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‘Shots have been fired!’ McLean County school
administrators share their crisis response lessons
By Michael Chamness
IASA Director of Communications
The first call came shortly after 8 a.m. with
words dreaded by school administrators
everywhere: “Shots have been fired!”
The call came from an electrician at Normal
Community High School to the director of
operations for McLean County Unit School District
5. A student had fired shots into the ceiling of a
classroom where he was holding classmates
hostage. The incident ended quickly when the
shooter placed the gun down and a teacher
grabbed the gun and then tackled the student.
No school district could have been better
prepared in terms of having an emergency plan that
had been practiced. Nonetheless, that call set off a
chain of events on September 7, 2012, that had
McLean County school administrators in a crisis
response mode for several hours. The experience
yielded some valuable lessons learned.
Dr. Gary Niehaus, superintendent of the central
Illinois district that includes more than 13,600
students in two high schools, four junior highs and
16 elementary schools, acknowledges that
preparedness and luck both played a role in the
successful evacuation, communication and
reunification processes that day.
“The good news, of course, is that no one was
injured. We know that if there had been an injury
(Continued on page 5)
Cover Photo by David Proeber courtesy of The Pantagraph
Matt Chapman, a teacher at Normal Community High School, evacuates students to Eastview Christian Church after
gunfire at the high school Friday, September 7, 2012. Shots rang out in a classroom after a single student shot into a
ceiling. No one was injured.
Lessons
Learned
