Taken Hostage
College security and city, county police stage two mock hostage situations
Tony Gonzalez
Issue date: 3/27/08 Section: News
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During an otherwise calm spring break, law enforcement agents in full commando gear dotted the college and Hillsdale Academy campuses in green camouflage, helmets and rifles, while student and maintenance staff played victim roles.
Campus security activated its call list and e-mail emergency notifications, practiced communicating with local law enforcement and went through the motions of closing building access.
Although not without hitches, trainees succeeded in their goals, officials said. More importantly, the drills shed light on ways to improve security, Hillsdale College Director of Security Mike Wertz said Monday.
"If you're not always improving, you're stagnant," he said.
Wertz said faculty and administrator training will continue, and that some information sources need to be updated, such as the photo ID database [See information box for more goals].
Hillsdale College graduate and city Undersheriff Jeremiah Hodshire '99 said some things went wrong, but "that's why we train."
"It's a very proactive measure instead of reactive," Hodshire said of the training, which was the first of its kind to take place on the campus. "In this day and age, an immediate response is very important."
Wertz said the primary lesson learned is that staff members need continued training on how to respond to a campus attack. Wertz solicited and received feedback from staff.
"I always say security is everybody's business," Wertz said.
Before 'chaos on campus'
Wertz assembled students a day before the drills to describe scenarios he and Hodshire designed. Each scenario remained secret from responders and included "curve balls" as tests.
Before those assembled in the break room at the Fowler Maintenance Building, Wertz grew animated as he shared examples from a previous training drill - one in which he played a "bad guy" shooting blank rounds at officers. He told students and staff to expect realistic behavior and "equal resistance" from law enforcement should any of the actors try for realism.
"They're going to be geeked, so don't push them too far," Wertz told students.
Students learned of their roles: hostages, shooting victims and "milling" students. Each role was intended to simulate real situations with various challenges to the law enforcement as they practiced securing buildings.
"It was fun to get a peek at the behind the scenes, so to speak, of the SWAT," sophomore participant Michael Black said.
Wertz also chose the "shooter" that morning: senior Abe Dane.
"Abe is going to be our shooter…He's a big target," Wertz said.
Amid jokes from maintenance staff and students, Dane grew interested in his starring role.
"I can wear whatever I want?" he asked.
Scenario one: Academy hostages
In the first scenario, about a dozen hostages were taken by two men - Dane one of them - at the academy. The "bad guys" kept their hostages facedown in the gym. Dane spoke by phone with trained negotiators while a police officer watched the hostage students, often screaming obscenities and making threats. Those, too, were heard by negotiators.
"Negotiations are a process by which you try to wear them down," said Randy Casler, city police officer.
Negotiators gathered information from Dane and the released hostages. Even hostages were handled assertively by the SWAT team, who treated each as a potential suspect until check out.
"It was kind of nice not being the last [hostage] face down on the gym floor," Black said.
Sgt. Scott Hephner said his tactical unit was "chomping at the bit," to enter the school, but waited for negotiators. When negotiations "went south," the unit entered and took the suspects.
Hodshire said tension exists between negotiators who want to take their time and tactical units that want to enter. The nature of the drill, which crammed into less than two hours, prevented operations from being completely realistic.
During a debriefing, Hillsdale County Sheriff Stan Burchardt praised his team.
"Practice makes perfect, boys, and we're getting close," he said.
Scenario two: Kendall shooter
The second scenario, promised "a blast" by Wertz, involved a disgruntled boyfriend who perpetrated a shooting at The Suites before traveling to Kendall Hall to take a hostage.
The scenario called for Dane to shoot one student on the third floor and take a hostage to the fourth floor.
The drill snagged when Dane could not enter Kendall with his ID card. Police reset, placing Dane inside, and continued. A second snag slowed Dane's progress and the tactical team captured him before he could leave a ground-floor classroom. Instead, Dane was handcuffed, facedown, in the room, and a handgun loaded with blanks removed without being fired in the building.
In the second drill, Black played a milling student and expected SWAT members to handle him as they would students in an emergency.
"We were just ignored, when I was expecting to get thrown in the mud," Black said.
He said the first drill was more fun than the second.
"It seemed that without students [the second drill] was kind of pointless," Black said.
Hodshire said training should continue at the college. "Just because we're Hillsdale doesn't mean it can't happen here," he said.
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