Schools now need to conduct ‘active shooter’ drills – DepEd

Education Sec. Sonny Angara —Photo from the Department of Education

MANILA, Philippines — Public schools nationwide will soon have an exercise unprecedented in the Philippine education sector: How to stay safe when there is an “active shooter” on campus.

The drills, as announced by Education Secretary Sonny Angara on Tuesday, were an offshoot of the June 22 shooting incident at San Jose National High School in Tacloban City, which involved two teenage suspects and left three students dead and 20 others injured.

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“We are adjusting because we have the first-ever school shooting, which means students were the shooters. So we are now doing the active shooter drill,” Angara told reporters during a school feeding activity in Pulilan, Bulacan.

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“The drill will focus on the things that should be done when there is a school shooting. We will be launching that on Friday,” he said.

He spoke of an “automatic protocol’’ that schools will follow in such a situation.

Among local governments, Baguio City was apparently the first to announce that it would hold such campus drills following the Tacloban incident.

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READ: Angara ensures safe reopening of Tacloban school after shooting

“When we have earthquakes, pupils are taught to move out of school premises. But if gunmen open fire inside campuses, students may also scamper out and be caught in the line of fire,” Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong, a retired police general, said in a media interview on July 1.

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Tap the ‘tanod’

Also on Wednesday, the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) ordered cities and municipalities across the country to establish Safer School Zones by utilizing village watchmen.

According to the agency, there are currently a total of 277,744 watchmen—or barangay tanod—who can help protect students from crime, violence, traffic risks and other hazards in and around schools.

Provincial governors, city and municipal mayors, and village chairs were also asked to involve not just the police but other community stakeholders to improve school security.

The DILG reminded local officials, however, that the tanod should remain outside school premises and can only enter the campus when authorized by school officials or during emergencies.

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“Barangay tanods shall remain unarmed civilian community support actors and must immediately refer incidents requiring police, fire, medical, social welfare, or other specialized response to the appropriate authorities,” the DILG added. /cb