'Run, hide, fight' new mantra for schools in post-Newtown environment

Alhambra constabulary officers walk past the Alhambra High Schoolhouse library during an active shooter simulation training at the campus in June. Credit: Albert Lu, Alhambra Source

Traditional school safe techniques had students huddling in locked classrooms and waiting for rescue if danger approached during school hours. But tragic lessons in Newtown, Conn., and Columbine, Colo., have given rise to new recommendations from the U.S. Department of Pedagogy for keeping students safe: Run away and hide, they say. Or if you have to, fight.

The new school safe protocol for staff and students is "run, hide, fight," a major shift from the static classroom lockdowns campuses have followed for years. The procedure asks teachers and staff to accept a more than believing role in trying to survive the unlikely event of an "active shooter" situation on campus. As office of back-to-schoolhouse grooming, educators throughout California are being trained in the technique, which includes giving teachers the leeway to ignore lockdowns requiring students to be kept inside, to run off campus with students, and to unleash a fire extinguisher on a person with a gun.

"The idea is that instead of being passive and being executed, be active and possibly save your own life and the lives of others," said Arthur Cummins, who sits on the board of the California School Resource Officers Clan and is an ambassador for prophylactic and healthy schools at the Orange County Department of Teaching.

This week, Los Angeles Unified School Commune is training all administrators and school principals on "a modify in district policy as it pertains to lockdowns," said Steve Zipperman, main of the LAUSD police department. Leery of publicizing details almost the new process, Zipperman said, "It allows teachers and administrators to accept other options, bated from the policy of saying that you should lockdown."

Tim Anderson, deputy chief of the LAUSD schoolhouse police, said he explained the procedure only to district staff during the preparation: "If you're in a edifice and the edifice is on fire, should you lot stay in the building? Of course not. Where should you get? Somewhere that is not on fire and that is safe."

Tragic impetus

The impetus for the new approach comes from lessons learned from the school shootings in Newtown, where a quondam student shot and killed 26 students and staff at Sandy Hook Unproblematic Schoolhouse in Dec, and Columbine, where two students shot and killed xiii students and staff in 1999.

"If you listen to a 911 tape from Columbine, a teacher was doing what she was trained to do, which was to 'shelter in identify,'" said Carl Hall, banana superintendent of support services for the Kern Canton Office of Education. "The reality was she had a great opportunity to remove herself and her kids and get out a back door – that's very sobering."

But what would "running" wait similar on campuses with hundreds or thousands of students? "Cluttered," best-selling Hall, whose Kern Canton Part of Pedagogy oversees 47 school districts and 178,000 students. But in some cases, it's the best culling, he said.

"Nosotros're and then used to lining up the kids and accounting for them, but we would rather become everybody abroad from the danger and into the neighborhood," he said. "If we lose a kid for a while because he's live, that's a ameliorate trouble to have. Nosotros desire to count them live."

Hall acknowledged that teachers, staff and students at Sandy Hook Uncomplicated did "a lot of things right" in trying to stop the gunman and save students, but a mindset of searching out options for survival is helpful for teachers to have, he said.

The grooming comes as crimes of all types at school, including tearing crimes, have steadily declined from 1992 to 2011, according to a new federal report. In the 2010-xi school year, 11 students died at school from homicide, out of a total school student population of 55 1000000, said Thomas Snyder, a statistician with the National Center for Education Statistics. In remarks calling for schools to keep a sense of perspective about violence at schoolhouse, Vernon K. Billy, executive director of the California Schoolhouse Boards Association, noted, "Suicide, for instance, is a bigger threat than gun violence."

Staff sentinel from the third floor every bit law officers surround a restroom during an active shooter simulation at Alhambra High School in June. Credit: Albert Lu, Alhambra Source

But if the worst happens, schools want to be prepare. "In that location are iii bones options: run, hide, or fight," states the Guide for Developing High-Quality Schoolhouse Emergency Operations Plans, released in June past federal agencies including the Section of Educational activity, Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Federal Agency of Investigation. The guide was promised to schools by President Barack Obama every bit function of a follow-upwards to the fatal shootings at Sandy Hook Unproblematic Schoolhouse in December. "You lot can run away from the shooter, seek a secure place where yous can hide and/or deny the shooter access, or incapacitate the shooter to survive and protect others from harm," the guide states.

While all schools are required by the land and the federal authorities to have safety plans, schools are not required to adopt the "run, hide, fight" protocol, which was issued as a guideline.

"Understandably, this is a sensitive topic," notes the guide. "In that location is no single reply for what to exercise, merely a survival mindset tin can increase the odds of surviving."

Yet, many districts, in addition to Los Angeles Unified, say they are offer trainings or will be offering staff trainings in some class of "run, hide, fight." Kern Canton held trainings for administrators and staff in the new protocol in April and May, with representatives of 35 education agencies in attendance. Other districts include Norris School District, Capistrano Unified Schoolhouse District, Hermosa Beach Metropolis Schoolhouse District and Newport Mesa Unified School District.

Tough decisions

Grappling with the potential danger of an agile shooter on campus is a shift in mentality that brings up some tough emotions, said Patricia Escalante, superintendent of the Hermosa Beach City School District.

"The shift is from knowing the mechanics of locking down to the harder function which is, equally a outset responder, teachers should know who they take with them and who they go out behind," Escalante said. "You may have a child who'due south clearly gone, and y'all get out that child behind."

In June, the Alhambra Unified School Commune held active shooter simulation training at Alhambra High Schoolhouse, with a school counselor playing the part of a educatee with a gun, administrators and principals responding, unscripted, to the scenario, and Alhambra police rushing on campus afterwards the call. The simulation was watched past 350 schoolhouse staff and administrators, including 150 custodians and more than 50 bus drivers, teachers and other staff to be trained as office of professional development workshops this yr, said Laurel Comport, manager of the district's educatee safety and services plan, Gateway to Success, which coordinated the simulation. Some other 100 people from a variety of school districts watched an excerpt of a video of the simulation as function of a preparation in "threat assessment" this calendar month.

Laurel Comport, director of Alhambra Unified'south Gateway to Success program, left, speaks with Lt. Jennifer Wiese during an active shooter simulation at Alhambra High School in June. Credit: Albert Lu, Alhambra Source

The Alhambra active shooter simulation did non include the "run, hide and fight" protocol. "I call back it gets mixed reviews," Bear said.

In detail, advising schoolhouse leaders to flee the campus during an active shooter situation may not exist appropriate, she said. "In certain circumstances, admittedly, that'south what you need to do," she said, "merely information technology'southward harder for school officials because we are responsible."

Bear as well noted that a focus on preventing violence on campus is critical, and effective tools include identifying emotionally troubled students, providing firsthand assessments and referring students and families to counseling. While information technology is impossible to predict whether a student will become a perpetrator of violence, she said, students who commit acts of violence on campus share a sense of disconnection from schoolhouse, family and life.

"Information technology's that lack of interaction that we concern ourselves with – the kids who isolate themselves in their bedrooms for 20 hours a day, and their but human relationship is an electronic relationship," Bear said. "Enquiry has shown that relationships with adults are critically important for kids to mature and develop and be able to manage life."

Improved relationships amidst students and staff, as well as improved counseling services, become a long way toward keeping students connected to school, she said.

"What I often tell our staff is this: We don't need more than metal detectors, nosotros demand more than kid detectors," Acquit said. "We need to exist more mindful when we see something out of the ordinary in kids, whether it's a student's behavior or (mood), and you need to be able to refer that student to professionally trained aid."

Jane Meredith Adams covers student health. Contact her or follow her @JaneAdams.

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Source: https://edsource.org/2013/run-hide-fight-new-mantra-for-schools-in-post-newtown-environment/36539