Terrorism is defined in the U.S. by the Code of Federal Regulations as: “..the unlawful use of force and violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives.”
Maybe.
But it seems to me the goal of the “modern” terrorist (circa September 10, 2001) is to kill as many people as possible and gain maximum notoriety for their attack. With this definition, the shooters in Columbine and Virginia Tech are rightly labeled as terrorist, without having to consider their clearly stated social objectives.
Note: I am following LTC Dave Grossman’s lead here in not listing the names of the cowards that carried out these shootings.
These cowardly acts of terrorism were no more spontaneous than the Oklahoma City Bombing, September 11th attacks or the Beslan, Russia school massacre. School shootings are not impulsive acts. If we are to prevent and mitigate terrorist style attacks in schools there are several factors to consider. For starters, consider where the attacks can come from. The attack can come from someone within the school (Internal, such as Jonesboro, Columbine, Virginia Tech) or from someone who does not belong at the school (External, such as Bailey, CO, Nickel Mines, PA or Belan, Russia).
For the “internal” based attacks there are several prevention/mitigation strategies such as:
- Threat Assessment Program
- Lockdown Plans & Drills
- On-site Law Enforcement/Rapid Armed Response
- Site Mapping
Prevention/mitigation strategies for “external” type threats:
- Access Control & Physical Security
- Security Awareness:
- On-site Law Enforcement/Rapid Armed Response
- Site Mapping
- Lockdown Plans & Drills
Remember, always collaborate with your local response agencies on emergency planning issues.
Stay safe!
Brad
This post is provided by SafePlans (www.safeplans.com), an all-hazards preparedness solution including emergency plans, staff training, and detailed site mapping.
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Bomb Threats and Improvised Explosive Devices
You may have noticed on the School Security Awareness Map the rash of bomb threats; not to mention the actual detonation of a pipe bomb on a school campus and the disrupted plot to bomb a school in South Carolina. It seems the combination of spring air, the impending summer break and exams somehow help the justification of threatening a terrorist attack.
Bomb threats are scary, costly, disruptive, highly illegal and unfortunately very common. Bombs/I.E.D.’s blow up buildings, kill people and are thankfully rare. While we often associate bomb threat with explosive devices, the statistics show they are most never related. On the very rare instances they are connected, the explosive device was more likely to be planted outside the school. This certainly brings into question the policy of automatically evacuating the school in response to a threat.
Just as a fire alarm doesn’t mean there is a fire, a bomb threat doesn’t mean there is a bomb. That said, bomb threats must never be ignored. The use of I.E.D.’s is becoming all too common in school plots and attacks; such as Columbine.
Continue Reading…
The recent attacks in Mumbai, India illustrate that Islamic terrorists will implement previous attack strategies that assault civilian soft targets. The relevance to educational facilities is drawn from the September 1st, 2004 massacre at the Beslan Russia elementary school that left 330 people (most of whom were children) dead.
The Mumbai attacks followed assault strategy that was disrupted in July 1993 in New York. This strategy was referred to as the “Landmarks” plot and called for several terrorist teams to assault prominent New York hotels. Terrorists conducted detailed target surveillance that included maps and notes on building design. The attackers intended to pose as hotel workers and utilize a stolen delivery vehicle in order to obtain easy access to the targets.
Thankfully the Landmarks pot was prevented due to the vigilance of US counterterrorism agents. A little more that 15 years later, the people of Mumbai were not so fortunate. Their fate mirrored that of the community of Beslan Russia when the attackers reportedly posed as repairman to unchallenged access to the school.
The Mumbia attack serves as a distressing reminder that terrorists will target civilians in order to gain maximum body count to gain maximum notoriety for their attacks.
Most schools have a lockdown plan. However, not many schools have a good lockdown plan. Just as every classroom should have an evacuation plan, every room needs a lockdown plan that meets the needs of that specific location. Keep in mind, there are numerous access control solutions that can enhance a school’s ability to lockdown and no location can offer total protection from a hostile intruder. At a minimum, schools should identify locations that meet certain basic safety guidelines.
For example:
- A door that can be locked from the inside. Imagine having stand outside the classroom to lock your door during a lockdown.
- No interior facing windows/vision panels greater than 10 inches wide. The intruder should not be able to see in the room or easily defeat the window and locking mechanism.
Once identified, all staff should become familiar with these guidelines and what to do if they are in one of these areas when confronted with a hostile intruder and/or lockdown situation.
District and school administrators should work with their local law enforcement and fire department (fire code compliance) to set these guidelines and establish plans for these non-secure areas.
And of course – TRAIN THE PLAN.
This post is provided by SafePlans (www.safeplans.com), an all-hazards preparedness solution including emergency plans, staff training, and detailed site mapping.
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Lately it seems there has been a lot of interest in schools and colleges instructing teachers to fight back when confronted with an armed attacker. Certainly the thought of having teachers (and even students) being told to throw books and fight back against a gunman is incredible and counter-intuitive. Luckily no one ever told by Ryan Crowley, Jake Ryker, Josh Ryker, Douglas Ure, Davis Ure, Ada Walberger, Joshua Pearson and Travis Weaver not to fight back against a school shooter. In 1998, these seven students prevented an attacker from killing more of their schoolmates.
On May 20, 1998, 15year-old Kipland (Kip) Phillip Kinkel was expelled from school for possessing a loaded firearm. His father, Bill Kinkel, a 59 year-old Spanish teacher picked him up from the police station, where they stopped at a Burger King on the drive home.
This was not Kip’s first mishap and his obsession with guns was well known to his parents. In fact, his Dad even purchased him numerous weapons for Kip despite disturbing tendencies such as building bombs, torturing neighborhood cats, throwing rocks of freeway bridges and treatment for mental disorders that included hallucinating and hearing voices.
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Make no mistake, when a shooter is on your campus, you are in a combat situation that is dynamic and time-competitive. Delayed actions and/or ineffective decisions can cost lives. Delays or inaction on the part of administrators, teachers and even students create or maintain a window of opportunity that the shooter is sure to exploit.
A valuable system in understanding the importance of proper timely decisions in a critical incident is the OODA Loop (sometimes referred to as Boyd’s Cycle after its creator, retired U.S. Air Force Col. John Boyd). Being a student of and expert on tactical operations, Boyd detailed that in many of the battles, when one side as not able to keep up with the ever changing dynamics of a combat situation, that slower to react side was almost always defeated. In observing this, Boyd concluded that timely decision making is critically important and applied the phrase “time-competitive.”
According to Boyd’s theory, conflict can be seen as a series of time-competitive, Observe-Orient-Decide-Act (OODA) cycles. Conflict begins by each side observing their position, their surroundings and that of their adversary. Orientation is next. Orientation is critical because the dynamic nature of combat makes it impossible to process information as fast as it is observed. Orientation can be thought of as snap-shot approach to obtaining perspective. Once orientation is gained, it is time to decide.. The decision considers all factors that were present at during the orientation phase. Lastly, final process is to act on the decision.
Continue Reading…
After the Columbine shooting, Secret Service researchers and the Department of Education implemented the Safe School Iniative and offered suggestions for schools and parents. “Because information about these attackers’ intent and planning was potentially knowable before the incident, some attacks may be preventable,” the Secret Service says.
“However, because the time span between the attacker’s decision to mount an attack and the actual event may be short, quick responses are necessary.”
• Understand that violence is the end result of a process, which is understandable and often discernable. Students don’t snap.
• There are no accurate or useful profiles of school shooters. Focus on thinking and behavior, not traits.
• Targeted violence stems from an interaction among attacker, situation, setting, and target. Pay attention to the role of bystanders, people who know what is going to happen.
• Use an investigative mind-set. Rely on the facts of this specific case. Corroborate key information. Investigate communications. Talk to the circle of friends. Investigate weapon-seeking.
• Each case is different. Each requires an individual, fact-based approach.
• Reduce barriers to students telling what they know.
• Because many students brought in guns from home, consider issues of safe gun storage.
• Don’t look only for threats. Many students who posed a threat did not threaten.
• Improve handling of grievances.
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An untested and untrained plan is little more than theory. After developing school/college emergency plans a training program should be designed to educate students, parents, teachers, staff, crisis team members and administrators in threat assessment procedures, emergency response, management policies and procedures. Once training is implemented, exercises should be conducted to test the plans and training.
Currently, most educational facilities have adopted a training philosophy that embraces performing extremely well under reasonable conditions, rather than performing reasonably well under extreme conditions. For example:
Lockdown, Weather, Earthquake & Fire Drills Deficiencies
Staff has advanced knowledge of the exact time of the drill and the drill occurs when all students are in the classroom.
Solution
After two or three successful drills, limit advanced knowledge to the day of the event and implement the drills during transition times. Note: Avoid conducting drills during meal periods, due to the costs associates with missed lunches. To test response, set up a mock lunch period with students and staff.
Once you have your drills up and running, it is time to conduct training exercises. Tabletop & functional exercises use vivid scenarios, guided by experienced and certified facilitators, to engage participants in discussions of how they would respond to hypothetical events. Tabletops are designed to be a non-threatening and relatively low cost approach to validating capabilities. Use Homeland Security Exercise Evaluation Program (HSEEP) based exercises to explore and validate plans, identify logical or structural conflicts or gaps in those plans and develop specific areas for further study and improvement. Scenario should be coordinated/developed with local emergency management and public safety.
Stay safe
Brad
This post is provided by SafePlans (www.safeplans.com), an all-hazards preparedness solution including emergency plans, staff training, and detailed site mapping.
Click here to learn more about the author
©2008 SafePlans, LLC
Recently a school district implemented a surprise lockdown drill at an early learning center that included pretend bad guys using weapons firing blank rounds. If this school had armed teachers, like the school in Texas discussed in a previous post, I suspect I’d be writing about a completely different tragedy. As it is, the tragedy was only in training and that is where mistakes are supposed to happen.
http://map.schoolsafetynews.com/eventdetail.php?ID=987
When you get right down to it, security measures can accomplish two things: reduce risks and/or reduce anxiety. Sometimes measures that reduce risk actually increase anxiety. This is regrettable but the benefit of improved safety outweighs the impact of increased anxiety. Security measures that increase anxiety (such as the previously mentioned lockdown drill) should only be implemented when no other alternatives exist or the anxiety can be mitigated.
Clearly the district’s intentions were well meaning; after all most district won’t even allow lockdown drills. However, it does appear they were overzealous in their approach. FEMA recommends a progressive training approach of seminar, drill, tabletop exercise, functional exercise and full scale exercise. A lockdown training program should have the same crawl, walk, and run approach.
Utilizing the progressive FEMA training approach ,schools or colleges can introduce staff (and students) to lockdown responses during seminars. Drills designed to test one or two specific objectives are next. Initially, these drills should be structured and implemented in a no fault learning environment. Once the drill is reasonably well mastered, more advanced scenarios can be incorporated and additional objectives can be tested.
When developing a lockdown training program, consult with mental health experts to determine the effects of simulated combat scenarios and ensure student training is age appropriate. Make certain instructors can adequately address all aspects of planning for a shooter.
Stay safe
Brad
This post is provided by SafePlans (www.safeplans.com), an all-hazards preparedness solution including emergency plans, staff training, and detailed site mapping.
Click here to learn more about the author
©2008 SafePlans, LLC
By now most of you have probably heard of training programs that instruct students and teachers to fight back against an armed intruder by throwing books or chairs. Bringing a book to a gunfight sounds pretty crazy. But is it?
As with most tactical response options, whether or not to fight is situational and should be part of a broader strategy. If your school’s (K12 or Higher Ed) only active shooter preparedness effort is to tell people to throw books at a shooter that is a big problem. However, threat assessment programs, access control, lockdowns and law enforcement response to active shooter do not address what to do if the shooter is actually in the classroom.
When developing an active shooter response strategy, I recommend a 3 OUT approach.
- Lock OUT. Lock the shooter (or potential shooter) out of the building or out of the classroom. This is the classic lockdown response.
- Get OUT. If the shooter is in your area – RUN.
- Take OUT. If the shooter is in your area and you cannot run – FIGHT.
To put it mildly, option 3 creates a huge tactical disadvantage. As such, it is unrealistic to expect people not be seriously hurt or killed. However, it is far more unrealistic to think hiding under desks will save any lives at all. In the Take OUT option, the is goal to try and save as many lives as possible.
If you are interested in this type of training, consult with your local law enforcement; and make certain the instructors can adequately address all aspects of planning for an shooter. Yes fighting is an option; but it should be your last option – so train appropriately.
Stay safe
Brad
This post is provided by SafePlans (www.safeplans.com), an all-hazards preparedness solution including emergency plans, staff training, and detailed site mapping.
Click here to learn more about the author
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