Fury as kids at Vermont school are left terrified after cops stage 'mock shooting' drill with masked gunman

Parents were enraged that their children at a high school in Burlington Vermont were part of a 'mock shooting drill' with a masked gunman this week.

The surprise demonstration took place on Wednesday as part of a year-end forensics collaborative between that Burlington High School and the Burlington Police Department that involved a group of roughly twenty students.

Three officers were involved in the role-playing scenario that simulated a robbery with one of the officers dressed as a masked gunman pretending to open fire, causing panic with many students diving for cover and fearing for their lives.

The simulated drill was meant to be a useful exercise, but the lack of warning and surprise ambush terrified students, and caused outrage among parents and the community.

Outraged parents and students told Seven Days that the mock drill played on the fears of students who have grown up amid a nationwide increase in violence at schools.

The students in attendance said they were initially told they would watch a presentation on how detective solve crimes and get a tour of the police station.

One of the students told the publication how frightened she was, and explained how when she was running for cover, she scraped her knee, all while trying to find her phone to call her mother. 

The student recalled her trauma, and shared that she was 'shaking and crying,' and remembered thinking,  'Oh my god. I'm going to get shot.'   

She added:  'It felt so real.'

It wasn't until the students saw that the officers were doing nothing to stop the shooter that they realized it was 'not real.' 

A parent said, she was 'baffled' by the incident. 'It is a very real threat to kids these days to have a school shooting. It's something they worry about.'

On Thursday, both the Burlington School District and the Burlington Police Department issued an apology to parents and students.

In the statements, the school offered counseling services, and the police department apologized to those students 'upset by the specific scenario and crime scene portion of the presentation.'

They further stated, 'the role-playing scenaior only involved three department personnel simulating a robbery scenario and was not directed at any students or faculty.'

In the letter, the BPD stated that on April 29, the Burlington School District staff associated with the YES program contacted the BPD about conducting another presentation after a previous successful presentation between the police department and the BHS Science in Society in the fall of 2023.

On May 23, police department staff and the YES program staff communicated about the details of the scenario, which included 'using fake firearms in a mock shooting.' 

BPD asked, 'Do you think that sort of incident would be ok for your group of students?

They also stated that 'it is about as real life as you can get, and it certainly exactly the sort of thing we deal with most frequently.'

According to the letter, staff from the YES program responded that 'these students will be fine with the simulation,' and said they will 'give a heads up to parents and students.'

But, according to Seven Days, the presentation that was previously done and successful was used with college students, and adults not high school students, which was sent to parents in an email on Wednesday.

The teachers wrote that 'the detectives did apologize after they realized that the reenactment did not translate well to high school students.'

A district spokesperson would not disclose whether the school district did notify parents ahead of time about the simulation, but some of the students, and parents who spoke to the news outlet, said they were not.

DailyMail.com reached out to the school district to get some clarification but they were unavailable for comments.  

The BPD supervisor was not named, but in the media release issued the supervisor involved reached out to staff members in the program, to discuss the matter further.

On Friday, police department personnel planned to meet with the students, and staff to talk about the incident, and mock drill. They ended the letter stating, 'we hope that this will be a reflective growth and opporutinity for all parties.'

Burlington Police Chief Jon Murad was away at a conference and was not available for an interview, as per the news outlet.

DailyMail.com reached out to the Burlington Police Department for further comment, but they were unavailable at time of publication.

The non-profit organization Dad Guild, posted news of the incident to their more than one million followers sharing how 'deeply disturbed' they were, and shared data about the epidemic our nation is facing with mass shootings in our schools.

 'Over half of high school-aged students fear school shootings, with 1 in 4 being 'very worried,' they wrote, in part. 

'The psychological impact of school crisis drills themselves is profound, with many students having been traumatized by these drills.'

'This reality underscores the urgent need to reform these drills to be less, not more, extreme— and the same goes for demonstrations like the one that took place yesterday.

'We have a unique obligation to handle such exercises with greater sensitivity and forethought,' the organization said, in part

They also asked about 'what accountability might look like for the Burlington Police Department.'

'This situation, brought on by poor judgment for a planned out demonstration, brings up thoughts around how BPD may be exercising poor judgment in actual crisis situations. We hope for a response with care and action steps to mitigate the harm caused.

'We believe and hope that the Burlington community can work towards a safer and more supportive environment for its students, ensuring that educational experiences are both informative and compassionate,' they said.

One person responded to the Dad Guild posting stating.

' I 100% agree that BPD needs to look into their practices, but we also need to be aware that Burlington School Officials were aware that an extremely lifelike gun scenario was going to be demonstrated during this presentation,' they said.

'Sounds to me like the adults from both the school and BPD failed their kids. As a teacher, you don't show a video without watching it all the way through and this should have been vetted with much more scrutiny.'

Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak's office was notified and she 'expressed disappointment,' as per the news outlet.

She stated her concerns on why the police department would conduct a mock shooting in front of high school students in the first place, and without prior warning, and asked the department to 'reflect on why [the demonstration] was problematic.'