Step Into Security Webinar - Securing Campuses for the New School Year

Securing Campuses for
the New School Year

Today’s
Moderator
David Martin
Physical Security
Technical Specialist
LENSEC

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Webinar
Logistics
Q&A at the end
Questions for the panelist
Audio from attendees muted
Poll questions
Survey

Today’s
Panelist
Gary L. Sigrist, Jr.
President & CEO
Safeguard Risk Solutions
30 year career as an educator, administrator, &
police officer
Nationally known speaker
Safety Consultant
Helps clients identify vulnerabilities, plan accordingly,
train thoroughly & respond effectively

Training
Goal
Securing Campuses for the New School Year
Topics for Webinar:
Training Staff & Students
Levels of Response
Three Outs of a Lockdown
Active Shooter Scenarios

Types of Drills
Fire Drills
Severe Weather
Class Evacuation
Stay Put
Secure Perimeter
Reverse Evacuations
Intruders
Lockdown with Active Shooter

Conducting Drills
Meet Your State Guidelines
Use the Incident Command
System (ICS)
Age Appropriate
Make Available to the Parents
FEMA ICS Resource Center: https://training.fema.gov/emiweb/is/icsresource/index.htm

Classroom Evacuation
Incident in Classroom
Medical Emergency
Fight
Disruptive/Belligerent Student
Send Students to Another
Classroom
Teacher of the Second Room
Notifies the Office

Make Drills More Realistic
Have a Drill Objective
1st Drill Tests Procedures
Time
Blocked Exit
Missing Staff Member or Student
Transition Period
Rapid Evacuation
After Action Review for Every Drill

Lockdown Drills
Age Appropriate Conversations
Before the Drill
After the Drill
Why do we do these drills?
What if you were in the hall and
couldn’t get into a room?
Could we escape from this room
if we had to? How?

Lockdown Drills
Parent Meetings to Discuss Drills
School Responsibilities
Talking Points for Parents &
Children

Calling a Lockdown
Who Has Authority?
Cafeteria Lockdown During Breakfast
Lockdown During Class Change
When is the Lockdown Over?

Ignore all Announcements Stating
the Lockdown is Over
Ignore the Fire Alarm
Have Your Cell Phone On Silent
Mass Notification System
Text Message Indicates All Clear

Remove Barricades
Don’t Unlock the Door
= Immediate Help Needed
= All Clear
Officers Make Entry Using Key
Everyone is a Threat
Students Keep Hands Visible
Follow Law Enforcement Instruction
Yelling of Commands by Officers

/
The cards don’t alert the shooter people are in
a room, they already know you are there!
The primary concern is to get your students to a
safe area, not display a card.
Cards are used for triage after the event is over
to determine which rooms will be entered first.
Red has priority
Entry into a room will be dynamic, regardless of
the card color.

Poll
Question
Poll Question #1
If a classroom has windows, what actions are
important in order to keep everyone safe?

Levels of Response
Keep It Simple
Communicate
Trust Your Staff
Three Levels of Response
Stay Put
No Threat To Student/Staff Safety
Secured Perimeter – Shelter In Place
Something Outside the School Building is
Considered a Threat
Lockdown
Threat is Inside the School

Levels of Response
Stay Put
Students Need to Stay Where They Are
Medical Emergency
Maintenance Issues
Usually Occurs Right Before Class
Change
May Happen in the Middle of Class Period
Students may not be Given Hall Passes at
This Time
No Threat of Harm to Staff or Students
Parent Communications

Levels of Response
Secured Perimeter – Shelter In Place
Response to External Threat/Conditions
Weather
Crime
Reverse Evacuation
Exterior Doors Docked
Outside Windows Covered
Minor Changes to Normal Routine
Education Continues in the Building
Parent Communications

Levels of Response
Lockdown
Reserved for Highest Threat Level
Threat is Inside the Building
District Lockdown Procedures Activated
Perimeter Secured
Students in a Safe Area
If Safe Area is in the Building, the
Entrance is Barricaded
Exit the Area if it Becomes Unsafe

Three “Outs” of a Lockdown
Lock Out
Get Out
Take Out

Typical Lockdown
Students Take Cover in French Class in Holden
Hall at Virginia Tech, next Door to Norris Hall
Photo Credit: Chase Damiano

Lockdown
Call 9-1-1
Alert Staff/Students
Initiate Lockdown
Lock All Doors
Barricade Doors
Cover Windows
Turn Out Lights
Stay Away from Windows/Doors
No Unnecessary Noise

Lock Out
Cover Windows
The Bad Guy Can’t Shoot
What He Can’t See
Don’t Put Yourself at Risk if
Your Students are Out of
Sight

Enhance Your Lockdowns
 Lock all Classroom Doors
 If Doors Don’t Lock, Use Belts,
Electric Cords or Ropes to Tie Door
Handles to Chairs, Flagpoles, etc.
 Barricade Entry Points with Chairs,
Desks, and Furniture
 Cover the Windows
 Darken the Room
 Move Away From Windows and Doors
 Remain Quiet
 Delay the Gunman to Buy Time

Enhance Your Lockdowns - Door Vulnerabilities
Red Lake High School Hastings Middle School

Enhance Your Lockdowns – More Than Just Locking the Door

Zip Ties on Door Closers

Dog Leashes & Door Knobs

Get Out
Move to Safe Areas
Exit by Whatever Means
Possible
Break Windows if Necessary
Be Prepared
Evaluate Available Items
Used to Break a Window

Caution on Self Evacuation
It is very important to point out that
extensive research by fire service
professionals demonstrates that
when people in groups run inside a
building, mass casualty loss of life is
more likely to occur.
While it may be best for people to
run when in small groups or alone,
larger groups can jam doorways
causing mass casualty loss of life.

Poll
Question
Poll Question #2
Taking out the bad guy
should always be your first choice.

Take Out
Gain Control of the Person Armed
With a Deadly Weapon
This Presumes Emergency Personnel
and First Responders Aren’t Present
Teachers & Students are Left to Deal
With a Shooter in Their Midst… Alone
Students & Teachers Might Have to
Physically Attack a Gunman

Take Out – Trapped with Gunman
Don’t Provoke the Shooter
If They Aren’t Shooting
Do What They Say
Don’t Move Suddenly
Only You Can Draw the Line
What Will You Do to Preserve Life?
What Won’t You Do to Preserve Life?
If Shooting Starts, Make Your Own Choice
Stay Still & Hope They Don’t Shoot
Run for an Exit Zig-Zagging
Attack the Shooter
NOTE: This is not a recommendation to fight but rather
a choice to fight where there are no other options.

Take Out – Ending The Event
Immediately Stop the Active
Shooter
Stay Alive
Don’t Hold Back
Attack With Strength
If Shooting is Justified, Deadly
Force is Justified

Take Out – Preparing to Take Out

THREE OUTS AREN’T LINEAR
STAFF MEMBERS
MUST HAVE CHOICES
TAKE OUT

What Will Determine Your
Response?
Are You in Direct Contact With
the Shooter?
Are You & Your Students Safe
in Your Location?
Can You Escape From Your
Location if You Come in Direct
Contact With the Shooter?

Active Shooter – In the Hallways
Get Into a Room
Secure It Unless Already Secured
Don’t Run Through a Long Hall to
Get To An Exit
You May Encounter the Gunman
or Hostage Taker
Don’t Hide in Restrooms

Active Shooter – In Class or Office
If You Are in a Classroom, Room
or Office…
Stay There
Secure the Door
If the Door Has no Lock…
Barricade
Place a Door Wedge Under the
Door
If the Door Has a Window…
Cover the Window if Possible

Active Shooter – In Class or Office
Turn Off the Lights
Silence your Phones
Attempts to Rescue Others Outside
Only Attempt if it Doesn’t Endanger
People Inside the Secure Area
Have Someone While You Help
Students Out of Ground Floor Windows
Maintain Quiet in the Room

Active Shooter – If You Do Get Out…
Move Toward Police On Scene
Hands on Head
Do Exactly What Police Command
If No Police Are On Scene
Move Well Away From the School
Find Safe Cover Positions
Do Not Go to the Parking Lots
Wait for Police to Arrive

Active Shooter – In Large Rooms
If the Gunmen or Hostage Takers
Aren’t Present…
Move To External Exits
Exit if Safe
Move Toward Police On Scene
Hands on Head
Do Exactly What Police Command

Staff Responsibility
Be Sure You Know & Are Trained in
Your Emergency Response Plan (ERP)
The Quickest & Most Effective Way to
Keep Yourself & Students Safe it to
Barricade the Door
If Your Location Is Unsafe…
Get To a Safe Area
Whatever it Takes
You Have the Choice to Fight Back
Step Into Security Webinar Archive: http://bit.ly/SIS4-16

Contacts
David Martin
LENSEC
(512) 318-3829
dmartin@lensec.com
Gary L. Sigrist, Jr.
Safeguard Risk Solutions
(614) 679-5608
gary@safeguardrisksolutions.com

Thanks for Attending
Today’s Webinar

SIS9-16 Webinar – Securing Campuses for the New School Year
Poll Question #1
If a classroom has windows, what actions are important to take to keep everyone safe?
1) Stay away from doors/windows
2) Cover windows
3) Turn off the lights
4) Move everyone away from the door
5) All the above
Poll Question #2
Taking out the bad guy should always be your first choice.
1) True
2) False
Questions and Answers
Q. How do we let the first responders know that we are safe or in trouble in our barricaded
room?
A. As covered in a previous webinar, we recommend barricading during an event to keep staff and
students safe. These are not devices that attach to the door or frame to prevent the door from ever
being opened, but the use of belts, flagpoles, furniture, etc to ‘delay, deter, and deny’ the shooter entry
until Law Enforcement has arrived. Based on events at Sandy Hook, we recommend that after the
shooter has been stopped, the school uses their mass notification system, an email sent from outside
the building affected, or the First Responder vehicle PA systems to announce the shooter has been
stopped. Teachers will then remove the barricades, but leave the door locked. If there is a need for
immediate assistance, slide a red card under the door. If everyone is safe slide a green card under the
door. Working with your local First Responders, they will know to go to the red card doors first when
moving room to room. This increases the chance for those injured to get medical help within the
Golden Hour.
Q. How do you have the message come from outside the building to let staff know the lockdown
if over?
A. This response isn’t relevant if you’re a one building school district. Generally, you have multiple
schools. Even if it’s a small district, you’ll have an elementary, a middle school, and a high school. I work
with a smaller district where the board office is located in the high school. Maybe, if you’re lucky, you’re
central office is located offsite. If there is an event that is happening at the high school, you could
contact the principal at the middle school if it’s a separate location. Administration at the off-site
location could send the message from the mass notification system. Or, if you don’t have a mass

notification system, the off-site personnel could send an email to everyone in the affected building that
the event has concluded. They could notify staff to take the barricades, but don’t unlock your doors.
You definitely don’t want the message to come from inside the school. When I was a teacher, my email
was up all day. If I had the bad guy in the room, he could send the email message saying it’s safe and
everyone should come out into the hallway. That opens up staff and students to harm because the
message came from inside the building.
Q. How do we maintain best practices and the policies to reflect these standards? How do you
get FEMA/government support for our school security?
A. It is important to remember the model for Emergency Management is a circle, not a straight
line. Prevention/Mitigation, Planning, Response, and Recovery is a continuous cycle. Working with First
Responders, reviewing your plans, training your staff, and conducting exercises are an ongoing process.
Just like our great schools that have made student achievement and success a cornerstone of their
school culture, school safety must also me a part of a school’s culture. Bullying prevention, anonymous
reporting systems, and training parents, students, and the staff is part of that culture.
LINK: FEMA Guide for Developing High-Quality School Emergency Operations
Plans http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/oese/oshs/rems-k-12-guide.pdf
Q. ALICE training or Run, Hide, Fight? A.L.I.C.E. Training when and when not to use it and how do
you teach students?
A. I have attached an article I wrote for Campus Safety Magazine on Run, Hide, Fight and its
application for schools. The bottom line: Even the producers of the video acknowledge that it was not
developed for schools.
I am an ALICE instructor. I was trained by the founder. There are some very good components of ALICE
which I use with my clients. However, as taught by ALICE instructors per the curriculum design, I do not
recommend ALICE for schools.
ARTICLE: Campus Safety Magazine, “Is ‘Run, Hide, Fight’ Applicable in the K-12 Setting?” by Gary L.
Sigrist, Jr. (attached below)
Q. How to fortify school buildings especially doors and have the Fire Marshall approve the
changes or the use of temporary devices?
A. There are some good devices on the market for using as a barricade. However, National
Building and Fire Codes prohibit the use of most devices. I struggle to advise schools to buy such devices
because they simply will never be needed and if such a device were needed, there are things in most
classrooms that will be just as effective.

If your school or district is considering making such a purchase, use the relationship with your first
responders, especially your Fire Department, to evaluate the products before purchase. Your first
responders should be part of your safety plan, training, and exercises.
Because of fire code, you can’t use a barricade that takes more than one motion to open. We talked to
fire marshals about some of the ideas presented in this webinar. They all said, “These are temporary
devices. These are all devices we could defeat if we had to.” Fire experts don’t approve of permanent
barricades because they are unsafe. If an offender is a student in a classroom with a barricade that can’t
be easily removed by law enforcement, then life safety is affected and people can’t get the help they
need.
Q. How do we maintain a calm environment during a crisis?
A. The simple answer is following the Four Phases of Emergency Management. Think about
yourself if you have ever been in an emergency situation. If you were trained and had a plan, you were
better prepared to respond to the emergency. In a crisis we respond in the manner in which we trained.
We use this graphic to show the difference between being prepared and not being prepared.
Q. How to train elementary school teachers to react confidently to a myriad of dangers? It is
much easier with a high school.
A. Unfortunately, we have Sandy Hook to look to if we need to demonstrate the need for an
elementary staff to be prepared for such an event. Older students are more capable of responding with
little instruction than elementary students. During training with older students, age appropriate
discussions are more detailed and realistic situations can be introduced. We do not recommend
teaching elementary students Intruder Exercises like we do Fire Exercises, but rather teaching them a
behavior to follow when instructed by their teacher, without telling them why teachers are conducting
the exercise. First, they are too young to comprehend the situation. Second, it may cause fear and
panic in older elementary students.
Q. How do we keep a safe campus without turning it into a "prison"?
A. Excellent analogy! We could turn our schools into prisons and almost 100% guarantee the
safety of the staff and students. But, who would want to work or learn in a prison environment? School
Safety and Security is a layered process. We build layers of security using an All Hazards approach. Our
goal is to build a castle. Castles were structures designed to keep the people inside safe, yet everyone
still wanted to be in the castle.

Q. What do we do about parents who panic and want to flood the school to pull their child out
even if there is a lockdown?
A. This goes back to our earlier question regarding the importance of training our students, staff,
and parents. At the beginning of the school year, during Open House, in monthly newsletters, or when a
school incident occurs in another part of the country, use these opportunities to reinforce with your
parents your relationship with First Responders, the types of training you’ve conducted with staff and
First Responders, and your commitment to the safety of their child while they are at school. Parents
tend to forget that while they are concerned about one child, schools are concerned about every child.
It is important for them to know that if they rush to the school during event they may cause a traffic
issue that prevents First Responders from getting to the school or prevents First Responders from
getting from the school to the hospital. Your school needs to develop both a training program for your
parents and a PR campaign to show you have worked with First Responders to create an All Hazards
Emergency Response Plan, a training program for staff and students, and an exercise schedule to test
your plan.
Q. School intruders are my main concern. We are located in a not so nice part of town.
A. I will go back to the layered approach. Unfortunately, there is no ‘one thing’ to solve this
problem. Have you worked with First Responders to discuss the issue and develop possible solutions?
Have you invited your local Law Enforcement agency to do frequent visits during the week, much like
they do business checks? Have you offered a place for officers to complete crash reports and the use of
your copy machine? Do you have signage that states all visitors on school property must check in at the
office? Does everyone on your staff (and students middle school and up) wear a school ID? (These can
be furnished for free by most school picture companies.) Have you taken advantage of funding sources
available to put a camera and buzzer system at your main entrance?
Q. Lessening the amount of lockdowns so class time is not interrupted - how do we decide
perceived versus actual threat?
A. Training takes time. Although we teach barricading, we do not recommend using class time to
barricade during a drill. In high school and middle school it is possible to design safety lessons across the
curriculum that meet both the needs of Student Learning Objectives and prepare students for events
that may happen at school.
If you perceive a threat you should respond to the threat. If during your After Action Review
you believe the response was incorrect, you will need to re-evaluate your plan and/or your training.
Q. Are we doing enough to be prepared?
A. We can always do more, but the fact that so many of you took time out of your busy day to
attend the webinar shows a commitment to School Safety and Security. If you just remember safety is

not a sprint or even a marathon, but a continual process you are doing more than many schools. Keep
up the great work.
Q. How do I know I am doing the right thing at the moment?
A. Are you taking an action? If a crisis is taking place and you are doing nothing then you are not
doing the right thing at the moment. This is why we train for the events most likely to occur in a school.
It teaches us we must always take actions to protect life, prevent the event from getting worse, and
protect assets. If you do the same thing in an event you were not prepared for you are still doing the
right thing.
Q. We are a small school. Is it correct to think that we do not have a lot of concerns like a larger
school?
A. Sandy Hook was a small school in a nice community. I do not believe in promoting or selling fear
to schools, but it is the responsibility of every school to be prepared for all events that could occur using
the All Hazards approach.
Q. How do we make sure we are prepared, trained, policies written and the staff is educated?
A. Are you documenting your efforts to keep your students and staff safe? Are you working with
First Responders? Is there an After Action Review and an After Action Report after every event? Are
you sharing and comparing your efforts with your colleagues in other schools? Are you following best
practices? Are you taking time out of your busy day to attend webinars? Answer “Yes” to these
questions and you know you are committed to the Safety and Security of your school.
Q. How do we differentiate the different types of emergencies and procedures?
A. Just a little clarification. Emergencies are defined in your All Hazards Emergency Response Plan.
You can zero in on specific hazards at your school with the use of a Security and Vulnerability
Assessment. Your procedures are the actions taken during the emergency.
Q. What if an irate parent or citizen comes in with a weapon what should we do?
A. Initiate your Intruder in the School plan. Call 9-1-1. We believe in empowering the staff and
recommend three choices when faced with this decision: Lock out. Keep the intruder away from staff
and students using a secured perimeter, locked doors, and barricading. Get out. If you are in an unsafe
area or in direct contact with the shooter, put as much distance between you and the shooter as
possible. Take out. As a last resort, staff attacks the shooter. Remember, this is not linear. A staff
member’s first choice might be to attack the shooter.

Q. You do not recommend training students to attack a gunman. Why?
A. When my own children were in school I taught them to follow the directions of the teacher, but
I also trained them attack a gunman as a last resort, whether at school, a movie theater, the mall, or
church. It was my responsibility as a Dad. I am sure most of the parents of my students would have
been pretty upset if I gave the same advice to their children. We recommend during a school meeting
or Open House discussing with parents the Three Outs and give them talking points for their children.
Let the parents decide how they want their children to respond as a last resort. Remember, in every
instance where a student attacked a gunman, the student had no ‘formal’ training.
Q. How much information should you give parents/staff when sending out a notification, like the
threat of potential shooting at school? How much do you tell them when you believe school is safe?
For example, do we tell them we had a threat for a shooting and here is what we did or do we say
something else?
A. As A.J. Morgan from SchoolMessenger likes to remind everyone, the message you want parents
to hear is your school’s message. If your school does not put out a message, the message they will hear
and believe is the one they hear from their child or read on Facebook. You do not always need to be
specific, but you always need to give them the truth and the facts. For example:
Yesterday afternoon at Carter Middle School, a note was discovered written on the bathroom
wall indicating an act of violence would occur at the school this Friday. We immediately notified the
Chase County Sheriff’s office and met with a deputy and her supervisor. An investigation is now
underway separate from actions being taken by the school. As per school policy, we brought together
our school Threat Assessment Team and began conducting a threat assessment. Based on our findings
and input from the Chase County Sheriff’s Office, we do not believe the threat is credible. School will
remain open of Friday. We take the safety and security of our students and staff very seriously.
Although we do not believe the threat is credible, the Sheriff’s Office has assigned a deputy to the school
for the day. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact my office.
Q. How do you practice with young students without frightening them?
A. All training must be age appropriate. You know your students, talk to them on their level. We
do not have to tell younger students why you are having an Intruder in the School exercise; just train
them what to do when instructed by their teacher.
Q. Is there a mass notification system that you recommend?
A. I’m familiar with SchoolMessenger. They’re one of the largest mass notification systems in the
United States. They have a very robust system that allows you to do more than just school messages
during an emergency. They allow you to notify parents about activities, school emails, etc.
When I did my research, I found SchoolMessanger located in St. Louis, in California, and they do work in
Canada.

Q. Is it a good idea to allow concealed carry on K-12 campus?
A. My standard answer is “No.” When I was a teacher and a safety director, I was also a police
officer at the same time. I was legally allowed to carry a gun to school. I never did. Here’s a couple of
reasons why. If you’re a teacher carrying a gun, where are you going to keep the gun? When I carry off-
duty, 99% of the time my gun is on my hip because that’s where I carried it when I was on-duty.
Sometimes a carry it in an ankle holster. I always think, “What would my eighth grade students have
done if they saw me carrying a gun every day?” They would have been focusing on the gun.
The other reason is the possibility that even though I’m a pretty big guy, if 5 or 6 students swarm me,
they would be able to take my gun from me. It would be a struggle because of the holsters that I carry,
but they could get my gun away from me.
And the third reason: In the state of Ohio, we use a training technique called SORAT – Single Officer
Response to Active Threats. In this, police officers train responding by ourselves. We respond to activity
by ourselves. They set us up to expect failure. I entered the building from one side and, unknown to me,
another officer entered from another side. There was a lot of confusion because we used a sound
system so that you hear screaming, gunfire, fire alarms, etc. I came around the corner and looked into a
classroom and saw the gunman and was engaging the gunman. The other law enforcement officer came
around the corner and all he saw was me shooting somebody. I was responding as a police officer. He
was responding as a police officer and he shot at me. We had that happen throughout the afternoon.
Officers were shooting each other in training. Granted, we weren’t in uniform. But, it kind of proves the
point.
If I’m a police officer and I get a call that there is a man with a gun at the elementary school. When I go
in and see somebody with a gun, I’m not going to know if that person is a staff member or a bad guy. I’m
going to shoot him and it’s because that’s what we’re trained to do.
Now let’s back up a minute. I was working with a school where the response time for law enforcement
agency was 45 minutes. I recommended they have guns in lock boxes in various parts of the building
that different staff members could get to. In other words, they had a firearm present but nobody carried
a gun.
Q. Can we get a copy of the written notes? I took notes, but could not write everything down
fast enough.
A. We always provide attendees a copy of the presentation after the webinar is over. We’ll email a
link to you to download the presentation slide deck and view the video of the webinar. We archive the
webinar video on our website. You can find previous topics in the LENSEC Step Into Security Webinar
archive.
WEBINAR VIDEO ARCHIVE: http://bit.ly/StepIntoSecurityWebinarArchive.

campussafetymagazine.com 9
SELECTING THE RIGHT ACTIVE SHOOTER RESPONSE PLAN
IS ‘RUN, HIDE, FIGHT’
APPLICABLE IN THE
K-12 SETTING?
“Lock Out, Get Out, Take Out” active shooter
response may be more appropriate for schools.
By Gary Sigrist Jr.
WHETHER TEACHING HOW TO RESPOND to workplace violence in
an office, factory/retail setting or college campus, our consulting firm
uses the “Run, Hide, Fight” video as part of our curriculum. The only
additional information we add is a reminder that “Run, Hide, Fight”
is not linear. You may be in a situation when confronted by an active
shooter, and the only logical choice is to fight before you can run or hide.
After a discussion about the video, people often ask if “Run, Hide,
Fight” should be taught in the K-12 setting. The short answer to the
question is, “No.” The long answer is much more complicated.
Schools Must Keep ‘In Loco Parentis’ in Mind
It is important to remember “Run, Hide, Fight” is shown in an office
setting, not a school. Everyone depicted in the video is an adult
responsible for themselves and their own decisions. At 1:45 in the
video, viewers are instructed to: “First and foremost, if you can get out,
do. Always attempt to escape and evacuate, even when others insist on
staying. Encourage others to leave with you, but don’t let them slow you
down with indecision.”
K-12 schools operate under a different set of rules than business.
Businesses must provide training for their employees to meet OSHA
regulations for safety, but the adults are expected to use that training
and act as, well, adults. Courts have ruled that schools and school
personnel are In loco parentis, or in the place of a parent. This gives
the schools both responsibilities and consequently, liability in regards to
their actions for keeping students safe.
Not only are schools responsible for training students for an
emergency, but also for leading the students in an emergency. Therefore,
in the event of an active shooter, a teacher cannot instruct their students

to run for the nearest exit, yet not make sure the students are actually
trying to exit. Nor should a teacher leave behind a student who is too
frightened to leave an area, especially when the child is very young.
Barricades Compensate for Weak Locks,
Doors and Windows
Hide is currently taught in schools under the term “lockdown.” When an
active shooter is inside a school, staff members are generally instructed
to lock their classroom door, cover the window if possible, turn out the
lights and move the students to an area in the room where they are less
likely to be hit with gun fire if the shooter fires through the door.
Although this has been shown to be an effective method for keeping
students out of harm’s way, many feel simply locking the door is not
enough. Teachers are now being taught to barricade the room using
existing furniture, extension cords or commercial products designed
specifically to keep a room secure during an active shooter event. This
enhanced technique of barricading overcomes weaknesses in doors such
as large windows to the side of the door frame or large windows in the
door itself.
Don’t Teach Children the ‘Fight’ Component
Fight is viewed as a last option when in direct contact with the shooter
or if you do not have the option to run or hide. Should we be teaching
children to fight a person with a gun? NO! There are several good
reasons why this shouldn’t be taught to them.
First, the active shooter event in school is rare. Depending on
the age of the child, we could be causing them unnecessary fear by
preparing them for something that is unlikely to affect them.
Although we could have age appropriate conversations with older
students about what their choices could be, parents may not agree with
the message we give their child. It is better to give the parents talking
points so they can have the discussion with their children.
When my children were still in school, I gave them specific training
on what to do in an emergency at school, church, the mall, etc. As
a police officer, I have a different perspective and skill set than most
parents. I could see some parents being extremely angry if I told their
children what I told mine. However, I was exercising my responsibility as
a parent, not a school employee.
What About Teachers and Administrators?
Should we teach staff members to fight? Maybe. First, we must let them
know it is their choice whether or not to attack the shooter.

For example, post 9-11, if anyone gets the least bit out of order on
a plane, they are usually beaten by fellow passengers and duct taped to
a chair. Do all the passengers attack? No. Some choose to attack, and
others choose not to attack.
This is what we need to teach our staff; they have a choice. If they
want to learn techniques for fighting, we should use our relationship
with our local law enforcement to provide the training to attack a
shooter.
How ‘Lock Out, Get Out, Take Out’ Works
So what do we teach in schools? There are many programs and many
“experts” willing to sell their sure-fire strategy for keeping students and
staff safe. Almost all are time consuming, and many are expensive. Two
things schools are short of are time and money. There is little time for
training and almost no budget. Strategies must be easy to learn, easy to
remember and easy to use. These strategies must give staff choices and
allow them to make choices based on their training and the situation.
LOCK OUT: Since Sandy Hook, many schools are securing the
perimeter of the buildings and using a camera and buzzer system to
control entry to the building after the start of the school day. This is not
a fool-proof method of keeping bad people out of the building, as we
saw in the fall of 2013 at the McNair Discovery Learning Center when
the gunman entered the building behind a parent who had been buzzed
in. However, this does add one more layer to a school’s plan to keep
their building secure.
It is recommended that all classroom doors be locked at all times,
even when class is in session and if the door is open. In the event of a
threat inside the building, the door is already secured or just needs to be
pulled shut. The teacher does not need to find their keys, step outside
of their room into the hallway, and attempt to engage fine motor skills
while potentially facing a shooter.
Steps can now be taken to barricade the door. Should the teacher
attempt to lead their students out of the building at the onset of the
event? Are they in direct contact with the shooter? Do they know the
exact location of the shooter and where the shooter is heading? Do they
know they have safe passage to get outside? Can they move all of their
students quickly and at once? Do they have enough information to make
a good decision to leave a place where they are safe and move to an
area where they may not be safe?
With so many questions, it reinforces the need to train our staff and
allow them to decide a course of action based on their training and the
circumstances.

GET OUT: When in direct contact with an active shooter, you should
do everything possible to get your students and yourself out of harm’s
way as quickly as possible. This means everything from heading to the
nearest exit to using a chair to break a classroom window and tossing
students out the window. Or, you may be in a barricaded room and no
longer feel the room is safe. Get out anyway possible.
TAKE OUT: A teacher is on the third ﬂoor of an old school. They
have successfully barricaded their classroom and did not attempt
to leave because they had limited information on the location of the
shooter. But, this is not an active shooter event. A noncustodial parent
has already killed his ex-wife and is at the school to murder his child
and commit suicide. He knows the police are on the way and has
not wasted any time getting to his child’s classroom. He has brought
the tools necessary to breach the door. It is unlikely that you or your
students can survive unharmed from a jump from the third story. If that
teacher chooses to take out the shooter, there are no rules. They may
use anything in their room as a weapon and do whatever it takes to keep
their students safe. However, if they choose to remain passive, that is
also their choice.
Just as “Run, Hide, Fight” is not linear, neither is “Lock Out, Get
Out, Take Out.” Staff members are trained in their choices and allowed
to make their choice based on that training and the current situation.
However, it should be stressed that when in contact with the active
shooter, lockout is not a choice. Staff and students should put as much
distance between themselves and the gunman, or the staff member
should do whatever is necessary to take out the shooter.
“Run, Hide, Fight” is an excellent training tool when working in
colleges, ofﬁce settings and factories. However, with the responsibility
schools have for their students and range of ages of the students in
schools, “Run, Hide, Fight” should not be the model used for school
safety.
Gary L. Sigrist Jr. is the CEO and president of Safeguard Risk Solutions.
He previously served as the readiness and emergency management
in schools (REMS) project director for the South-Western City School
District in Grove City, Ohio.

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