By SHAYLA ESCUDERO/Lincoln Chronicle
NEWPORT — Clad with bullet proof vests, safety glasses, modified handguns and assault rifles, police officers and sheriff’s deputies carefully step in unison as they pad through Newport Middle School hallway, training for the unfathomable — a school shooting.
Officers exchange glances, head nods and verbal cues as they carefully enter classrooms, navigate stairs and turn corners, guns drawn. They move past empty desks and classroom walls filled with posters and colorful artwork as police instructors provide feedback on their positioning.
The effort Wednesday was part of a three-day active threat training that takes place every spring break while schools are closed.
Since Columbine, the 1999 school shooting that killed 12 students and one teacher, there have been over 420 school shootings in the United States and more than 394,000 students have experienced gun violence at school, according to a 2025 data analysis from the Washington Post.
Oregon isn’t an exception, with shootings at Thurston High in 1998, Reynolds High in 2014 and Umpqua Community College in 2015.
Although the number of school shootings declined during the onset of the pandemic when classrooms shifted to remote learning, there was a significant increase once students returned to campus. In 2021, there were 42 school shootings in the U.S. and the following year saw a total of 46 – more than any previous school year, according to The Post’s data.
Non-lethal practice
Inside Newport Middle School, firearms are altered, bolts swapped and bullets replaced with non-lethal ammunition.
“They are low velocity. It’s like getting hit with a paintball,” said Lincoln County Sheriff’s patrol sergeant and tactical team leader Patrick Dougharty. He pointed at a box of the non-lethal ammunition and disassembled an A-R rifle to show the new bolt, which only allows the non-lethal bullets to fire.
The additions allow law enforcement to train with their everyday equipment instead of a model gun that doesn’t fire, allowing more practical training.
Law enforcement agencies have maps that outline the geography of each Lincoln County School District building and each year they train at a different school during spring break. But the skills are applicable to commercial buildings too, Dougharty added.
Each group goes through four hours of training, learning how to enter rooms safely, how to round corners, make decisions and neutralize threats.
The active-threat training, previously known as active shooter training, changed names because of the charged nature of the word but also to encompass how variable a threat can be such as having more than one shooter.
The training isn’t just about tactics, it’s also about mindset, Dougharty said.
Training has been conducted in Lincoln County for over 20 years, Dougharty said. It’s constantly being informed by observing school shootings nationally, observing what went well and what didn’t, he said.
The biggest mindset shift happened after the 1999 Columbine High School shooting that killed 12 students and one teacher. Police waited for a tactical response team before entering the building, for it to be safe, he said.
At several moments throughout the training, instructors referenced the “priorities of life.” It’s a kind of hierarchy that informs decision-making. The top priority is hostages, followed by innocent people, police and then suspects.
Before Columbine, there was a mindset where police were higher in the priority list, Dougharty said, and that’s when responses perhaps were not as successful.
The mindset portion of the training also places an importance on evaluating risks which may involve not immediately going after the suspect and evaluating risks involved in relation to the priorities, he said.
“But the skills that we teach, they put them into practice, even the training with mindset comes into play when at a traffic stop, trying to mitigate threat,” he said, “It’s very important.”
- Shayla Escudero covers Lincoln County government, education, Newport, housing and social services for the Lincoln Chronicle and can be reached at Shayla@LincolnChronicle.org
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