Since the beginning of October, BASH has instituted two new “run, hide, fight” style intruder drills in response to the increasing number of terrorist threats and school shootings.

The school has run through two portions of the drill so far — ”run” and “hide” — that are part of a nationwide initiative to protect students and staff in the event of an emergency.

BASH principal Dr. Brett Cooper said it is important students take the drill seriously.

“It’s a drill that tends to be serious for a serious situation. And that’s why we practice this and have drills, so we’re better prepared in the unfortunate event that something happens,” he said. 

The “run” portion of the intruder drill took place on October 8th and consisted of an evacuation of the building as students and staff went to two designated meeting spots — the football stadium and Bear Stadium.

Students did not really run, but are expected to if a real emergency happened. Senior Eric Spohn said he is concerned about the running in the event of an intruder.

“If there’s someone in the hallways, and everyone runs into the hallways, that doesn’t really make much sense to me,” said Spohn.

Others also worry about the danger of a mass exodus of students trying to leave the building all at once.

“There’s no real way to protect people if it’s that spontaneous. I think the hide part should probably be first,” said Junior Owen Kulig, “He could kill so many people with one round of shots if we’re all in one mass like we were.”

The “hide” portion of the drill was the most familiar to students and took place on October 14th. Students and staff hid in their classrooms with the lights off as if an intruder was actually in the building.

“The hide part makes sense,” said Spohn. “If I hide, I feel safe. If I have to run, maybe not.”

Despite the concerns, the new drill was implemented to make students and staff as safe as possible in the case of a shooting.  Various law enforcement agencies, including the FBI and Department of Homeland Security, advocate “run, hide, fight”, and have taken steps to help educate the public on how it could increase their chances for survival if faced with an active shooter event. They have produced a video, which the faculty watched before the drills.

“It’s tough to be realistic,” said Business Teacher Mr. Robert Ramsey.  “I think with any type of drill, it’s hard to be truly effective because it’s not in the moment. But at least it gives the students an idea, if the moment does come up, of what to do.”

History teacher Mr. Jeffrey Kusniez believes it’s a good thing that the district has drills for these types of situations.

“It’s scary that we have to think about this, but I’d rather have our students be aware that something like this could happen and know what to do rather than not have any idea and have panic and chaos.”