At 9:25 a.m. Wednesday, a messenger with an ominous directive arrived at the door of room 101 in Sewell Hall at Sierra College’s Rocklin Campus.

Lockdown.

Although the lockdown was only part of a drill, the Mass Casualty Incident (MCI) scenario played out on campus had the look and feel of the real thing.

The scenario, a massacre similar to the one at Virginia Tech just over a year ago, involved a lone gunman, “John Smith,” who was recently reprimanded by the athletic director.

Beginning in the parking lot, the simulated disaster played out with several students shot as the shooter makes his way to the gym and the athletic directors office.

Leaving a path of volunteer students theatrically made-up as injured and dead, Smith is finally shot and killed by officers, but not before killing the athletic director and his clerk.

Headed up by the Rocklin Police Department in conjunction with the Sierra College Police Department, the MCI exercise involved many other area emergency response agencies including the California Highway Patrol and police and fire agencies from Rocklin, Roseville, Auburn, Lincoln, Forrest Hill, Penryn and South Placer.

Cal Fire, American Medical Response, Calstar and CHP helicopters as well as area hospitals also participated in the drill.

Kelly Barraga, the public information officer for the CHP said the Sierra College PD would start by asking for mutual aid.

“The CHP would respond for traffic control,” she said. “Anyone with a SWAT team would also respond.”

The scenario was played out completely, with the most critically injured victims air-lifted to area hospitals.

“They (the victims) will actually be transported all the way to the hospital,” Barraga said.

Kaiser and Sutter-Roseville hospitals were involved in the planning of the event, which, according to Barraga, was a six-month process.

“From their end, it’s a great training exercise,” she said. “The simulated victims are run through the emergency room as though it was the real thing.”

For Sierra College, the simulation is used as a means to find where the strengths and weaknesses are in the emergency response plan, said Sierra College Public Information Officer Sue Michaels.

“We don’t have an intercom system like grade schools and high schools,” she said. “We have an elaborate phone-tree system with building captains to alert classrooms to an emergency or lockdown.”

“One of the things we want to see is if we need an intercom or PA system,” she said.

After the danger from the simulated shooter was eliminated, emergency medical response moved in to tend to the injured and determine which were most in need of medical attention.

“We’re not worried about the injured or dead when there is an active shooter,” said Rocklin Police Department Public Information Officer Terry Roide. “Even if it’s one of our own officers (down), we have to get to the shooter first.”

The simulation served several purposes, Roide said.

“We want to identify where the failures are,” he said. “We have our procedures in place, we know what we’re supposed to do. We want to know what doesn’t work. It’s really good for the patrol officer who is going to be the first responder.”

The training exercise, which was funded by Homeland Security funds administered through the Placer County Office of Emergency Services (OES), is estimated to cost less than $20,000, according to OES Emergency Services Director Dick Simmons.

“It pays for backfill and overtime primarily,” Simmons said, adding that a small amount went to props and other expenses.

Simmons said the scenario is typical and that it will test various aspects of the plan.

“If mistakes are to be made, this is the place to make them,” he said. “If it went too perfectly, it would indicate that there was too much staging in the event.”

Rocklin Fire Chief Bill Mikesell pointed out that multi-agency coordination was a key benefit to the training.

“It’s huge to have your neighbors on the same page as you,” he said.

Mikesell also said that with practice comes familiarity.

“It can’t be an emergency to us. You get to have exercises so the first time you respond, it’s not a surprise,” Mikesell said.

Sierra College President Leo Chavez said he wanted to coordinate emergency services when he first came to campus two years ago.

“We’re irresponsible if we don’t do something like this,” he said. “We wanted to see how the college and the agencies would react.”

According to Chavez, the students and staff took the drill very seriously.

Meanwhile, back in room 101, Don Harris’s students had mixed, although generally favorable reactions to the lockdown.

Although the exact time the lockdown would be ordered was not known, the students and instructor knew it was coming – and they knew what to do.

“We had a video that was shown to the class,” Harris said.

After the doors were secured, the widows were covered and the lights turned off. Everyone in the hall moved to one side, out of sight; cell phones and computers were silenced.

Engineering student Chad Flores said the communication system employed was “good because we don’t have a PA system.”

“We kind of worked the kinks out of the system so we can see what we don’t have,” he said.

Gregory Czap, a chemistry major, said he feels good that “the college is taking a look at this to figure out how this will work.”

Not all students felt they needed the training but still saw a benefit to running through the drill.

“We saw the video so we know what to do. I think for the students, the drill is not so necessary as it is for the agencies involved,” said physics student Dan Nicholls. “So it’s worthwhile in that respect.”