Disaster drill prepares LSC students for the unexpected

Ben Holbrook
Critic Editor

Lyndon State College experienced a school shooting Saturday morning.

Dan Williams, professor of English, and Peggy Sherrer, professor of Psychology, ran their simulated disaster drill early Saturday. The disaster drill is part of a class, Responding to Psychological Trauma, that allows students the opportunity to experience what happens during a real emergency.

“I expanded my class to three credits this year to give students more training,” Sherrer said. “I wanted to give them a dynamic experience where there is chaos, unpredictability and make the students have to think on their feet.”

This year’s scenario involved a school shooting and a hostage situation. Students from both the human services and journalism majors were involved. The journalism students were required to leave campus in order to simulate how journalists would respond to such an emergency.

“I wanted to give them (journalism students) exposure to people who are suffering from trauma and dealing with officials who would be at a scene like that,” Williams said.

The whole scenario began around 9:30 a.m. with the shooter walking into a classroom in HAC where he shot the professor and a number of students before taking another student hostage. Soon after the shooting took place, emergency responders including state and local police and ambulance crews, began arriving on scene.

The simulation proceeded with emergency crews treating the wounded students, police began a search of the area to find the shooter, and the human service majors began evaluating and counseling the victims. The journalists who took part in the drill were scrambling around trying to get as much information from officials and victims as they could.

The entire drill lasted until about 1:30 p.m. before everybody was gathered to discuss the events of the day.

Although the drill was a success, there were still aspects of the drill that Sherrer and Williams want to change.

“I would love to involve professional, semi-professional and theater majors as actors,” Sherrer said. “They (professional actors) could help to psychologically prepare the volunteer actors.”

Williams also wants to make changes to the journalism portion of the drill.

“I’d like to involve professional journalists in the class,” Williams said, “because it’s the type of training that professionals need and often don’t get.”

Besides preparing for a real life emergency, the disaster drill also gave students the opportunity to interact with each other in a professional role.

“There’s a lot that happens when you put our students together,” Sherrer said. “I think the students gained a mutual respect towards each other’s role, my students learned that journalists aren’t just there to harass a victim, they are just doing their job.”

Responding to Psychological Trauma is offered during the fall semester.