Chances – and prayers – are that Seal Beach police will never need to apply the skills they honed at McGaugh Elementary on Tuesday, April 19. But, sadly, school shootings have become a recurring tragedy.
“It’s the worst scenario we can think of – something terrible happening to our kids,” said Lt. Nick Nicholas. “But these kinds of incidents can happen anywhere, and we need to make sure we’re as trained as we can be.”
Nicholas noted Seal Beach already experienced Orange County’s deadliest mass shooting, at a hair salon in 2011, in which nine people died.
The Police Department took advantage of spring break this week, with students and staff on vacation, to practice a simulated school shooting. Using paint pellets, all 39 officers participated in shifts throughout the day.
While some personnel took turns playing the role of gunman, officers studied the layout of the campus and how to approach a shooter.
Seal Beach Police officers take part in an active
shooter response training exercise at McGaugh Elementary School in Seal Beach, CA, on Tuesday, April 19, 2022. The goal of this training is to help prepare police officers for a critical event on the campus. Throughout the day, all of the city’s 39 officers will run through the training. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Pretend victims run through McGaugh Elementary School as Seal Beach Police officers take part in an active
shooter response training exercise in Seal Beach, CA, on Tuesday, April 19, 2022. The goal of this training is to help prepare police officers for a critical event on the campus. Throughout the day, all of the city’s 39 officers will run through the training. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Seal Beach Police officers take part in an active
shooter response training exercise at McGaugh Elementary School in Seal Beach, CA, on Tuesday, April 19, 2022. The goal of this training is to help prepare police officers for a critical event on the campus. Throughout the day, all of the city’s 39 officers will run through the training. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
A Glock training pistol with paint-filled simunition is being used by the Seal Beach Police department as officers take part in an active shooter response training exercise at McGaugh Elementary School in Seal Beach, CA, on Tuesday, April 19, 2022. The goal of this training is to help prepare police officers for a critical event on the campus. Throughout the day, all of the city’s 39 officers will run through the training. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Seal Beach Police officers take part in an active
shooter response training exercise at McGaugh Elementary School in Seal Beach, CA, on Tuesday, April 19, 2022. The goal of this training is to help prepare police officers for a critical event on the campus. Throughout the day, all of the city’s 39 officers will run through the training. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Seal Beach Police officers take part in an active
shooter response training exercise at McGaugh Elementary School in Seal Beach, CA, on Tuesday, April 19, 2022. The goal of this training is to help prepare police officers for a critical event on the campus. Throughout the day, all of the city’s 39 officers will run through the training. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Seal Beach Police officers take part in an active
shooter response training exercise at McGaugh Elementary School in Seal Beach, CA, on Tuesday, April 19, 2022. The goal of this training is to help prepare police officers for a critical event on the campus. Throughout the day, all of the city’s 39 officers will run through the training. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
“McGaugh is the only school in town, and the safety of our students is our top priority,” Nicholas said.
Concentrating on just one school means officers can familiarize themselves with every nook and cranny, he added. Even when no officer is onsite, police keep an eye on hallways and playgrounds remotely via “dozens of cameras all over campus.”
“We have a strong relationship with McGaugh,” Nicholas said. “Several of our officers have kids of their own there.”
The Police Department has begun the task of painting classroom numbers on the roof above every room so that, in the event of an active shooter, helicopters could provide logistics to officers on the ground.
Nationwide, Nicholas said, police tactics in school shootings changed drastically after the 1999 Columbine High massacre in Colorado, in which 11 students and one teacher died.
“Pre-Columbine, the industry standard was for the first responding officers to set up a perimeter around the location and wait for a SWAT team to arrive and locate the suspect,” Nicholas said. “Columbine made police departments realize that every second you wait, more people get injured or killed.
“The first responder no long waits but runs toward the sound of the gunfire,” he said. “It takes incredible courage, but that’s what we signed up for.”
