Waterford — School was back in session at Quaker Hill Elementary School Wednesday morning, but it was not the kids who were learning.

The Waterford police department, fire department, ambulance service, emergency management and dispatch center, and the first selectman’s office all collaborated with Montville and New London emergency services to execute a simulation of an active shooter on school grounds.

“I thought the drill went really well,” said Waterford Police Chief Marc Balestracci, who oversaw the operation. “All the agencies worked together quite well, communicated quite well. The goals were achieved.”

What was achieved exactly? Balestracci said he was unable to delve into specific learning points because “there’s some feedback we wanted to get back without it going public,” but he said they discovered radio frequency issue that prevented Montville officers from directly communicating with both Waterford and New London officers.

As a work around, for the purpose of the drill, Montville officers were partnered with a Waterford officer to ensure proper communication. It seemed fitting, in that regard, that an officer from Waterford was the first to reach the scene with a Montville officer by his side.

“When a community has this hostile incident happen, they’re not in it alone,” Waterford Director of Fire Services Michael Howley said. “No community can handle a large-scale incident like this. So you’re reliant on your mutual-aid departments. All of that communication is very key.”

The 9-1-1 call went out at 8:30 a.m.

The first two officers arrived at Quaker Hill Elementary School from the Quaker Hill Fire House staging area within the expected time frame and were greeted by a pair of mannequins on the ground portraying deceased bodies. The tags placed around their necks confirmed the diagnosis and described how each person was “killed.”

The two officers had to locate the gunman, who was portrayed by Alex Hunt, a part-time employee of the town and is a Community Service officer at the police department. Though he had a rubber gun, Hunt simulated gun shots — no live firearms were allowed on-site after a two-point inspection, only rubber guns — by clanking two wooden blocks together. The sound echoed down the main hallway.

Once the officers confronted Hunt in front of the school’s media center, they simulated detaining him with handcuffs as more responders arrived to the scene.

“It was good to finally do some coordinated, unified command with fire, with EMS and this was the first time using our (Special Response Team) team in a drill to this scale as well, so a lot of it was new there,” Lieutenant Dave Ferland said, who was directing operational commands from the command post at the top of the school driveway.

Ferland said more Waterford officers arrived next, followed by Montville and then New London, which totaled 10 officers in the first 10 minutes. In a real situation, Ferland said a he would put a call out to a “hot line for something so significant.” That would act as a “broadcast message that goes out to all eastern Connecticut,” he said.

He said police and fire from all local departments “would start flying here.”

Balestracci explained Quaker Hill was chosen for the drill, because of its geographical location on the north end of town, and “not a lot of easy roads” to access the school provided challenges they would have to overcome. He also said the school’s layout is unlike the other elementary schools in town.

From there, Waterford’s Special Response Team (SRT) arrived on scene to clear the premises. The team conducted room searches — on the first floor only for the purpose of the drill — to clear all of the students and faculty barricaded in various classrooms.

Next came EMS teams to start treating the wounded participants. Some were marked with injuries to the abdomen and needed to be transported to Lawrence + Memorial Hospital, while others were given less severe injuries. The drill revealed itself here as some participants felt the injuries they “sustained” were not treated as they would in a real situation.

“We understand in a real situation they have to move swiftly and just clear out the whole area,” Giovanni Ortiz, 16, said. “However, at the same time, we feel like we should have more care.”

Ortiz gave the example that a peer had sustained injuries to each of his arms, but first responders told Ortiz and another peer to grab the victim by the arms.

Roughly 20 total volunteers from Waterford High School’s student body and staff participated in the drill. They were required to attend a mandatory meeting last week which detailed the drill, their expectations and provided participants with a “safe sign” in case anyone became overwhelmed or uncomfortable. No participants needed to prematurely exit the drill.

Once the building was cleared, all of the victims were transported to the re-unification site at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church, less than a mile away, where parents were to have gone in a real emergency.

It was here where Balestracci learned another lesson: the site may be too small.

Balestracci explained they were only operating with a fraction of the roughly 325 people who usually populate the elementary school, not to mention the parents who would normally swarm to find their children in a real-life scenario. He said an additional site, or a new one altogether, will have to be in place for the next drill.

”So that’s another win for the entire drill is finding issues that were unknown or happened during the incident and making sure if we see them again, we already have a prepared response for them,” Balestracci said.

The students and staff were brought back to the school once the drill was deemed completed. The first responders held a debriefing in the gymnasium before they joined the volunteers for lunch in the cafeteria, where they continued the discussion of what worked and what didn’t.

Balestracci and Howley both mentioned how the group which planned the drill will meet within the next week to make the proper corrections and plan the next iteration.

“We’re going to correct any deficiencies that we saw, at least in language and policy, and we do hope we plan another drill to make sure those corrections were made and it would be at a different school,” Balestracci said.

East Lyme Superintendent Jeff Newton and Assistant Superintendent Annalise Spaziano were on site to observe the drill and, before the drill began, they said they wanted to implement one in their school system, but did not provide a time frame.

Students, like Ortiz, are on-board for more drills like this. Though he called it “a little impractical at times,” in reference to the injuries, he understands the importance. He and classmate Zoe Zito mentioned they used to do lock down drills once a month before COVID.

Ortiz said he gained a “new perspective” of incidents like this after seeing the responders in action.

“It’s very reassuring,” Ortiz said. “Personally, I would like to see the same drill being run at all the schools in the district. That way we can have it properly executed in the most realistic way possible.”

k.arnold@theday.com