Police in Burlington, Vermont, issued an apology Thursday after conducting a “simulated shooting” exercise that a student said left her “shaking and crying.”
During a presentation for Burlington High students at the city’s police headquarters, officers staged a robbery, with a person running into the room wearing a mask and gunshots amplified in the room.
In the statement, police emphasized that they communicated to the school district what the demonstration would look like and the fake firearms they planned to use.
“’Do you think this type of incident would be acceptable to your group of students? It’s as real life as it gets and it’s certainly exactly the kind of thing we deal with most often,” police asked school officials, according to the release.
“YES, the program team responded, ‘I think these students will be fine with this simulation. We will let parents and students know.'”
But some students believed the shooting was real, with one anonymously telling local channel Seven Days they scraped their knee as they fell to the ground when they heard the fake gunshots.
“I’m shaking and crying because I’m like,Oh my God, I’m going to get shot,” another student anonymously told the channel. “It felt so real.”
Police apologized to “all students present who were upset by the specific scenario and crime scene portion of the presentation.”
A school district employee told VTDigger school administrators were aware that a reenactment would occur, but “did not know that the performance would take place without prior notice.”
The Hill has reached out to the school district for comment.
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