Fire Department Preparation for School Shootings

For the last three years, I have been an instructor in the Rescue Task Force (RTF) curriculum. The RTF concept is a coordinated effort between fire and police to combine assets and provide care to victims needing medical attention in the “warm zone” with minimal delay. The concept of an RTF and addressing an armed assailant attack is still very dynamic. Some departments have adopted and embraced the process, while others (both police and fire) still struggle to work together.

Just like most fire and police departments, the Winnetka, IL, Fire Department spends as much time as necessary to meet with our educational facilities to review and practice their emergency responses to a variety of situations, including an active shooter. In conjunction with our police department, the department held a Winnetka School Safety Summit in August 2018. All school administrators from pre-school to high school were invited to attend the 2½-hour presentation. We ultimately had approximately 60 administrators and support staff in attendance.

We held a School Safety Summit once before, in 2012, and the focus was on emergency preparation and, in particular, a “Lockdown” and “Lockout,” which were relatively new terms at time. Since all the administrators are now familiar with the terms and procedures, we decided to take a more holistic approach to the concern of an active threat in a school.

Specifically, the presentation discussed what could be done to prevent a school incident. We designed a four-pronged approach to protecting the students and staff: Prevention, Protection, Partnership and Planning. Let’s review each of the four concepts.

1. Prevention

Prevention focuses on identifying and addressing the mental health issues as well as the issues of students in need. The concept of prevention encourages the schools to make sure they have enough social workers and psychologists to deal with students in need. Students need a safe haven to share information. Some schools have set up a telephone hotline or a text number where students can send information or request assistance in a protective environment. There should also be an option provided for anonymously reporting tips. Further, it is important to note that in a majority of school shootings, there is some type of “leakage” or indication of the incident prior to it occurring. Thus, staff needs to be trained in situational awareness. They need to be able to identify students in crisis and know the process to help intervene. Though some behaviors may not violate a policy, they might still warrant some type of intervention. The threshold for intervention should be relatively low, per the U.S. Secret Service document “Enhancing School Safety Using a Threat Assessment Model.”

2. Protection

This element identifies the physical aspects of protecting the students and staff. It not only addresses current technological advances in security—shared video feeds, bi-directional amplification (for radio communications), facial recognition software, hardening of access points, door locks, shatter resistant films and more—it addresses the weakest link. Students and staff need to be cognizant of making sure not to circumvent protection by propping doors open, letting visitors in from alternate access points, or not questioning an unknown person in the building. We also stressed that the schools need to make sure everyone understands that they are authorized to call 9-1-1 if fire or police are needed. Although this may sound like common sense, it has been an issue. Too often, the staff member looks for an administrator to seek approval to call for assistance, delaying the arrival of public safety personnel.

3. Partnership

There are two parts to the partnership concept. The first part is the open dialogue between school administrators and public safety officials. This includes the reviewing of their emergency operations plans and participating in any and all drills and exercises. It is important to interact with school officials on a regular basis so when an incident occurs, everyone knows what each other’s roles and responsibilities are, and the emergency is handled much more efficiently as a working team. My experience is that when I have dealt with emergencies in schools, there is a certain comfort (on both sides) with knowing who people are prior to an emergency. It builds a certain trust factor.

The second piece of the partnership is to establish a Multidisciplinary Threat Assessment Team. This team consists of various school staff and support staff members along with local law enforcement. The team evaluates students who may exhibit violent or questionable behavior. The school tends to deal with these issues in-house to protect the student and the district. Unless a crime has been committed, law enforcement needs to evaluate their threshold as to when to intervene versus providing guidance to the school. Learn more about this concept here.

4. Planning

Planning includes the actions to take when a violent incident is committed. The planning includes the Lockdown and Restricted Access Procedures.

· Lockdown: This is the term used to signify a threat inside the school. Teachers and staff are to secure their rooms, turn off lights and remain quiet.

· Restricted Access: This term is used when the threat is outside of the school, such as an armed robbery in the vicinity. When activated, it is business as usual inside the school, but access points are secured, and unknown visitors are not allowed in the building. Outside student activities are also cancelled until an all-clear is given.

Interestingly, public safety officials are still struggling to standardize this important language, including terms such as soft lockdown, hard lockdown, closed campus, lockout and others. These terms need to be standardized by either the Board of Education or FEMA to ensure common terminology.

In Winnetka, we were using lockdown and lockout. However, we realized that the words were too similar in nature and confused many of the school staff. They can also sound similar in an emergency. An attempt was made to try to get an agency to take the lead on standardizing terminology, but we were unsuccessful. Thus, we made an executive decision to change the term lockout to restricted access in our response area.

Primary and secondary evacuation processes

All team members and community partners should be familiar with primary and secondary evacuation processes, which can be defined as follows:

· Primary Evacuation: This is the location just outside of the school typically used when the fire alarm is activated. It is proximal to the school and typically used for evacuations that are less than 30 minutes.

· Secondary Evacuation: Typically, a pre-arranged location off-site to be used for prolonged incidents or incidents with inclement weather requiring evacuation. Police may need to assist with the movement of the students if resources allow. Both police and fire personnel should staff the relocation site as well.

One challenge we will encounter during the use of a Secondary Evacuation Site or during a significant event is the reunification of students with their parents. This is a difficult process to practice. A tabletop exercise may vet out some of the issues to address.

The I Love U Guys Foundation offers ready-to-use resources for a reunification process, including signage, forms, checklists and releases. It will make the process much easier to implement. This site was created in memory of Emily Keyes, who was killed by a gunman at Platte Canyon High School on Sept. 27, 2006. The gunman initially held Keyes and other girls hostage. During this time, Keyes sent her parents text messages that said, “I love you guys” and “I love u guys. k?"

Kindness goes a long way

Can we make a difference? The first student shot during the Columbine Shooting in 1999 was Rachael Joy Scott. I had the opportunity to hear her brother speak about Rachael’s mission of kindness. Rachael’s Challenge is a group of speakers who talk to students about the importance of being kind to each other. As Rachael wrote in her diary, “… People will never know how far a little kindness will go.” On March 8, 2018, there was a story in The Washington Post titled, “If I could’ve gotten a gun, I would have been a school shooter.” The writer explains on how he was down on his luck, feeling hopeless, had a volatile family life and was a social outcast. He actually took the steps to locate a gun and to plan his attack. What stopped him? Someone took him in and showed him some kindness and support. They did not judge him based upon his current situation. In the end, he was able to refocus and become a productive citizen. A little kindness can go a long way!

These solutions can have an impact on school violence. Instead of just planning for the attack, we need to prevent, protect and create functioning partnerships. Our focus needs to be on the front-end of identifying and helping students in crisis. It will take some time and resources, but change is needed. It will take a village to stop the school violence.