‘We Do This For When it Happens, Not If It Happens’

It started with several angry phone call from a parent.

Next, the enraged parent entered the office on Harry S. Truman High School.

Bang.

The father shoots multiple people throughout the halls of the school. The principal lays dead in the office, hurt students cry from the halls, and the armed man roamed from room to room.

Police, fire and emergency medical staff were dispatched to the scene.

First responding officers, with weapons drawn, entered the school in formation and are able to neutralize the armed father.

Thankfully, the mass shooting at Truman was only part of a large-scale drill on Friday morning.

Township emergency responders and school officials have been working for close to a year to bring the life-like exercise to fruition.  The drill was not connected to any specific threat, officials said.

“We do this for when it happens, not if it happens” said Chief Reif, chief of the Levittown-Fairless Hills Rescue Squad.

Township Emergency Operations Coordinator and Fire Marshal Kevin Dippolito said the drill was a “sign of the times.”

Students played the role of gunshot victims, sometimes laying in pools of stage blood and wailing. Parent Scott McDonald played the shooter.

Bristol Township School District Superintendent Dr. Samuel Lee said the drill went well and is part of a “perpetual process” undertaken by the district.

Dippolito said the exercise was taped and officials from all parties involved will review the footage. Lee told LevittownNow.com that the district will revise security plans as needed.

Aside from about three dozen emergency responders, about 15 school district employees took part in the exercise, which Dippolito called one of the largest in township history.

Bucks County Rescue Squad, Edgely Fire Company, Levittown Fire Company No. 2, Levittown–Fairless Hills Rescue Squad worked with Bristol Township police on the drill.