NMI Public School System has protocol in the event of active shooter situation

In the wake of more mass shootings in the United States, what protocols exist for an active shooter at CNMI campuses?

It's the unimaginable. But its our nation's reality. School shootings on campuses as thoughts and prayers poor but nothing changes. It's a hard, but necessary question to ask: what happens if it happens here? Anthony Frank is the crisis response manager for the Public School System in the Northern Marianas. 

"We follow the preventive mitigation system. PSS will find mitigative ways of stopping the threat, eliminating the threat. When there is a sign of an active shooter, PSS  activate the emergency operation plan which is a signal that all schools know the signal. Once the school knows the signal they know there is an active shooter threat on campus and first thing first they go immediately into lock down," he said.

Associate Eric Magofna says there hasn't been an active shooter on campus in recent memory, but those protocols are updated every year. "We are in the stage of updating all of our emergency procedures with regards to active shooter, natural disasters, or fire," he explained. "Every school in PSS is supposed to be having four emergency drills every year and usually how the schools do it is every quarter they pick a drill they would like to do."

That includes fires, bomb threats, tsunamis, and active shooter evacuation drills. 

In the event of a lock-down with the threat of a shooting on campus, the doors will only open if a password that only teachers know is given. There are also cameras at each school gate monitoring who enters and leaves.

Throughout the school year, there's also a random exercise to test the plan. 

Frank said, "Where somebody from PSS go on to the campus without going to the office and then we time them to see how long before they identify the stranger and how long it goes to lockdown. That is not a a testing of the personnel or the staff it is a testing of the plan."

If it does not go according to plan, they go back to the drawing board.  "This is the reality of when there is an active shooter. The shooter will be a stranger on the campus. In the USA there have been 27 active shooters up until June, so with an increase of active shooter in the mainland PSS have really strengthened assertiveness in the preventative measurements," she said.