Sarasota County Schools has students in mass shooter, emergency drills

Lorenz grew up in North Port and began his career in the U.S. Air Force security police, then went to work for the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office in corrections. He was a North Port police officer for more than 25 years. He was a crisis intervention training instructor at the Criminal Justice Academy in Sarasota.

Now he is one of the top administrators at the Sarasota County Schools District Police Department.

Lorenz said Sarasota County Schools police follow “a lot more policies and procedures” than what he saw in the videos and briefings of the school shooting response in Uvalde.

Body camera footage shows armed police officers wearing body armor standing in a school hallway, waiting for direction. Officers didn’t check the classroom door after the 18-year-old shooter repeatedly fired shots.

The report shows a “lackadaisical approach” in which 19 students and two teachers died before police entered the classroom and killed the gunman.

No one approached the shooter for 77 minutes.

Lorenz said Texas officers waited and wasted too much time.

“We have a single-response approach as the lead agency to respond to a school shooter or other campus emergency,” Lorenz said. “There is an armed school resource officer at every school. They are all trained to go to the sound of the gun and try to take out the shooter. We won’t wait for SWAT or other tactical teams like the Texas officers did.”

COMMUNICATION, COOPERATION

In Texas, communication between officers and agencies was in disarray.

Lorenz said there wouldn’t be chaos among other responding law enforcement agencies during an emergency.

“We have trained with the Sarasota Police Department, North Port Police, Venice and the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Department,” he said.

Other agencies are secondary response, he said.

“There’s no fighting,” Lorenz said. “It’s understood we (the school police officers) are the primary responder because we are on every campus. Our officer doesn’t even leave to go to lunch, or for any other reason while there are students on campus.”

The report showed there were “recurring problems” with doors and locks in the school, including the locking mechanism to the room where the shooter killed a teacher and her students. The door was reported faulty, but never repaired. During the shooting, no officers tried to open the faulty door.

Lorenz said schools in Sarasota County are “fortified” and not easy to access the way the Texas shooter did. He said teachers are told to report equipment that doesn’t work and not to prop open doors.

After the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting Feb. 14, 2017 in Parkland, Florida, where 14 students and three school staffers were gunned down by Nikolas Cruz, all Sarasota County Schools facilities were hardened, Lorenz said. This was done in Charlotte County Public Schools as well.

“Fencing was added. Now guests must come to the front office and show a license or state identification and be buzzed in to get onto the campus. The SRO office at most schools is in the front office so they are close to the single-entry point,” Lorenz said.

ACTIVE-SHOOTER DRILLS

He said teachers and students train for active shooter drills by sending students to specific hiding places in the classroom and other areas away from a potential gunman.

“We also train for fire drills and other emergencies,” he said. “One doesn’t count for the other. We do all of them at each school. Teachers have a guide in the classroom and are trained for each situation.”

Lorenz said the district receives hundreds of tips each month by students who use the anonymous website FortifyFl and its smartphone app.

It’s a suspicious activity reporting tool that allows students to instantly relay information to appropriate law enforcement. Lorenz said students take it seriously and report potential threats, fights, cyber crimes, bullying and other issues.

What could be learned from Uvalde and other recent mass shootings?

“We needed pry tools to breach the doors if the electricity is off and the doors are locked shut,” he said. “We also need ballistic shields to protect officers. If there is a situation, we won’t wait for them from other agencies like they did in Uvalde, we will have them.”