BEYOND LOCAL: 'Hope we never have to use it' - OPP train for school shooting scenario

COLLINGWOOD - If a shooter enters a school in Collingwood or the Town of The Blue Mountains, seconds can mean the difference between life and death.

During their joint Collingwood/Blue Mountains OPP Detachment Board meeting on Dec. 13, detachment commander Insp. Loris Licharson provided a presentation to the board regarding prevention of violence in schools, specifically focusing on situations of an active shooter, giving a presentation created in an effort to start conversations between the OPP and educators.

While school shootings are common in the United States, with 81 reported last year alone, Licharson noted a creeping uptick of such incidents of violence in Canada.

“It happens in the States frequently. It’s happened in our nation. It’s something we need to do our best to be prepared for,” he told board members.

“The more aware we are of the factors involved, the better prepared we are to deal with it, should it come our way.”

Licharson said that under the Education Act, all schools in Ontario are required to run lockdown drills twice annually. By comparison, the act mandates five fire drills are completed annually, although he said there hasn’t been a school fatality due to fire in North America since 1958.

“That’s not suggesting we don’t need fire drills. It suggests that those drills work,” he said. “The more we practise a plan ... the better we are at it. The goal is to get students out of harm’s way, as fast as possible.”

A lockdown specifically refers to a major incident with potential life-threatening violence in relation to the school. Other types of school lock-ups include a hold-and-secure, when an incident is occurring outside but in the neighbourhood of a school, or shelter-in-place, which is used when there is an emergency weather situation. Protocols in the event of lockdown, hold-and-secure and shelter-in-place events are outlined in the Simcoe County/police protocol recently signed by police forces and school boards on Oct. 31.

“In policing, we would call this a low-probability, high-consequence event. It’s not likely to happen, but it if does, the consequences are catastrophic. It’s soul-tearing for communities,” said Licharson.

Although averted at that time, one recent incident in Collingwood showed it’s entirely possible such an incident could happen here.

On Sept. 11, Collingwood Collegiate Institute was put in a brief hold-and-secure while Collingwood OPP investigated a threat against the school made five months prior by a former student.

With the help of the Huronia West detachment, Collingwood OPP officers went to a Clearview residence and found two firearms and several high-capacity magazines. Police located and stopped the suspect’s vehicle in a parking lot on Cameron Street and arrested the driver and the passenger without incident.

At that time, police also seized two replica firearms, bear spray, pepper spray, a knife and brass knuckles.

Police charged Jordan Young, 18, of Clearview, with multiple counts of uttering threats, possession of a prohibited weapon for a dangerous purpose, unauthorized possession of a prohibited firearm, possession of an imitation firearm, possession of a prohibited device and careless storage of a firearm. The vehicle passenger was also arrested and charged, although he has not been linked to the threat against the school.

A Safe Schools Initiative completed through the FBI and the U.S. Department of Education in 2004 found:

• 59 per cent of school shootings occurred during school hours,
• 95 per cent of attackers were current students,
• 100 per cent of attackers considered in the study of 37 cases were male,
• 92 per cent were carried out by one suspect alone,
• 54 per cent of attackers has pre-selected a staff member as a victim,
• 85 per cent of shooters were between 13 and 18 years old,
• 63 per cent lived with two parents,
• 41 per cent had good grades and were "mainstream socialized,"
• 63 per cent were never or rarely in trouble at school,
• 78 per cent were suicidal, and
• 61 per cent had been reported as "severely depressed."

Locally, Licharson said work is underway to make local police, school boards and municipal governments more aware of the severity of these types of situations.

“Education, practices, preparation, conversations and presentations like this that don’t take a head-in-the-sand approach save lives,” he said. “It’s important to talk about this.”

He said a school shooting situation is typically over in minutes, and time is critical. In the example of the Sandy Hook school shooting in Connecticut in 2012, it took only four minutes and 31 seconds for the shooter to fire 154 rounds before taking his own life. Twenty-six people were killed.

In the event of an active shooter situation locally, Licharson said Collingwood/Blue Mountains OPP officers are trained to get into the locked school as quickly as possible to address the danger immediately.

“Our primary role is to get there as fast as we can to move toward that threat, to engage and stop it,” he said. “We rely on training, equipment and tactics.”

Those tactics were practised at a Collingwood OPP rapid deployment training exercise at Collingwood Collegiate Institute on Dec. 6. Licharson said talks are ongoing with the Simcoe Muskoka Catholic District School Board to have a similar exercise take place at Our Lady of the Bay Catholic High School in Collingwood in the future.

In a previous board meeting, Licharson shared that talks are ongoing between Collingwood OPP and the Simcoe County District School Board to allow the force to have a key to Collingwood Collegiate Institute in the event of an emergency situation, which he said, as of Friday, are still ongoing.

“I’d like a blue box (for a police key) next to a red box (which holds a key for the fire department) on every school,” he said.

Although the Simcoe County District School Board has reported a reduction in school violence incidents in the 2023-24 school year at all of its schools by 19.5 per cent over the previous year, Licharson told CollingwoodToday that from Collingwood OPP’s standpoint, numbers of violent incidents in schools are staying steady.

“I think they’ve been fairly consistent,” he said in an interview following the meeting.

Numerous school boards served by the Collingwood/Blue Mountains OPP — including the Simcoe County District School Board, the Simcoe Muskoka Catholic District School Board and the Bluewater District School Board — have moved in recent years to the Violent Threat Risk Assessment model, whereby educators are trained on how to identify early indicators of a propensity for violent behaviour in students and share them internally.

He said many members of the local force have also taken the training.

“Everybody has a role. It’s important to talk about it so we don’t get complacent. The frequency of this happening in North America is going up significantly. The issue is there. We have to be cognizant and prepare for the worst,” said Licharson.

“We hope we never have to use it.”