Indiana elementary school teachers were ordered to kneel against a wall before being shot “execution-style” from behind with airsoft pellet guns during a safety drill.
On January 4, some 30 teachers at the Meadowlawn Elementary School in Monticello underwent ALICE training which encourages teachers and students to be proactive when facing an active shooter, including rushing the attacker. Shooting teachers with plastic pellets does not typically feature in ALICE training, however.
They told us: ‘This is what happens if you just cower and do nothing,’” an unnamed teacher told IndyStar. “They shot all of us across our backs. I was hit four times… It hurt so bad.”
Teachers testified that they left the training with welts, bruises and abrasions as a result of being shot with the pellet guns in a somewhat overzealous attempt at realism.
The teachers were taken into a room, four at a time, at which point they were shot, without any prior warning. They were also told not to warn any of their colleagues when they left the room.
“Educators should never have to endure being fired at with pellets in an active shooter training,” said Keith Gambill, vice president of Indiana State Teachers Association (ISTA), who added that he felt the training was “fear-based” and“injurious.”