Active Shooter Incident on Campus

[Spencer_OKC]

Sheltering in place does not have to mean cowering in fear and waiting for your death. Barricading a classroom is a valid response to an active shooter on campus, and if the shooter gains entry to your room defend yourself however possible.

While fleeing cross country is a good idea, be aware of situations where a shooter may have set booby traps, or be working with a partner who is lying in wait for those fleeing the initial scene.

As explained by others, sheltering makes police response easier. Most agencies worth their salt have moved to an active shooter policy that puts a contact team into the building after the shooter as enough officers are on scene to form the team. Not having to plow through a herd of fleeing students (and possibly the suspect) makes it easier.

Here is some interesting reading on this topic:

Rapid Response/Active Shooter Lesson Plan from www.Killology.com

 

[cleardiddion]

Courage as a man, and the attributes of BEING a man, are today viewed as oppressive traits, and generally mocked in today's media, and society in general. Strength, courage, and integrity used to represent the ideal traits of a man, however, these days it seems that "sensitivity", "tolerance", and "equality" are the traits expected of a man. All who maintain traditional traits are affixed with a negative label or are considered archaic.

Well put.

 

[Caliper_Mi]

I asked one of the professors what the college policy was for such an incident, and she said, “Shelter in place. Close and lock the doors. Turn out the lights. Remain in the classroom.”

Close door, watch door/windows with weapon ready... This could also be great situation to push the school to remove the no weapons policy. If there were even one or two students in each classroom with CCW then you've got safe rooms everywhere.

In general I don't think the official line here is that bad, if there really is an active shooter, then the last thing you want is hundereds of scared college students crowding the quad. More targets for the shooter, more problems for the police to apprehend/eliminate the shooter. Plus, this approach is probably the one that most limits the schools liability.

Also, heading out there on your own can have its own dangers, so don't assume that sitting still is always a bad reaction. The cops do not know that you aren't the bad guy and you don't have all the info on the situation. The bad guy may be wearing a Police uniform or could be in the belltower with a rifle. Both put you in a very bad place. While I'm all for doing something, you've gotta have some idea of what it is you will be doing before you begin.

 

[Mikhail Weiss]

Sheltering in place does not have to mean cowering in fear and waiting for your death. Barricading a classroom is a valid response to an active shooter on campus...

A valid response, sure. But not the only one. Maybe not even the best one. To expound a bit...

In general, it seems that “sheltering in place” can be useful. I suspect it's more useful, though, for instances when shooter and victims are so close that flight takes victims from relative safety to immediate danger. But classrooms, neither vault nor bunker, are not bulletproof (at least they don't appear to be). Such “SIP” policies seem to assume that a shooter will not shoot through doors or walls (ala Cho), that he will not also be a bomber (Harris and Klebold), that he will not also be an arsonist, that he will not have other means of effecting entry (the earlier-mentioned window, for instance), and that he will not be highly motivated by a specific target in a specific location.

If the shooter enters a SIP area, those inside are (almost) like fish in a barrel. Granted, anything at hand that may be used to stun, distract, deter, attack, or overwhelm the shooter is useful, but the prospect of unarmed defense against a shooter seems strikingly less appealing than simply not being there when he shows up. To merely be on campus during an active shooting does not mean that one is at ground zero, nor does even being in the same building. But to remain there certainly seems to increase those chances.

As explained by others, sheltering makes police response easier.

I'm less curious about what makes someone's job easier than I am with what keeps people alive. Getting out of harm's way seems useful. Staying in harm's way doesn't.

That said, sheltering in place may the best option at a bad time, but I'm not convinced that it's the best idea even most of the time. Too bad state legislators killed recent bills to allow current or former law enforcement and military personnel to carry concealed weapons on campus, not to mention the other one (or part of the same bill, I don't recall) that would have allowed teachers to do the same. So it goes.

By the way, at least one newspaper account indicates that OKC PD response time was twelve minutes.

 

[Mikhail Weiss]

Close door, watch door/windows with weapon ready...

Useful, but also presently verboten.

In general I don't think the official line here is that bad, if there really is an active shooter, then the last thing you want is hundereds of scared college students crowding the quad. More targets for the shooter, more problems for the police to apprehend/eliminate the shooter. Plus, this approach is probably the one that most limits the schools liability.

I suspect the latter carries much weight.

 

[Caliper_Mi]

Useful, but also presently verboten.

Even a pocketknife? I know it's a knife/gunfight thing, but if you are waiting by the door where the shooter can't see you before entering then you have a chance to get the upper hand. Either that or be the first one shot, but it gets you out of the fish barrel at least.

 

[Mikhail Weiss]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mikhail Weiss
Useful, but also presently verboten.

Even a pocketknife? I know it's a knife/gunfight thing, but if you are waiting by the door where the shooter can't see you before entering then you have a chance to get the upper hand. Either that or be the first one shot, but it gets you out of the fish barrel at least.

Here's what the school policy says:

To promote the safety of students, employees, and visitors, Oklahoma City Community College (“OCCC”) prohibits the possession, use and display of Weapons of all types at all times on OCCC Property ...

...a “Weapon” includes but is not limited to pistols, handguns, revolvers, shotguns, rifles, blank guns, starter pistols, stun guns, antique and replica firearms, and firearms of any kind, whether loaded or unloaded; daggers and knives of all kinds other than small pocket knives...

This seems to allow room for someone to bring a “small” pocketknife. Wonder what that means. (Cold Steel extra large Espada?)

 

[green country shooter]

I am a junior college teacher and the policy quoted is also ours. The problem is that to lock my door i have to stand out in the hallway with the key in my hand, and while i am doing that i feel sure that either the shooter will shoot me, the police will shoot me, or the students will run screaming by me and head for the exits.

Our policy says i am supposed to (if possible and safe) lead students outdoors and then reassemble them and take roll! I told them what a ridiculous idea that was. Our students are adults, i have no power over them. In that situation they are going to to run to their cars and flee the campus, trampling me in the process if i try to stop them.

 

[Mikhail Weiss]

The problem is that to lock my door i have to stand out in the hallway with the key in my hand,

As I recall, that's exactly how the locks worked on my classroom doors when I taught at this same campus. Worse, I was never provide a key for any of them with one exception: the one exception was used to store AV equipment. Perhaps I should look more closely to see if anything has changed since then.

 

[Spencer_OKC]

By the way, at least one newspaper account indicates that OKC PD response time was twelve minutes.

This time might be a little long, but wouldn't surprise me greatly. A recent independent manpower study of the Oklahoma City Police Department found that they need to add over 300 officers. In the last twenty years Oklahoma City's population has grown by over 30%, calls for police service have grown by over 35%, and police staffing has risen by less than 1%. With the rise of specialized units, there are actually fewer patrolman on the streets of OKC than there were 20 years ago. Oh yeah, and the need for 300 additional officers is based on the city's goal of handling the highest priority calls with an average response time of over nine minutes.

The police do what they can with the resources the city allows. I'm very pro-law enforcement, but its like I've always said:

"When seconds count, the police are only minutes away."

 

[ForumSurfer]

/spit

"Sensitivity" hasn't worked out well for the current generation.

For some reason that brought to mind Clint Eastwood a la Heartbreak Ridge.

The man has a point, though. Sometimes it is best to take cover or leave an area. Other times, it may be to prudent to man-up. Many of today's generation (and mine, too) refuse to do just that out of their own self justifying rationale.