02/25/2018
Parents of school age kids,
Since the murders at Sandy Hook Elementary in 2012, our company has offered training which prepares teachers, administrators, janitors, front desk staff, and parents to deal with an intruder in the building. All school personnel have been trained at no charge. The training has been offered in US military bases and Boys and Girls Clubs. Training centers in Belgium, Germany, and Mexico have hired us to train students. Locally, some private and charter schools have embraced the training. Public schools, however, continue the status quo, hiding behind “liability”, “one voice”, “school safety experts”, “too scary”, “law enforcement response”, and the like. Look no further than the recent murders in Parkland, FL, to find faults in their “plan”:
-Local authorities and the FBI were made aware of the potential problems the killer posed.
-The armed resource officer failed to go inside the building.
-The next three deputies to arrive on the scene failed to enter until another responding department arrived. Despite armed officers being on the campus, four minutes of the six minute attack passed before entry.
-The killer had been suspended from the school. Before he was suspended, he had been barred from wearing a backpack because he was deemed to be a threat. Despite all of this, he got out of an Uber and walked through the front door, carrying a duffle bag.
During the Pulse Nightclub attack, the killer was engaged by an armed officer within 20 seconds of arriving. Six officers were inside the building within two minutes. Those officers were told to stand down by their chief. Three hours later, after 49 deaths, the police decided to breach and end the conflict. During this time, the killer made phone calls, sent texts, updated to Facebook, and reloaded multiple times. There were 300 people in the club that night. Three hundred patrons versus one killer. These patrons spent their academic careers post-Columbine, which means lockdown drills were the norm. Years of being told to run, hide, be quiet, and wait for help kicked in the night of that attack. They did exactly what the authorities, the “experts”, the people in charge of protecting them, had told them to do...and it got them killed.
Six year old Jacob Hall was killed during the attack on Townville Elementary School, two years ago. His killer recently went on trial, and the medical examiner testified that had someone been on the scene with a tourniquet and the training to use it, he likely would have survived. A $30 piece of equipment, and 15 minutes of training could have saved his life.
So, what’s the big takeaway? No one is coming to help you. Even if they are, there is no way to know when, and it may be too late for some or all of those involved. YOU, the person on the scene, are the first responder, and whether you “signed up” for that or not, that’s the reality we all live in now. You can not rely on your school system, your lawmakers, or your police departments. You can no longer abdicate the safety and security of your children to others.
Teachers, seek training. Parents, seek training, for you and your kids. Learn how to barricade a door. Learn the difference between cover and concealment. Learn ways to neutralize a killer. Learn ways to stop massive hemorrhaging.
One person at a time. One neighborhood at a time. One community at a time. We can do this. The time for waiting for others is over.
**Do me a favor, and tag as many parents, teachers, and decision makers as you know. Applying pressure doesn’t just work for trauma care.**