EVANSVILLE, Ind. — After news of Hoosier elementary school teachers being shot "execution-style" with plastic pellets during an active shooter training earlier this year broke Wednesday, local law enforcement said teachers don't need to be concerned about that happening here.

The Evansville Police Department and Vanderburgh County Sheriff's Office both use simunition guns that discharge paint markers upon impact when role-playing between officers — never on teachers or students during their ALICE active shooter training in schools.

"The majority of our actual ALICE training (sessions) where we would use simunitions is not in a school setting where children are present," EPD spokesman Sgt. Jason Cullum said.

Members of the Indiana State Teachers Association testified before the Senate Education Committee Wednesday that some of its members were shot with pellet guns and injured during a training session.

The active-shooter training exercise at the Monticello, Indiana, elementary school in January left teachers with welts, bruises and abrasions after they were shot with plastic pellets by the local sheriff’s office conducting the session.

Cullum said EPD performs active-shooter training for the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp., private businesses and hospitals when requested.

"When we put teachers and employees through ALICE training, it's teaching them the principles of it: run, hide or fight.," Cullum said. "We would never intentionally discharge a simunition. The only time there would be a use of simunitions is between law enforcement that are there as responding officers and the designated bad guy, which is also an officer."

Vanderburgh County Sheriff Dave Wedding said the simunition shots usually deliver a tiny sting sensation and sometimes a red mark when shot from a far distance. But a close shot, even with a Glock replica, could possibly break the skin, he said.

The Sheriff's Office performed an active shooter training scenario at North High School in the past and shot rounds in the air to teach students and teachers what a real gun would sound like, Wedding said.

"We're trying to teach people options on what to do," Wedding said. "We like to do it routinely so everyone knows. That's the world we live in now. We wouldn't shoot a pellet or simunition at any teacher, unless they chose to volunteer as an active participant. I don't condone something like that."

EVSC spokesman Jason Woebkenberg said he "heard just a very brief in passing thing about that," and said he wasn't able to comment on its local impact or if it could happen locally.

C&P was unable to get a comment from Michael Rust, president of the Evansville Teachers Association.

The event in Monticello, acknowledged in the testimony this week before state lawmakers, was confirmed by two elementary school teachers, who described an exercise where teachers were asked by local law enforcement to kneel down against a classroom wall before being sprayed across their backs with plastic pellets without warning.

Monticello is about 90 miles north of Indianapolis.

“They told us, ‘This is what happens if you just cower and do nothing,’” said one of the two teachers, both of whom asked IndyStar not to be identified out of concern for their jobs. “They shot all of us across our backs. I was hit four times.

“It hurt so bad.”

Testimony's goal is to prohibit the practice

Now, these teachers and the state’s largest teachers union want to stop this from happening in other Hoosier schools. The Indiana State Teachers Association is lobbying lawmakers to add language prohibiting teachers from being shot with any sort of ammunition to a school safety bill working its way through the Statehouse.

“What we're looking for is just a simple statement in this bill that would prohibit the shooting of some type of projectile at staff in an active shooter drill,” said Gail Zeheralis, director of government relations for the ISTA during testimony in support of House Bill 1004 before lawmakers Wednesday.

The ISTA described a training exercise in some detail via its Twitter account Wednesday afternoon.

"During active shooter drill, four teachers at a time were taken into a room, told to crouch down and were shot execution style with some sort of projectiles - resulting in injuries to the extent that welts appeared, and blood was drawn," the ISTA Twitter thread reads.

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Teachers were told not to tell anyone what happened during the exercise, ISTA alleges.

The teachers' union was present to testify and support several pieces of potential legislation, in particular, House Bills 1004 and 1629.

Sheriff has stopped using pellet gun in teacher training

The White County sheriff told the IndyStar Thursday his department has conducted similar training before but, after receiving a complaint, will no longer use the air-powered device, called an airsoft gun, with teachers.

Teachers at Meadowlawn Elementary School were supposed to be receiving what is called ALICE training, an "options-based" approach that encourages students and teachers to be proactive in their response to an active shooter and teaches tactics that include rushing a shooter in some situations.

Thousands of schools across the country, including many in Indiana, are using ALICE already. Shooting teachers with plastic pellets is not typically part of the training.

'This is not normal practice'

“I’ve worked with teachers in other districts who have gone through ALICE, and this did not happen,” said Barbara Deardorff, ISTA’s UniServ director for 16 school districts, including the Twin Lakes district and Meadowlawn Elementary. “This is not the normal practice.”

HB 1004 pertains to school-based mental and emotional health services while 1629 included various education matters regarding fees, curriculum requirements, school vouchers and federal student aid.

ISTA was apparently seeking to amend language within HB 1004, to place limits on the methods used to portray realism in these types of drills.

"No one in education takes these drills lightly," ISTA said. "The risk of harming someone far outweighs whatever added realism one is trying to convey here. ISTA requests an amendment in bill so that more reasonable limits are placed on these drills."