1, nobody’s hurt, No. 2, everybody’s safe and secure, and No. 3, we’re just finishing up our safety protocol. We never want to take for granted that in the event we did capture somebody or isolate a particular person that that’s all there is to it.”
Knowing their children were safe immediately calmed the parents.
“Informed people are cooperative people,” the sheriff said.
And that left him with a takeaway he wanted to share with the public.
In any major crisis or emergency, he plans to set up a staging area where the public and the media can get information, straight and quick. Added to that is a new Nixle alert system that will notify users by text or phone of emergencies.
“Really now it’s basically making the public aware that that service is available now and we will be using that anytime there’s a major event or crisis situation where we have to notify large groups of people at once or get information out for public safety,” he said.
The next time there’s a major fire, weather event, chemical spill or school shooting scare, McDonald said those affected can expect to find a command center and a helping hand.
“What we want to do is provide kind of a rapid response team that can go to that staging area and provide people, not just with the information, but water, whatever we can do,” he said. “It could be anything from a chemical spill, major fire in the area that gives folks including the press a place to go to get the most updated information. Depending on the situation, we might have chaplains, we might have grief counselors, we might have folks from other agencies. It’s loosely organized but able to adapt to any situation we find ourselves in.”
One day after the threat of a live shooter, McDonald gave the community high marks.
“I really can’t say enough for how everybody cooperated,” he said. “It’s a stressful time for the deputies responding, it’s certainly stressful for parents who are hearing unconfirmed rumors and information. I’m really proud of how the community held themselves together and allowed us to do what we needed to do.”