AASD hoax response gets high marks

Emergency officials impressed by how responders, district handled situation

The March 29 call to the Blair County 911 Center claiming that six people had been shot in an Altoona Area High School restroom turned out to be a hoax, but it was as real as it gets -- outside of an actual shooting -- for first responders, officials said Thursday at a meeting of the Local Emergency Planning Committee.

"We believed this to be real at the time of the dispatch," said Altoona Police Chief Joe Merrill, referring to responders and everyone at the school. "It was the closest thing we'll ever have to a live action exercise."

Thus, it was a true test of the community's response, which was "overwhelmingly successful," Merrill said in a phone interview after the meeting.

The belief that it was the "real deal" was universal for about five or 10 minutes, Merrill said. After that, the understanding of what was taking place "evolved."

The first officers entered about 60 seconds after the dispatch call and began checking out rooms and common spaces, Merrill said.

They weren't hearing shots or finding victims, and the thought began to form that "maybe" it wasn't real, Merrill said.

As the inspection work continued with the school campus buildings, there came news that similar "swat" calls were occurring elsewhere, including in Centre County, he said.

It began to seem more and more likely that there were no shootings, he said.

Finally, after the campus buildings were found to be empty of shooters and victims and following reviews of surveillance camera footage, it became certain, Merrill said.

That certainty was reached between 30 and 45 minutes after the initial call, he said.

All the officers who came to the schools entered "without hesitation," according to Mike Hawksworth, the city's deputy fire chief and an LEPC member.

Hawksworth's remark was in clear reference to a school shooting last year in Uvalde, Texas, following which police were lambasted for waiting in the corridors for an extended period before entering a pair of rooms where the shooter had trapped a group of students.

Officers that took part on March 29 initially included those from the Altoona Area School District, the city, Logan Township and the Blair County Sheriff's Department, Merrill said.

Others came from the Blair County probation office, Penn State University, the Attorney General's Office and the Department of Homeland Security, he said.

Merrill was proud of the way officers performed.

He was especially impressed with the way the school district handled the situation.

"They did an overwhelmingly amazing job," in line with national best practices, Merrill said. "The real takeaway is that the school district's teachers and staff were implementing their training and following protocols to keep the students safe."

When officers went in, "all the lights were out, and everything was pretty much textbook," said Mark Taylor, the county's emergency management director.

"He was complimentary of us," said school district spokeswoman Paula Foreman. "We feel the same way (about them)."

Everyone handled the "very scary situation" with the seriousness warranted -- including the students, Foreman said.

There is no such thing as a perfect response, but the district did its best, and will continue to review its protocols, to get even better, Foreman said.

Many officers who went into the schools had students in the buildings, Merrill said.

He himself has a child in the junior high -- along with one in elementary school.

Asked how that affected his approach, he deflected.

"Every child in that building is someone('s)," Merrill said.

The approach he and others took was not to give in to the "parental instinct to only worry about your child," but to do the job at hand and trust that others would do the same, he said.

Post-event reviews have uncovered some protocols that could be improved, according to Merrill.

Those include ways that would enable officers to get quicker building access, including access to interior spaces, and ways for improving communication between officers and teachers, he said.

He hesitated to be too "transparent" about specifics, he said.

One change that might be happening at the Greater Altoona Career and Technical Center involves occupancy activated lighting, according to LEPC member Ken Doyle.

Doyle's son is an electrical trades student who went with other students to a locker room during the incident, as per protocol, Doyle said.

There, they were being quiet, as instructed.

They were also supposed to keep the room dark, but periodic slight movements repeatedly made the lights turn on, he said.

Afterward, the students discussed the situation with their teacher, and those lights may end up being replaced, according to Doyle.

It's a case where the directive to save energy clashed with a new imperative to stay safe, Doyle said.

His son has post-traumatic stress syndrome as a result of a shooting that took place near their Geeseytown home years ago, but he felt "very safe" during the recent incident, because of how it was handled, Doyle said.

The only thing the students could hear as they waited was police coming up the hallway and checking, his son told Doyle.

The incident presented LEPC member and GACTC construction employee Kevin Lear with a conflicted choice.

As students were "hunched in a corner," he was learning details that suggested the incident was a hoax.

He debated with himself whether to share the information, given that it looked like things would be OK, but also that he needed them to continue to be calm until that was certain, he said.

"It was an interesting day," he stated, without making clear how he decided.

The incident had wide-ranging effects, according to Tim Hileman, emergency management specialist at the Van Zandt VA Medical Center and former city fire chief.

Many Van Zandt staffers were parents of students, and some were getting texts from their children, Hileman said.

The hospital's police department was getting information and sharing it with employees, which "kept a lot of (them) from rushing to the scene" to be sure their kids were OK, Hileman said.

Amtran also has employees with children in the district, according to Transportation Supervisor Michele Barnes, an LEPC member.

Management kept drivers updated to prevent "panic," she said.

"I'm very thankful it was not a real call," Merrill said.

Merrill plans an extensive debriefing on the March 29 incident next week, according to Taylor.

The incident shows the importance of planning, Taylor said.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.