Nazarene High School Tests its Intruder Protocol
You’ve seen on international news where students are executed on school grounds by gun-wielding attackers. While such an incident has never happened in Belize before, one school has a series of protocols that are to be exercised in the event of a disaster, a health crisis, injury at school and in this case, an intruder on the compound. Today at Nazarene High School in Belize City, Chief of Security Shihan Kelly, along with members of the Gang Intelligence, Investigation and Interdiction Unit of the Belize Police Department carried out an intruder drill in which the students and faculty were instructed on how to stay safe if this is to occur. News Five’s Duane Moody reports.
Duane Moody, Reporting
This morning at Nazarene High School, just after the first break, an armed intruder gained access to the school compound. He was looking for a student with whom he had conflict and went banging across classroom doors and windows, trying to get access to his target. It went on for a few minutes before police arrived and were able to apprehend the gunman before any student or faculty member was harmed. Frightening right? But luckily, it was just a drill – part of the school’s policy to keep its students and staff engaged on what to do and what not to do in case of an emergency situation like this.
Shihan Kelly
Shihan Kelly, Chief of Security, Nazarene High School
“The students were not aware of the drill, however, administration was aware that the drill was gonna happen; they did not know what time it was gonna happen. We want the students to not be traumatized by this, but to have in essence that the world that we are living in is not a safe world, I’m gonna be real with you.
The protocol which was followed was that the first security notified administration that an intruder was on the campus and subsequently the administration notified through a PA system that an intruder is here and then the alarm notify all the classrooms to shut the doors, secure the windows and everything.”
After securing their classrooms, the students and teacher would get on the ground until an all-clear is declared. The procedure is led by the principal, Doctor Eliza Seguro, who says that security of the students is a priority.
Eliza Seguro
Dr. Eliza Seguro, Principal, Nazarene High School
“As the administrator, once I am alerted of an intruder on the compound, my role would be to inform my manager, the chair of the school board as well as ministry of education. My secretary was responsible for informing the police department and the teachers were responsible for keeping the students safe and to ensure that they follow the instruction. As a school, our duty is to ensure that students are always safe once the parents send them to us and we take that very seriously.”
During the drill, the intruder did get into a classroom, but members of the GI3 Unit were quick to respond and apprehend the intruder. The tactical approach did not require the use of weapons to subdue the intruder and the law enforcement officers took him into custody.
Nary Waight
Cpl Nary Waight, Member, GI3 Unit
“In our section, we train for many situations one of which is what we showed this morning – hostile arrest and stuff like those. We in the department are aware of the situation happening elsewhere so we try to maintain a step forward in keeping abreast with training should the need arises. We do assessment as we go along. It all depends on the intruder, on the perpetrator for us to take action. We take minimal action to perpetrate the arrest.”
And with that, the intruder drill was a success. The policy has been in place since 2015 and these emergency drills are practiced once a year. While this one was in the case of an intruder, there is also fire drill, hurricane preparedness and injury at school. Duane Moody for News Five.
