Somerset Co. school district hosts crisis drill

Andrew Turner, the safe schools coordinator for Wicomico County says, “They are where we’ve been.”

His district has had eleven bomb threats this school year. With that in mind, “responding to a bomb threat,” the subject of Tuesday’s crisis drill in Somerset County wasn’t far fetched. Somerset is the only county on Maryland’s lower Eastern Shore that hasn’t received a threat.

Gregory Sutton, the operations and transportation supervisor for Somerset County public schools says, “It’s not a matter of if, it’s of matter of when there will be a crisis.”

Sutton instructed the drill. First, officials were given the scenario…a note was found in a school bathroom warning of a bomb scheduled to go off in about an hour. Each table discussed who was in charge of the response? They also answered questions like, should they evacuate? Should schools be closed? What do they tell the media?

Real life answers were given. For student safety, we won’t share the names or locations. Every school has a crisis response plan. However, some learned they needed to review them.

Sutton says jokingly (in reference to other groups), “Wow my plan isn’t as good as I thought it was.”

Sheriff Ronnie Howard says, “It helped us realize where our weak spots with the Board of Education and the sheriff’s office.”

In the scenario, the bomb actually exploded after the school was evacuated. That hasn’t happened in Turner’s district. However, he says the biggest point he learned in his experience can apply to any crisis.

Turner says, “Talk about it after it’s over. The debriefing is where they find the positives and the deltas.”

The discussion is to improve for if or when something strikes again.

Ed Clarke, the executive director for the Maryland Center for School Safety says, “The goal is everyday for kids to come to school in a safe learning environment, but there are things that happen during the school day.”