'Like a prank': Burlington, Vt. police terrify high school students with fake shootings

When about 20 Burlington High School students went to Queen City Police Department headquarters Wednesday for a forensics class, officers staged a mock shooting — complete with a masked assailant and sounds of shots realistic fires.

But the protest took place with no apparent warning to the students themselves, who plunged to the ground in terror.

One student, who asked to remain anonymous, said she crawled under a desk and started looking for her phone to text her mother when two screaming women and a man wearing a ski mask burst into the room and shots rang out.

The student said she realized what was happening wasn't real when the officers in the room didn't take action. The incident, however, reminded her of a time a gun was pointed at her, and left her crying and “shaken and shocked.”

What was most upsetting, the student said, was that the event happened without “warning.”

“We laughed about it afterwards,” she says. “[It] It just seemed like a prank, basically – not really a demonstration.

Reports of the incident spread quickly on social media, and Burlington police and the school district quickly issued apologetic statements Thursday.

“We take our responsibility to keep students safe very seriously and are deeply sorry that this event occurred,” Russ Elek, a school district spokesman, wrote in an email, adding that students s were offered counseling services.

In its own statement, Burlington police said the department apologized “to all students in attendance who were upset by the specific scenario and crime scene in the presentation.” But police also appeared to blame school officials for the students' shock.

On May 23, police say, department staff communicated details of the protest to school officials, including that the training event would include imitation firearms during a simulated shooting.

“Do you think this kind of incident would be acceptable for your group of students?” This is about as real life as it gets, and it’s certainly exactly the kind of thing we deal with most frequently,” police told school officials.

According to police, school staff responded, “I think these students will do well with this simulation.” We will inform parents and students. »