A Columbine Experience

It’s all quiet, not a word or a peep. All of a sudden you hear a loud buzz and screaming all around. A man runs into the same room you're in, and you're shocked to see that he has a gun. Your reactions are quick. You run out and see the police around you and in front of you. You run past them as fast as you can and your heart is pounding. You're screaming that he’s got a gun and is going to kill you, the man he is in that room. The people are running, screaming, and crying. There is so much commotion.

That’s what I had experienced today. I got to partake in actual police training with 6 other volunteers. We had to be put into scenarios where we would be criminals, or victims, or bodies. There were 5 different scenarios and I volunteered in four. We trained with five different police forces from around our area.

The whole point was to train in case there was another Columbine or incident at the local high school which was where all of this took place. The first training was of a kid who had a gun and he would run and yell out profound things to the cops trying to get them to back while he was yelling there was another person in a classroom just standing he was equipped with a gun. One other person ran up to the cops and told them where this person was and that they had a gun, they shoved the person out of the way and walked toward the gunman telling him to drop his weapon. Other’s lied on the ground hurt, yelling I’m hurt and he’s over there trying to direct the cops in the right direction. If they didn’t check the room where they other gunman was standing then bang they fail. I got to partake in this and be the gunman, I yelled “get away from me” , “I hate this place”, “ I’m sick of being picked on” “bring it”.

The thing was just so real and it opened my eyes, another scenario also just felt real. There was a volunteer down a hallway and four in a class room, another one in the office because they were going to work the intercom so we could have musical effect and another one by the doors the cops were going to come into. Well the most memorable thing about this, was the intercom. They had a buzz like an alarm go off and then people screaming I knew it was just CD player next to the intercom going off but it felt so real. I saw the gunman run into the room, I ran out screaming “his in here he’s got a gun, get him now, he’s going to kill me”

This was a great experience and an unforgettable one also. It’s just horrible what those kids had to go through at Columbine. Even though this wasn’t the real thing, it still felt like it.