By Gabe Perry
Staff writer
IG: @gabep_24
Although preparing for situations like this may seem new and frightening for some people, there are others that have been through it before and are used to it.
At 10 a.m. on Sept. 18, Hutchinson Community College conducted a live shooter drill inside Smith Science Center. The Hutchinson Police Department’s officer took on the role of a live shooter, firing off multiple live, blank rounds.
“It shocked me initially, because I didn’t realize how loud it really was and how close it was in vicinity to me. So that was the biggest shock to me,” freshman Reid Livingston said. “We never had anybody come in the building with guns in high school, but we would have shooting drills where we would hide in our classrooms.”
Although the school sent out multiple reminders and notifications about the drill prior to Wednesday, students were still surprised and in shock by the live rounds.
One thing about this drill, though, was how different it was for the students that are from foreign countries, and have never experienced something like this before.
“I’ve never experienced a live shooter drill whilst in high school, the strict gun laws that are implemented in Australia don’t require any drills like this,” sophomore Adam Mustow mentioned, who grew up in Sydney. “I knew it was a live drill but I still had an adrenaline rush as it’s my first time experiencing something of this nature, the realization something like this can actually happen is a worrying feeling but being prepared with drills like this are essential.”
One thing was certain about this drill. With what all is going on in the world, this drill helped prepare everyone on campus for if this were to happen in the near future. Foreign students know how to properly prepare if something like this were to happen, and how to do it on a college campus.
“I do think it prepared me for the future, because I could tell when the shooter was close to my classroom, because the gunshots are on the other side of the building, and I could just tell they were far away, so that would be nice insight to know in the future,” Livingston said.
