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Illinois School Shooting Drill: Cary-Grove High School To Fire Blanks In Hallway, Angering Parents

High School's Shooting Drill To Involve Firing Of Blanks In Hallway
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A suburban Chicago high school is planning to hold a controversial and unprecedented new drill: a simulation of a "code red simulation" that will involve the firing of blank bullets in the hallway in an effort to give students and staff "some familiarity with the sound of gunfire."

According to a letter sent by principal Jay Sargeant to parents of students at Cary-Grove High School in Cary, Ill., the school will be simulating an active shooter situation while teachers "secure their rooms, draw curtains, and keep their students from traveling throughout the building" for between 15 and 20 minutes on Wednesday, NBC Chicago reports.

During that time, unspecified individuals will be firing blanks in the hallways. After the drill, Sargeant wrote, students will "will take some time to process what occurred and then we will return to our normal classroom routine."

In the letter, Sargeant goes on to urge parents to discuss the upcoming drill with their children because "it may cause some students to have an emotional reaction." The school also will reportedly have social workers present to speak with students, should they need it.

Some parents of students at the school were not enthused by Sargeant's letter, which apparently not every parent said they had received as of Tuesday morning, according to CBS Chicago.

“If you need to run a drill, you run a drill,” parent Sharon Miller told the station. “They run fire drills all the time, but they don’t run up and down the hallway with a flamethrower.”

"Active shooter" trainings for school staff have grown increasingly common nationwide in the wake of the Newtown, Conn. massacre -- but students are not usually present for such activities.

In Jefferson County, Ala., teachers and administrators took part in a training that featured shooter simulations and educators playing the rule of both law enforcement officers and teachers earlier this month. Similar trainings -- focused on an unarmed teacher response -- have taken place in other school districts around the country.

The town of Cary is located about 45 miles northwest of Chicago.

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Before You Go

People Who Want More Guns In Schools
Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) (01 of09)
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"I wish to God she had had an m-4 in her office, locked up so when she heard gunfire, she pulls it out ... and takes him out and takes his head off before he can kill those precious kids," Gohmert said of slain principal Dawn Hochsprung on Fox News Sunday. He argued that shooters often choose schools because they know people will be unarmed. (credit:WikiMedia:)
Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R)(02 of09)
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"If people were armed, not just a police officer, but other school officials that were trained and chose to have a weapon, certainly there would be an opportunity to stop an individual trying to get into the school," he told WTOP's "Ask the Governor" show Tuesday, warning that Washington may respond to such a policy with a "knee-jerk reaction." (credit:WikiMedia:)
Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam (R) & State Sen. Frank Niceley (R)(03 of09)
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Gov. Haslam says he will consider a Tennessee plan to secretly arm and train some teachers, TPM reports. The legislation will be introduced by State Sen. Frank Niceley (R) next month. "Say some madman comes in. The first person he would probably try to take out was the resource officer. But if he doesn’t know which teacher has training, then he wouldn’t know which one had [a gun]," Niceley told TPM. "These guys are obviously cowards anyway and if someone starts shooting back, they’re going to take cover, maybe go ahead and commit suicide like most of them have." (credit:AP)
Oklahoma State Rep. Mark McCullough (R) & State Sen. Ralph Shortey (R) (04 of09)
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State Rep. Mark McCullough (R) told the Tulsa World he plans to file legislation that would bring guns into schools, calling their absence "irresponsible." “It is incredibly irresponsible to leave our schools undefended – to allow mad men to kill dozens of innocents when we have a very simple solution available to us to prevent it," he said. "I’ve been considering this proposal for a long time. In light of the savagery on display in Connecticut, I believe it’s an idea whose time has come."Sen. Ralph Shortey (R) told the Tulsa World that teachers should carry concealed weapons at school events. "Allowing teachers and administrators with concealed-carry permits the ability to have weapons at school events would provide both a measure of security for students and a deterrent against attackers," he said. (credit:WikiMedia:)
Florida State Rep. Dennis Baxley (R)(05 of09)
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Baxley, who once sponsored Florida's controversial Stand Your Ground law, told the Sarasota Herald-Tribune that keeping guns out of schools makes them a target for attacks.“We need to be more realistic at looking at this policy," he said. "In our zealousness to protect people from harm we’ve created all these gun-free zones and what we’ve inadvertently done is we’ve made them a target. A helpless target is exactly what a deranged person is looking for where they cannot be stopped.” (credit:AP)
Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R)(06 of09)
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At a Tea Party event Monday night, Perry praised a Texas school system that allows some staff to carry concealed weapons to work and encouraged local school districts to make their own policies. (credit:WikiMedia:)
Minnesota State Rep. Tony Cornish (R) (07 of09)
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Cornish plans to introduce legislation that would allow teachers to arm themselves, according to the AP. (credit:Alamy)
Oregon State Rep. Dennis Richardson (R)(08 of09)
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In an email obtained by Gawker and excerpted below, Richardson tells three superintendents that he could have saved lives had he been armed and in Sandy Hook on Friday:
If I had been a teacher or the principal at the Sandy Hook Elementary School and if the school district did not preclude me from having access to a firearm, either by concealed carry or locked in my desk, most of the murdered children would still be alive, and the gunman would still be dead, and not by suicide....[O]ur children's safety depends on having a number of well-trained school employees on every campus who are prepared to defend our children and save their lives?
 (credit:dennisrichardson.org)
Former Education Secretary Bill Bennett(09 of09)
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"And I'm not so sure -- and I'm sure I'll get mail for this -- I'm not so sure I wouldn't want one person in a school armed, ready for this kind of thing," Bennett, who served as education secretary under Ronald Reagan, told Meet the Press Sunday. "The principal lunged at this guy. The school psychologist lunged at the guy. It has to be someone who's trained, responsible. But, my god, if you can prevent this kind of thing, I think you ought to." (credit:Getty Images)
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