A TRAINING EXERCISE BEYOND THE PALE

Teachers shot by plastic pellets during training drill sue sheriff's department, officers

By Arika Herron

Indianapolis Star

August 25, 2020

Eight elementary school teachers who were shot with airsoft guns “execution style” during an active shooter training drill last year are suing the sheriff’s department that conducted the training.

The controversial training drill, conducted at Meadowlawn Elementary School in Northern Indiana last year, became national news after teachers reported being left bruised, bloodied and traumatized. The lawsuit, filed last week in Indiana’s northern federal court, claims that four White County Sheriff’s Deputies subjected teachers “verbal threats, expletives, and screaming,” in addition to being struck with the plastic pellets fired from airsoft guns.

“The teachers displayed obvious signs of anguish and physical pain, but were humiliated to find the law enforcement officers joking and laughing at them,” the complaint reads. “The terrifying and inexplicable experience left the teachers with lasting physical and emotional injuries.”

Two of the teachers named in the complaint said they left teaching after the incident, which took place last January but didn’t gain national attention until several months later when the Indiana State Teachers Association testified about it in an Indiana General Assembly committee meeting. A first-grade teacher was diagnosed with PTSD.

The White County Sheriff’s Department did not respond to a request for comment. Sheriff Bill Brooks, who is among the officers named in the complaint, told IndyStar after the incident last year that the department stopped using the airsoft guns after a complaint.

 

"We were made aware that one teacher was upset," he said in a phone interview last March. “And we ended it."

The lawyers representing the teachers did not respond to a request for comment. They are also represented by ISTA, which said it hopes to prevent similar incidents in the future.

 

Bruises, welts and abrasions

Teachers at Meadowlawn Elementary School were supposed to be receiving what is called ALICE training, an "options-based" approach that encourages students and teachers to be proactive in their response to an active shooter and teaches tactics that include rushing a shooter in some situations.

Thousands of schools across the country, including many in Indiana, use ALICE. Shooting teachers with plastic pellets is not typically part of the training.

Eight teachers, out of approximately 35 that were present for the Meadowlawn training, have signed on to the lawsuit, each with claims of being left with bruises, welts and abrasions from being shot with the airsoft guns from “point-blank range.”

According to the complaint, the teachers were broken up in small groups and told by sheriff’s deputies to line up facing a wall and kneel. Once they were kneeling, an officer shot the teachers across their backs.

They were told not to tell the other teachers, waiting in another room for their turn, what had happened.

Later in the day, teachers were also subject to a series of drills in which they were instructed at different times to hide in classrooms, to try and barricade doors from potential intruders and to throw tennis balls at the officers. During each drill, officers shot the teachers with the airsoft guns, according to the complaint.

According to the complaint, each of those drills began with an officer “striding quickly down the hallway, loudly banging on walls while screaming furiously, yelling out numerous obscenities and threats, such as… ‘I’m going to kill you all!’”

A kindergarten teacher reports being repeatedly shot while hiding under a table, curled into the fetal position.

 

Physical and emotional injuries

The complaint says that each teacher was left with injuries that took anywhere from several days to several weeks to heal. One first-grade teacher was left with a permanent scar.

The injuries recorded weren’t only physical. According to the complaint, the teachers experienced “several emotional distress.”

One fifth-grade teacher said she now experiences greater fear and anxiety while doing her job, according to the complaint. Others report losing their faith and trust in law enforcement officers. Two sought psychiatric help. 

The lawsuit claims officers used excessive force, committed assault and battery, intentionally inflicted emotional distress and subjected teachers to unreasonable seizure and false imprisonment. They are seeking compensatory and punitive damages.

The Indiana State Teachers Association, which represents the involved teachers, said it wants to prevent other teachers from going through a similar incident.

  

“We do not believe that a school or trainer should conduct any kind of active shooter training drill,” said Keith Gambill, ISTA president, "that includes the firing of any type of projectile at an employee or a student."

During the hearing last March, ISTA had been asking lawmakers to prohibit such trainings in schools but the language was removed before the bill it was added to was passed. Gambill said the organization will continue to seek legislative help to prohibit these types of trainings and increase mental health support for students.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Two of the teachers sought psychiatric help.  It's the cops who conducted this exercise that need psychiatric help.