GORHAM – Gorham police and rescue personnel on Tuesday teamed up with University of Southern Maine police for tactical exercises, preparing for a response in the event of a real-life school-shooting incident.

“We’ve trained before at Gorham Middle School,” Gorham Police Chief Ronald Shepard said Tuesday, as he and USM Police Chief Kevin Conger watched their officers respond to mock scenarios.

But, Shepard said, the training marked the initial exercises on the university campus for Gorham Police Department.

The exercises in Bailey Hall, an academic building on campus, was held during spring break. The training involved police, fire and rescue personnel, and several volunteer college students. As observers, school and university administrators eyed responses to the drills.

Gorham fire trucks, ambulances, police cruisers and a mobile command center truck from Scarborough Police Department parked near the building. Inside Bailey Hall, drills featured screaming students as Gorham’s Sgt. Daniel Young and Officer Mark Sanborn fired blanks from smoking race starter pistols. Other officers were armed with so-called simunition weapons designed to fire non-lethal training ammo. With the smell of gunfire in the air, the training took on the look, feel and sounds of a real event.

Conger said the opportunity to train with Gorham responders was “extremely valuable.” In a real-life situation, the town and university departments would work in tandem.

“We’re going to be each others’ backup,” Shepard, a 40-year law enforcement veteran, said. “It makes sense we train together.”

Robert Riley, Gorham Middle School principal, and Susie Hanley, vice principal, were inside Bailey Hall. Riley noticed that police had modified their tactics since a training exercise at the middle school in October 2011.

“This is important stuff,” Riley said.

Lt. Christopher Sanborn of Gorham police indicated a change in tactics from earlier times would send one or two police officers right into action in the event of a gunman in a school.

“There’s a whole new move afoot,” Sanborn said about tactics.

“The school resource officer could be the first line of defense,” Gorham’s Sgt. Michael Nault said during the day-long training.

Gorham Officer Wayne Drown, Gorham High School resource officer, said police strategy had been to wait for a SWAT team. Drown said in the 1999 incident at Columbine High School in Colorado, 47 minutes elapsed before responders went in.

“Now, they say go,” Drown said.

Matt Hoyt, a full-time paramedic with Gorham rescue, is training to accompany police in a real event. Last fall, Hoyt attended the International School of Tactical Medicine in Palm Springs, Calif. “I’ll be able to work with officers as they go in,” Hoyt said, but added, “It’s not there yet.”

Several college students volunteered for Tuesday’s drills on the Gorham campus. One, a senior at Saint Joseph’s College in Standish, Kim Palumbo, is an intern at Gorham Police Department. Sean Lunsted, a senior at the University of Southern Maine, is an intern at the U.S. Marshal’s Service.

Lunsted called Tuesday’s simulation “as real as it can get.”

When guns discharged, some observers in hallways plugged their ears. “It’s more real than anything I’ve ever experienced,” Hanley said.

The Gorham and university police officers learned a plan of action.

“If the real thing happened, God forbid, we’re on the same playing field,” Nault said.

Gorham and University of Southern Maine police officers train for a response to a simulated school-shooting incident Tuesday at Bailey Hall on the university’s Gorham campus. Staff photos by Robert Lowell