If you can't run and you can't hide, “fight like your life depends on it, because it does.”

That's what Chimacum School District students and staff are expected to do in an active-shooter situation on campus, according to the district's emergency procedures handbook.

“Disperse and leave the building if you can,” the handbook states, suggesting people break a window if necessary. “This will make a less dense target population.”

If that's not possible, hunker down and barricade the doors and windows, the handbook states. Fighting an intruder is the last resort.

The school board adopted the plan – known as “Run, Hide, Fight” – on June 30 after district staff and administration received training from Charlie McCarty, a 15-year Jefferson County Sheriff's Office deputy and an active-shooter response instructor certified by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

McCarty – who also trained staff at Quilcene and Brinnon school districts, as well as county employees and the Port Townsend Police Department – said the old model of a campus going into lockdown has been discarded for this more active approach.

“That is from the ’90s,” he said of the school lockdown model. “That's ineffective. Now we want to open it up from just a lockdown to actually having rally points for the children outside.”

Emergency responders and concerned citizens joined school district officials Sept. 21 for a panel discussion on school emergency preparedness – in particular, active shooter scenarios.

“Right now, the idea is that if people can get away, they should get away,” said Undersheriff Joe Nole, who sat on the panel. “It used to be you hide in place and hope the person didn't come. Now, the idea is you try to get away. If you have to shelter in place, you move people around, you use barricades for safety, and teachers may be called upon to confront the bad guy when they come in.”

A year ago, Sheriff Dave Stanko showed the school board an FBI active shooter training video called “The Coming Storm,” which dramatizes the aftermath of a campus shooting. Chimacum School District Superintendent Rick Thompson showed the video during the panel discussion.

Thompson said the video prompts questions such as “How does communication work? How do we secure the area? How do we reunify families? What about medical care? What about dispatch? What about accuracy of early information? Who deals with the press? Where are families going to go?” he said. “This is really complicated and dynamic, and it takes all kinds of partners to make it work.”

All school staff members have received gap training, which focuses on what to do before law enforcement arrives on scene. Administrators and counselors have also received threat assessment training.

“We are trying to be as prepared as possible,” Thompson said. “Preparation these days is more than a fire drill.”

Chimacum High School Principal Whitney Meissner said school officials and emergency responders are on a first-name basis. Ted Krysinski, deputy chief with East Jefferson Fire Rescue (EJFR), echoed that statement, saying first responders come onto a scene ready to work together.

“Our goal is to not have to introduce ourselves,” he said. “We can come together right away and start solving problems on predetermined plans.”

In the event of an active shooter situation, students know to run to an established reunification rally point, from which they would eventually be bused to a second rally point at H.J. Carroll Park to be united with family.

“The children have a student reunification point and then there's a parent reunification point,” McCarty said. “Those have been established for each school.”

The campus would be shut down, roads would likely be blocked with traffic, and phone lines would likely be jammed, making even 911 unreachable, Nole said.

“I think it's important that parents know where to go, because coming into the school isn't going to happen,” Nole said. “Even if you want to come here, you're not going to be able to.”

Krysinski suggested families have a communication plan focused on students immediately sending a text message in times of emergency to let a loved one know they are all right. That, he said, can do a lot to ease a worried parent's mind.

“Even if the phone lines are all completely shut down because so many people are trying to make calls, you can still get a text message out because it uses less bandwidth,” said Keppie Keplinger, spokesperson for the Jefferson County Department of Emergency Management.

If EJFR is busy on another call, it could take 6-10 minutes before medics arrive, Krysinski said. Art Clarke, district business manager, said a six-year capital levy has helped pay for security improvements on campus, such as installation of an Internet-connected phone system that tells first responders exactly where to go on campus.

“When we had an issue in the middle school, someone would call 911 and the custodian or a staff member would run out to the curb and say, 'Hey, it's back here,'” Clarke said. “Now it tells you the building and the room number.”

Clarke said the district has also upgraded its 300-plus doors and installed an emergency phone line in case main lines go down.

“Before, the doors wouldn't shut,” he said. “If they shut, they really wouldn't lock. If they locked, everybody in the community had a key. So now our doors shut, they lock, and we have a key plan so not everybody has a key. Now our teachers and staff can lock their doors from the inside. Before, you had to go out into the hall, where the shooter could be, and try to lock the door.”

Thompson said the district website – csd49.org – now features a “Safety Reporting” link, which allows anyone to anonymously report a tip by way of email, text, fax or phone call.

“In almost all [active shooter] cases, somebody knew,” he said. “We need to have the courage as adults to train our kids to do the right thing and let somebody know.”

Meissner, whose two children attend the high school, said developing relationships with kids is key.

“We really work on getting to know our students on a personal level,” she said. “I can tell you that on many occasions kids have come forward with information that has helped us to intervene before anything major could happen. We never really know what we prevent, but I do know firsthand that because we listen to students and we care about them, they come talk to us when they get wind that something is going on. I can tell you your kids are in good hands with the staff we have here.”

Meissner said a common theme among student shooters is that they've been picked on or bullied.

“We do know that people who feel loved and that they belong and fit in and have friends don't usually do this stuff,” she said. “We need to talk to our kids about how they can be kind to others and how they can be friendly even if they're not friends.”

Meissner also suggested refraining from speculating on social media about an emergency situation as it's happening.

“I think we have to be real about the fact that cell phones and social media are part of our communication system,” she said. “Resist the temptation to post and share and speculate unless you actually have firsthand information from a reputable source.”

Ron McClung, the pastor at Peace Lutheran Fellowship in Port Ludlow, sat on the panel and said parents and teachers need to be on the same team.

“Remember, teachers are your partners in keeping students safe,” McClung said. “You hear about parents who have an adversarial relationship with their kids' teachers. That's the wrong attitude. We're partners in this.”

With school officials, first responders and parents on the same page, students stand a better chance of surviving an attack,” Meissner said.

“The best thing you can do is be prepared to follow instructions, go to those reunification points and know that we have every interest in getting your kids back with you,” she said.

Thompson said he remembers after the 1999 Columbine massacre that ideas for protecting students included metal detectors, searching students every day and barbed wire around the campus.

“That's tempting,” Thompson said, “to make the school into a prison. I don't think that's the solution. My answer is our children need to trust us. If our children trust us with information, we've got a chance.”