CPD official on Uvalde: ‘There were so many police officers … standing in that hallway’

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The Uvalde school shooting looms over the start of this school year.

Only a few months have passed since a shooter slaughtered students and teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. Now students are returning to the classroom.

In May, an 18-year-old legally purchased multiple AR-15-style rifles and bought over 2,000 rounds of ammunition. He then entered the school and fired more than 100 rounds, killing 21 people. 

"I don't know what else there is besides kids being slaughtered inside a classroom that could be more severe than that in our world," Jill Schlude, assistant chief of the Columbia Police Department, told ABC 17 News as part of an interview about back-to-school safety.

It's an alarming trend that not only affecting schools. Last year, the FBI documented 61 active shooter incidents in the country. These incidents increased by nearly 97% from 2017 to 2021.  An active shooter is defined as one or more people actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a populated area using a firearm.

A 77-page Uvalde report by the Texas House of Representatives Investigative Committee outlines multiple failings of school door locks, school safety notifications and law enforcement.    

"I think the most shocking thing to all of us was at one point there were so many police officers of so many different ranks and so many different organizations standing in the hallway," Schlude said. "And nobody just said, 'I dont care what the person's saying, I'm going to go in and I'm going to do the right thing.'"    

The report says some of the victims could have survived if they hadn't "had to wait 73 additional minutes for rescue."

"You're trained to keep going towards the threat until the shooting has stopped," Schlude said.

Schlude says CPD officers have access to all doors in Columbia Public Schools and officers train for active shooter situations.

"When we've done it we've literally had people with fake blood, we've had students screaming, we've had tons of people coming out of the building yelling at us and telling us different things," Schlude said of the training. "That's time-consuming and it takes a lot of people and a lot of time."

Battle High School has two school resource officers, she said. The district hadn't had resource officers since 2020 until this year because of the pandemic and staffing issues. A contract to put the officers back in schools was approved in March. Officers could be back at Hickman and Rock Bridge in January.

Schlude said one of the most common complaints officers hear in schools is a report of a gun in someone's possession.

"I think it's really important that people have conversations with their kids ..." Schlude said. "I think it's also important to have conversations now about what happens if you're in public and something like this happens. How many malls and supermarkets and things like this have we seen happen?"

Many people freeze in active shooter situations, but Schlude said that's not the best option. Fighting or running away are better choices, she said.

"Kids obviously a lot of ages, fighting is not an option but a lot of them can run really fast, and so having these conversations, and unfortunately it's like a lot of things in life right now -- we don't want to talk about them because they're scary and they're not fun, but the reality is that we have to talk with kids and prepare them for it in an age appropriate way," Schlude said.