And back in Belize City, what would you do if there was an intruder at your school or workplace? Does your organization have a plan in place? Well, Nazarene High School does, and they make sure to keep their students and staff ready for anything.
Today, the school held a practice drill, where they simulated an intruder breaking in their campus with a fake gun and trying to barge into the classroom, as if they were looking for a particular student.
The school says that these drills happen annually and are necessary to ensure the safety of the children. Courtney Menzies was there today and has this story.
Summer school at Nazarene High was interrupted this morning when an intruder stormed on their campus. The students quickly closed their doors and windows as the intruder went from class to class, trying to gain entrance as he looked for a specific student named "Johnny."
Eventually, he managed to break into one of the classes after kicking the door repeatedly, but the students threw objects at him to chase him away. The police responded soon after that and took the intruder off campus.
And throughout the entire experience, no one was hurt - not even the intruder, because this was one of Nazarene High's practice drills. According to the principal, these drills happen annually to keep students prepared and safe.
Dr Elisa Seguro, Principal, Nazarene High School
"This drill was to help the students to be prepared and the teachers to be prepared in the event of an actual emergency. If we were to have an intruder on the compound, we would know how to respond and what it is that we're supposed to do. In the case of myself as the administrator, once I am alerted to an intruder on the compound, my role would be to inform my manager, the chair of the school board, as well as Ministry of Education and I would do that through the MOE representative on the board."
"The office was responsible, my secretary was responsible for informing the police department and teachers were responsible for keeping the students safe and to ensure that they follow the instruction. At school our duty is to ensure that students are always safe once the parent send them us and we take that very seriously."
And they've had this policy since 2015, complete with an alarm that lets the students know that they need to take cover.
And tactical safety school instructor, Shihan Kelly, told us more about the drill and the protocols that must be followed once that alarm is sounded.
Shihan Kelly, Tactical Safety School Instructor
"The students were not aware of the drill, however, administration was aware that the drill was going to happen but they did not know what time it was going to happen. And what subsequently happened, the traumatic experience, we want the students not to be traumatized by this but have the essence that, you know what, the world that we're living in is not a safe world, I'm going to be real with you, because at the end of the day, what you see happening in the US, people might say that will never happen in Belize, you might be surprised. But preparation and safety of our kids is the best thing we can do."
"The protocol which was followed that the first security notified administration that an intruder was on the campus and subsequently the administration notified through a PA system that an intruder is here and then the alarm notified all the classrooms to shut the doors, secure the windows, everything and subsequently the intruder went class by class to gain entrance into the classroom."
And the police also played an important role in the drill - ensuring that the intruder is carted off campus without injuring any of the students.
Shihan Kelly, Tactical Safety School Instructor
"The role of the police in this response is very crucial because they are the enforcement entity that will deal with the subject. As you saw, they came in tactically and in this case, they apprehended the subject, the subject was resisting, they did not use firearms to take him down, in return they used a lesser force which was a baton and they strike the area that legally, that they are trained to do and at the end of the day, the subject was arrested and carried off campus and once he was off campus then the school was declared safe so an all clear was given at school at that time."
And police corporal, Nery Waight, explained that there are officers who are trained specifically for this type of incident - especially where children are concerned.
Nery Waight, Police Corporal
"The police department has many sections depending on what situation arises, in our section we train for many situations, one of which happened this morning, hostile arrest and stuff like those, we in the department are aware of situations happening elsewhere so we try to maintain a step forward in keeping abreast with the trainings should the need arises."
"The main focus is protection of life and property. As we approach the situations e go along, making our assessment. If we see, we go and do assessments as we go along, it all depends on the intruder or the perpetrator for us to take action, we'll take minimal action to perpetuate the arrest."
"We know very well the dangers involved in a school, many lives at stake, and for sure that's the first priority. Like I said, the first priority is to maintain life and property so we come to a school, scenario of course, we come, we assess the situation and if we see that more people are going to be involved, are going to be in danger, we try our best to minimize danger to anyone."
But it's not just intruders the school is on the lookout for - they're also prepared in the event a student is one causing the danger.
Shihan Kelly, Tactical Safety School Instructor
"The security staff here is trained that they conduct bag inspection, surprised bag inspection, not announced to the students so every time the students come through that gate or whenever they come through that gate, hopefully that will be the day that that student might want to do harm to another student here and security, which have been trained, conduct that inspection and able to shut it down at the front gate or outside the gate so what you're saying will not happen here on campus."
And after the drill ended, the students were able to continue class, more prepared than ever incase of a real emergency.
Other drill simulations include fires, hurricane preparedness, and student injury.
