Indiana active-shooter training can't involve firing projectiles at teachers, lawmakers say

A mock execution conducted during active-shooter training at an Indiana elementary school went too far, lawmakers said Wednesday. The state Senate's education committee amended a school safety bill to prohibit the firing of projectiles at school employees or students during any type of drill or training.

That amendment was requested by the Indiana State Teachers Association in response to an active-shooter training exercise at Meadowlawn Elementary School in January that left teachers with welts, bruises and abrasions.

“They told us, ‘This is what happens if you just cower and do nothing,’” said one of two teachers who participated in the training and spoke to IndyStar about it. “They shot all of us across our backs. I was hit four times.

“It hurt so bad.”

The teachers’ account, first reported by IndyStar, was later cited in stories by The Washington Post, CNN and Vox.

The committee was expected to vote last week on the amendment to a school safety bill, but it was held while lawmakers worked on language. Other provisions in the bill, dealing with mental health, parents rights and student privacy also held up the bill.

An amendment addressing some of those concerns was also adopted. The measure, from Sen. Dennis Kruse, R-Auburn, would require parents to opt in to any mental health services or surveys. Should students receive certain services, assessments or information that parents have not approved, those parents will have the ability to sue the school district for violating those rights. Fines would start at $1,000 and could be more than $10,000 for multiple offenses.

Parents need an avenue to receive more than an apology when their wishes are violated, Kruse said.

His amendment also removes the ability for schools to use safety grant dollars to pay for social-emotional learning programs and takes out language encouraging schools to participate in a survey about youth behaviors administered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

Democrats in the House tried to have the projectile language amended into a different bill Monday, but the GOP majority said the proposal violated a rule requiring amendment language to be related to the content of the bill.

Teachers at Meadowlawn in Monticello were supposed to be receiving what is called ALICE training, an "options-based" approach that encourages students and teachers to be proactive in their response to an active shooter and teaches tactics that, in some situations, include rushing a shooter.

Thousands of schools across the country, including many in Indiana, are already using ALICE, which is an acronym for Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter and Evacuate. Shooting teachers with plastic pellets in a mock execution is not typically part of the training.

Often, the training is provided to schools by law enforcement agencies familiar with ALICE or other programs. Officers come into schools and provide in-person training, as was the case at Meadowlawn. 

The details of how that training is carried out, though, are left up to school districts and the local law enforcement conducting the training. 

"ALICE is committed to keeping students, teachers, and everyone working in schools safe, in addition to all of the other individuals we support in our training nationally," the ALICE Training Institute said in a statement released in response to the Meadowlawn incident. "The purpose of ALICE training is to empower individuals to participate in their own survival in the face of violence."

White County Sheriff Bill Brooks, whose department led the training in question, said it has conducted active-shooter training with schools for several years and has previously used the device that fired the projectiles, called an airsoft gun. The department no longer using them with teachers, he said.

The amendment prohibiting the use of projectiles in any type of training with teachers or students was adopted by the committee unanimously. The bill is now heading to the Senate appropriations committee for consideration. 

Call IndyStar education reporter Arika Herron at (317) 201-5620 or email her at Arika.Herron@indystar.com. Follow her on Twitter: @ArikaHerron.