On Monday this week, a tragic shooting at a high-school ice-hockey game in Rhode Island left two people dead and three others in critical condition. Sadly, U.S. schools must be prepared for shooting incidents. Here, responses by the schools and others were handled well, despite the incident occurring on a holiday and off campus.

The two teams faced off on Feb. 16 at the Dennis M. Lynch Arena (pictured) in Pawtucket. The “co-op” teams, composed of players from different institutions, were from Blackstone Valley Schools on one side and Coventry Public Schools and Johnston Public Schools on the other. At around 2:30 p.m. local time, gunfire rang out at the ice-skating rink and everyone, including the players, quickly scattered.

“These are high-school kids,” Pawtucket Mayor Donald R. Grebien said at a press conference, according to The New York Times. “They were playing with their families watching, a fun time, and it turned into this. So it’s got to be traumatic.”

‘Swift Response’

Coventry Public Schools issued a statement Monday afternoon noting that all its team players were accounted for. “District officials were notified of the situation while the team was at the arena and immediately began coordinating with event staff and law enforcement,” it said in part. “We are grateful for the swift response of first responders and arena personnel.”

That evening, Coventry Superintendent Don Cowart posted on Facebook that all Coventry students had been “safely reunited with their loved ones” and that mental health resources were being made available to team members and their families.

“We have confirmed that our Johnston High School student-athlete who was participating in the game is safe,” Johnston Public Schools said in a statement, according to the local NBC News affiliate. “We are also aware of another Johnston student who was in attendance, and that student is safe as well. At this time, to the best of our knowledge, no Johnston High School students were harmed during this incident.”

While it appears the Blackstone Valley hockey co-op didn’t put out a statement, the individual schools involved did.

Interscholastic Games

All in all, the schools did a good job of communicating what was a difficult crisis under difficult circumstances. The crisis occurred on a federal holiday (Presidents Day) and off campus. You don’t expect a shooting at a hockey match. The Rhode Island Interscholastic League wisely decided to temporarily suspend all interscholastic games, according to NBC. That showed sensitivity.

The shooting seems to have arisen from a family dispute, so was not random. The fatalities were the ex-wife and adult son of the shooter, who also reportedly died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Rhode Island had a shooting about two months ago at Brown University. “Our state is grieving again,” Gov. Dan McKee said in his statement.

Photo Credit: Dennis M. Lynch Arena

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