ROCHELLE — Rochelle Township High School was host to an array of emergency personnel Saturday for an active shooting drill training session.
Area police and fire departments participated in the event that included more than 320 students and adults that took personnel more than 20 months to put together.
During the hours-long training session, police officers were faced with a shooter in the building who had detonated a pipe bomb.
According to Rochelle Police Chief Eric Higby – during a mock media news conference – the 17-year-old student had barricaded himself inside a classroom in the “C” wing of the building along with approximately 20 students where he detonated the pipe bomb and began shooting a gun, critically injuring eight students before being taken into custody by police.

Rochelle Police Chief Eric Higby speaks during a mock media briefing Saturday as part of the active shooter drill held at Rochelle Township High School.

“Planning for this drill began in February of 2018 and in that time we’ve engaged the stakeholders and responders in numerous conversations, training and smaller scaled walk throughs,” emergency management coordinator for the City of Rochelle and Rochelle Police Department Detective Terry Inman said. “This drill was another step in the process and we exposed the responders to concepts and tactics that they’ve either never experienced - such as responding to an active shooter in a school - or have recently begun to train with - such as rescue task force operations.  I am very confident that we took away many lessons learned from this drill.”
Many agencies participated in one fashion or another Saturday, including the Federal Bureau of Investigations, Illinois State Police District 1 and 15, ILEAS, MABAS, Rochelle Police, DeKalb Police, Rockford Police, Rock Valley College Police, Ogle County Sheriff’s Police and Emergency Management, Lee County Sheriff’s Police and Emergency Management, Oregon Police Department, Genoa Police Department, Rochelle Fire Department, Ogle-Lee Fire Protection District, Oregon Fire Department, Rockford Fire Department, Cherry Valley Fire Department, Dixon Fire Department, City of Rochelle, Rochelle Street Department, Rochelle Water Department, City of Algonquin, Rochelle School District 212, Rochelle School District 231, Dixon public schools, Oregon public schools, Regional Board of Education, Focus House, Kishwaukee Education Consortium, Kishwaukee College, Western Illinois University, American Red Cross, Salvation Army, Sinnissippi Centers and AESI Counseling.

“Looking at initial observations and immediate reactions taken right after the drill, there were a lot of favorable comments from participants regarding their experience with the scenarios and lessons they learned. As well, there were a number of constructive comments about things that could’ve gone different or better; and these are common with any training evolution,” Inman said. “We are in the process of assessing all of the participants’ feedback and will have specific action points in the weeks and months ahead with the completion of the After Action Report & Improvement Plan.”
Rochelle Township High School District 212 and Rochelle Elementary District 231 Superintendent Jason Harper said that in the aftermath of the session, staff will be looking at security protocol, some of the pro-active things that are already being done and the reactive things that happened during the training and discussing with Rochelle Police and the other agencies that participated Saturday.
“We continue to do our training that we are required to do and I think we have done some things that are proactive in trying to be ahead of these types of situations but there’s a feeling we could always do more,” Harper said.
Inman believes Saturday’s drill was successful overall.
“Anytime you get individuals and entities together for a common goal such as improving the safety of our community and they all give 100 percent toward that end you can’t help but be successful,” he said.