School shootingSchools review lockdown protocols for active shooter scenarios

Schools across the country are reviewing their lockdown protocols for active shooter scenarios. In Santa Fe, New Mexico, Ortiz Middle School is encouraging educators to not only gather students within their care to safety, but if necessary to fight off an attacker if the situation permits. On 9 October, school principal Steve Baca ordered a lockdown after a security guard discovered a gun in a student’s backpack. Immediately, English teacher Alexandra Robertson locked students in her classroom, got them to help barricade the door, and she was prepared to use any object including books and chairs to fed off anyone who might try to enter the classroom.

For years, teachers were urged to deal with emergency lockdowns by turning off classroom lights, silencing all mobile devices, and shuttering windows. The new approach to active shooter lockdown is a response to the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, that left six faculty and twenty first-graders dead. Dubbed the “Run, Hide and Fight” approach, teachers are encouraged to escape if possible, but only fight as a last resort, as fighting back is a better strategy than acting as a stationary target.

TheSanta Fe New Mexican reports that Brad Spicer, head of Safe Plans, a security firm that trains and consults organizations on security measures, supports Run, Hide and Fight. Spicer admits that it is unrealistic to expect teachers and students to be trained in responding quickly to an active shooter and running does not guarantee safety, but the odds are better for those who plan to escape. “We have to get people away from the lockdown response, the idea that hiding under the desk or in the closet makes you safe,” he said.

Michael Horn, president of Safe Havens International, a campus safety and security firm, disagrees with the Run, Hide and Fight approach, adding that if implemented properly, the lockdown approach will work. Run, Hide and Fight can induce panic he said. “Cops don’t think like teachers, and teachers don’t think like cops,” he said.

The night before Baca ordered a school lockdown, the Santa Fe Police Department had presented the Run, Hide and Fight approach to parents and teachers at the school. “You have children who are counting on you getting them out of there alive,” Santa Fe police Sgt. Ben Valdez told the assembly of about fifty educators. Active shooters, he said, “are looking for the path of least resistance.” And they know law enforcement officers are coming for them, so they are racing against the clock to inflict damage fast, Valdez said.

According to Valdez, previous active shooter events show that students and teachers who either ran or blocked entrances to their classrooms were more likely to survive. He also stressed that running is an option only if teachers and their students feel confident that the shooter is far away. Escaping out of first floor windows is also encouraged. “If they can get out, then we’d like them to get out,” Valdez said.