Students at a Florida middle school were left traumatized after an unannounced "active shooter drill" had police officers burst into classrooms in the middle of the day and brandish guns, frightening teachers and sparking anger among parents, Fox News reported.
The drill, carried out by police officers at Jewett Middle Academy in Winter Haven, was done in an attempt to see how students would react and cope if a crazed gunman were to enter their school.
On Thursday morning, police officers were witnessed bursting into classrooms immediately after the school principal announced that the school was going on lockdown at about 9 a.m., UK MailOnline reported. Drawing their guns, including an unloaded AR-15 rifle, officers then proceeded to check on huddled students and teachers, who were completely clueless about the drill.
"All of sudden there was a gun barrel," eighth-grader Xavier Tate told "Fox & Friends" Sunday, describing what he saw from his classroom. "We didn't know it was a drill. We thought it was a gunman (coming) right through the door. It was very scary."
Since only the school's principal was aware of the drill ahead of time, the incident has left parents, students and teachers furious.
"I'm panicking because I'm thinking that it's a legitimate shooter [that] is coming, that something bad is happening at the school," seventh grader Lauren Marionneaux told Fox 13.
At one point, frightened students began sending desperate text messages to their parents, believing the whole ordeal to be real.
"A lot of people started getting scared because we thought it was a real drill," said Marionneaux, who texted her mother Stacy Ray. "We actually thought that someone was going to come in there and kill us."
Parents, who were only told about the drill by e-mail after it had taken place, said it was extreme for police to have their guns drawn at kids.
"It's very scary, especially from a parent's perspective. You hear all this horrible stuff on the news and you think it might be happening at your child's school," Ray said.
Tate's mother Cherrise said it was unbelievable for the school to carry such an unannounced drill. "When a friend called and told us there was a shooter at the school my husband...raced to get to the school," she said. "He was so afraid. All he could see was Columbine."
Dismissing the incident however, Winter Haven Police Chief Charlie Bird said that the surprise element of the drill was what officers had planned.
"It's very important that, when you do your drill, you do it without everyone knowing that it's a drill," Bird told WTVT. "How you train and how you prepare is how you're going to react when everything goes bad."
"It really is to protect the children and at no point in time would we endanger any of the children," he added.
Jason Geary, a spokesperson for Polk County Schools, told MyFox Tampa Bay that it's standard procedure for these types of drills to take place without giving parents, students or teachers advanced warning.
"We regret any concern that parents and students might have experienced," the school district said in a statement.
On Friday, Bird announced that future lockdown drills will be conducted by uniformed officers, but without weapons.
