Charles Heetbrink
Member
Active shooter training should be followed up by Mass Casualty Incident training, if possible. Schools seem to like ALICE here in the PNW.
Hi Dutch... Yeah it's me... Our sister High School down the hill to the East actually did a full active shooter drill with the police, an actor as the bad guy, simulated gun shots, students in the hall, etc... A few years ago. My counterpart at the school said the simulated gun shots in the hall were absolutely terrifying.Active shooter training should be followed up by Mass Casualty Incident training, if possible. Schools seem to like ALICE here in the PNW.
Also, how do you ensure that some smart alec doesn't have access to them and lock everyone out of the aud, Or, even worse, lock the main doors, while an audience is in the aud? If they're accessible, they're a liability 99% of the time, and if they are not then what's the point. (note: I'm genuinely curious as to how you mitigate that risk. I like the idea, just concerned about the execution.)that night lock looks like a great security solution. How do you store the lock plates so they are close but don't walk off?
Active shooter training should be followed up by Mass Casualty Incident training, if possible.
In every school there should be teachers who are armed and trained to use guns. A principal, janitor, coach or other willing armed and trained person that is willing to accept the responsibility of legal carry.
My church has a plan. The minister is armed, there is a person in the front of the balcony armed, and on most Sundays at least one of the ushers is armed. And it's not a big church. God helps those who help themselves!
A principal, janitor, coach or other willing armed and trained person that is willing to accept the responsibility of legal carry.
If we are talking "shooter situation" that means he has a gun. The only counter to stop a gun is another gun or guns in the hands of people who know how to use them. You may slow him down with the above suggestions but if he is determined, he still has a gun and can use it. Most doors and walls won't stop most rounds. In every school there should be teachers who are armed and trained to use guns. A principal, janitor, coach or other willing armed and trained person that is willing to accept the responsibility of legal carry. The local police need to know who that person is, they need to have a phone or communication device on them at all times, and one or more of them need to be present at all major events. Even if there is a school security officer present, there should be another person in plain clothes armed as the "security officer" will be the first target of the gunman.
The idea of a shootout in a crowded venue is not pleasant, but allowing a gunman free targets for the time it takes to get an armed officer to the venue is even less pleasant.
My church has a plan. The minister is armed, there is a person in the front of the balcony armed, and on most Sundays at least one of the ushers is armed. And it's not a big church. God helps those who help themselves!
If we are talking "shooter situation" that means he has a gun. The only counter to stop a gun is another gun or guns in the hands of people who know how to use them. You may slow him down with the above suggestions but if he is determined, he still has a gun and can use it. Most doors and walls won't stop most rounds. In every school there should be teachers who are armed and trained to use guns. A principal, janitor, coach or other willing armed and trained person that is willing to accept the responsibility of legal carry. The local police need to know who that person is, they need to have a phone or communication device on them at all times, and one or more of them need to be present at all major events. Even if there is a school security officer present, there should be another person in plain clothes armed as the "security officer" will be the first target of the gunman.
The idea of a shootout in a crowded venue is not pleasant, but allowing a gunman free targets for the time it takes to get an armed officer to the venue is even less pleasant.
My church has a plan. The minister is armed, there is a person in the front of the balcony armed, and on most Sundays at least one of the ushers is armed. And it's not a big church. God helps those who help themselves!
This is by far the most useful post of this thread. Unfortunately, in most places, only a police officer can lawfully have a firearm in a school. Bad guys don't obey gun laws, our laws create easy targets.
It really does. For large facilities this is easy to do. Disneyland can make a point of hiring combat veterans, and scattering them around the park as trained emergency leaders. But for small facilities it's hard. You pick and train the one person from the 5 on your staff who you think is the best emergency leader, you train him, and then find out he's part of the bad 10% who does the wrong thing in the moment.The article that gaftaper posted has some frightening implications. Based on my experience, the bell curve the author talks about is true. The emphasis to find and teach (create?) effective emergency leaders becomes therefore a critical component, in my opinion.
Don't forget about taking the responsibility of ending a child's life because they accidentally killed them in the crossfire trying to take out an assailant. How exactly would this help in a situation like Vegas? Shooting from several hundred yards away at a glass building with a handgun? I doubt the custodians are going to carry long rifles with scopes.
So, we had a three hour Alice Training.
Step one: learn the principles of ALICE
Step two: Classroom Simulations with a police officer portraying a bad guy, armed with a very low velocity plastic pellet gun
Simulation One: Current Lockdown Procedure. Turn off Lights, hide, and be quite. = Many Fatalities.
Simulation Two: Barricade (All my Les Mis Training is finally going to pay off). By making the classrooms more difficult targets, we were able to keep casualties very low.
Simulation Three: Counter / Evade. We were given dodge-balls and told to distract the shooter and try to escape. Most rooms were able to evacuate to safety, but the room that the shooter entered had to fight back. Very few casualties.
Simulation Four: Large Gathering Space. Aka the Auditorium (My time to shine ). Shooter entered from the back, I immediate grabbed the god mic and advised the audience to evacuate towards the stage while I hid under the desk in my cinder block booth. Once the crowd was moving the correct way, I began to just be loud and obnoxious on the microphone to mess with the shooter while the wireless mic was connecting. Once that connected I took off up the ladder to the spot position so that I could more accurately call out the shooters location from safety. Around that time however, he was tackled by one of the more sneaky tech-ed teachers (This guy is seriously prepared for these events. Very glad to see I'm not the only person in the school being proactive).
Take Away Points for me:
Lights on or off? ON!!!! During the first simulation when the lights went out I was unable to move due to how dark it was. It was legitimately scary. If I'm barricaded in a classroom, then I would turn them off, but as far as active shooter in the auditorium goes, lights NEED to be on.
God Mic? Yeah, that sucker needs to be by the board and ready to go at all times. Additionally I plan to carry a spare wireless in my pocket that can go live no matter where I am. I may have finally found a use for the built in auto-mix system.
Those door lock thingys? Good idea to make the classrooms barricade-able, but basically useless for the aud. There is simply no way to get to all 7 of the double doors in enough time. Do not barricade the aud, evacuate. It is way to easy of a target. I have some back rooms where I could hide out with a small group, but I really don't see a scenario where barricading a couple hundred people in one place with many exits is a good idea.
Most important take away. Do SOMETHING. Run, Barricade, Throw stuff, ANYTHING is better than nothing. If you see a chance to get out of there, Do IT!
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