TEN SIMPLE,
INEXPENSIVE, AND PROVEN STEPS TEACHERS CAN AND SHOULD TAKE NOW
TO HELP REDUCE THE EVER-GROWING RISK OF DEATH
AND SERIOUS INJURY FROM ACTIVE SHOOTERS ON CAMPUS
Teachers are in a position to "just do something" themselves without
waiting for and relying upon possible action by the government to
reduce carnage by school shooters, says public interest law
professor John Banzhaf, who has correctly analyzed several shooting
situations, and whose recommendations to reduce the needless
preventable carnage are already being adopted.
Here are ten simple steps which have been proven to be effective in
reducing risk, and/or facilitating prompt rescue, which can be taken
without the need for new legislation or regulations, and at little
if any cost.
■1. KEYS - One of the reasons for the delay in finally
stopping the Uvalde gunman was the need to track down the janitor
who had the key to the classroom door which the killer had
locked. But it is gross negligence bordering on insanity for a
vital key to be in the hands of one person who - at any given time
when it might be required - could be out sick, away on an errand,
off campus for lunch, etc. Indeed, there are many reasons
other than an active shooter why a classroom might need to be
unlocked unexpectedly and quickly - e.g., a teacher inside faints,
or has a stoke or heart attack, occupants are overcome by carbon
monoxide or smoke, a young child is left inside by accident, etc.
RECOMMENDATION - The
principal and top administrators should have keys to all rooms (not
just classrooms) in the school, and all teachers should have keys
which can open all classrooms. If teachers are issued keys -
e.g., to individual offices, storerooms, etc. - these keys should
also be able to unlock all classroom doors.
■ 2. HALLIGAN - A Halligan is a large multi-headed
crowbar-like bar carried by firefighters and law enforcement
officers to make forced entry when a door is locked or simply jammed
shut. At schools, teachers can use it to force open a door
locked by a shooter if absolutely necessary because of delays by law
enforcement personnel, and/or because gunshot victims are bleeding
to death. It can also be used if a teacher in a locked room
suffers a heart attack or stroke, if occupants are overcome by
carbon monoxide or smoke, if a door somehow becomes jammed and is
not simply locked, etc.
RECOMMENDATION - Every school should
have at least one Halligan tool stored, together with a large
pictorial instruction card, in the principal's office and/or in
other appropriate locations.
■ 3. MAGNETIC DOOR-OPEN ALARM - More than a dozen children
and two teachers died needlessly in Texas because apparently
(although this is now contested) a teacher negligently left (some
say propped) a rear entry door open, thereby defeating the school's
normal controls on entry. To guard against this foreseeable
problem - one which can easily occur at many different schools
despite training and warnings - schools can and should employ the
same simple magnetic door-open alarms now in use in tens of millions
of homes. Two pieces - one mounted at the top of the door, and
the other adjacent to it on the door frame - send a signal to one or
more cell phones and computers if the door is opened and the
magnetic coupling
thereby disrupted. No wiring is needed, since the signal
is sent using the school's existing WiFi. If a door remains
open when it shouldn't, an employee can very promptly close it and
make sure it is locked. This inexpensive device might have
prevented 21 needless deaths in Texas, and installation elsewhere
can save even more.
RECOMMENDATION - Every school door
which isn't keep open and manned during the day should be equipped
with an inexpensive magnetic door-open alarm which will instantly
send a signal via the school's existing WiFi to designated cell
phones and computers if the door is opened, and especially if it
remains open. Employees who improperly open doors, and
especially if they leave them opened, should be disciplined.
■ 4. INSIDE-LOCKABLE DOORS - In many ways, the best, the
least expensive, and also by far the simplest protective step
teachers can take to protect their children from being shot is
having a classroom door which can be locked from the inside - since
it is too risky to expect a teacher to have to step into a hallway
to insert a key. That's why The Sandy Hook Advisory Commission
recommended that "all classrooms in K-12 schools should be equipped
with locked doors that can be locked from the inside"; a
recommendation also endorsed by the California Federation of
Teachers, the National Association of State Fire Marshals, and many
other organizations. The common type of door lock (technically
"latch") found on guest rooms in most hotels and motels - where the
guest simply swings a latch horizontally to engage a ball-tipped
prong - is as good as any, meets all the requirements of the
Americans With Disabilities Act [ADA], and will lock both single-
and double-door classrooms securely. It is also simple enough
to be operated even by young children who might find themselves in a
classroom without a teacher during an active shooter alert, or by an
older child with a physical disability, in a panic situation,
etc. NOTE - No person inside a locked classroom has ever been
shot in all of the reported school shootings.
RECOMMENDATION - All classrooms
should be equipped with doors which can be be quickly and easily
locked from the inside, perhaps using the same inexpensive
latch-locks used on most hotel and motel guest doors.
■ 5. WINDOW SIGNS - When first responders arrive at a school,
it is vital that they all know immediately in which rooms the
shooter may be found, where there are victims, where others may be
hiding, etc. Although they may have given this information in
the form of room numbers or designations (e.g., "Art Room"), they
may not have floor plans immediately available, and those outside -
often at a distance using binoculars and/or telescopic video cameras
seeking to look in - may not be able to quickly and reliably
identify individual rooms. This potentially life-threatening
problem can be solved if the room number or other designation is
displayed clearly in at least one window of each room.
RECOMMENDATION - A room's number or
designation should be displayed in a window in numbers large enough
to be viewed from a distance by first responders.
■ 6. STOP THE BLEED - Bullet wounds caused by an AR-15
rifle, the gun of choice by mass shooters, typically produce huge
gaping injuries which can cause a victim to bleed to death in only a
few minutes, long before trained medics can arrive. That's why
many experts recommend that schools have ready-made and easy-to-use
tourniquets which can be applied by lay persons, even students,
immediately to prevent blood loss until medics can arrive and take
over. Indeed, they have developed "Stop The Bleed" kits
containing simple tourniquets, other necessary supplies, and clear
instructions. The kits are designed to be mounted in public
places, ideally near every mounted AED, where either or both can be
used in an emergency by people with no prior training. The
University of Maryland in Baltimore has some 250; each mounted next
to an AED.
RECOMMENDATION - To prevent death
by exsanquination from AR-15 gunshot wounds before medical help can
arrive, schools should have a sufficient number of tourniquets on
hand and ready to use, preferably in "Stop The Bleed" kits. If
necessary to reduce costs, tourniquets can be made beforehand very
inexpensively from common household supplies following Internet
instructions, and kept on hand.
■ 7. INFO APPS - Many schools have apps, or other means by
which students can store data on their cell phones and/or smart
watches, which provide information about the school, its schedules
and personnel, etc. But it's just as important that they have
ready and immediate access to instructions about what to do if they
hear gunshots, or otherwise become aware of an active shooter at the
school or nearby, who and how to contact in the event of an
emergency, and probably how to provide limited assistance to victims
until trained help is able to arrive. This could include
reducing life threatening blood loss by using a tourniquet,
compression, etc,; preventing a victim from gagging on blood or
vomit, not moving an injured limb, etc. All of this - and
perhaps even more - information should be incorporated within the
school's existing app, or by similar means.
RECOMMENDATION - School apps should
have information about what to do if an active shooter is present or
suspected, and perhaps how to assist shooting victims.
■ 8. EMERGENCY TEXTING - Uvalde taught us the
importance of students being able to provide important information
during an emergency, even when under fire and/or hiding, and
especially when any talking could endanger their lives. Text
messaging provides one means since it is entirely silent, and
students through experience have learned to finger type very
quickly. In many ways it's also better for those receiving the
messages since texts can easily be searched, grouped, and sorted
while voice/oral recordings cannot. Since they require far
less bandwidth, information in text form can be relayed to others
more quickly, even if communications channels are far from ideal,
and the information can easily be supplemented, corrected,
annotated, etc. by school authorities or others. But to make this
all work in an emergency, the address of the recipient of text
messages to be sent in an emergency situation must be clear and
widely known, and the recipients should be persons trained in
handling and responding to text messages under such stressful
situations.
RECOMMENDATION - Students should
know how and why to communicate via text messages during a shooting
situation, and the school recipients of text messages must be
trained in how to best handle the situation.
■ 9. GUNS - Although controversial, some 20 states have
programs which permit a small number of specially trained teachers
to carry a handgun. Signs advising 'WARNING, Some Teachers Are
Armed" should provide significant deterrent to a potential school
shooter since neither students nor outsiders will know their number
or identity, and an armed teacher may be able to stop or contain a
shooter if such action is necessary before law enforcement personnel
arrive. Like a similar program for commercial airline pilots
where non-law-enforcement people are armed, no innocent person has
ever been injured. Most would agree that a teacher with a gun
is more likely to be able to stop a shooter than one who is unarmed.
RECOMMENDATION - Schools without an
armed-teacher program should at least study those programs long in
effect, and perhaps consider adopting a similar one.
■10. OTHER WEAPONS - If at least a few selected
teachers can't be armed, or teachers are worried about injuring
students if they carry a gun, there are other powerful weapons which
teachers can keep in locked gun safes in their desks or classroom
closet which will be much more effective than using chairs, tables,
poles and other objects teachers have sometimes been forced to
resort to. One is a canister which can shoot a chemical
substance powerful enough to stop a grizzly bear some 20 feet away
which was developed to be used in school shooter situations.
Aim is not critical, and, unlike with a firearm, there is little
danger of an innocent person being killed or seriously
injured. A paintball pistol, which can be used to fire a paint
ball directly into the face of a shooter, has the same advantages,
and is likely to at least disorient the shooter so that he can be
stopped. There may well be others.
RECOMMENDATION - Teachers who
cannot - or are reluctant to - carry a gun should consider effective
but non-lethal weapons which can be kept safely locked in a
classroom desk or closet.
It is said that the Lord helps those who help themselves. The
same may be true regarding teachers in classrooms and psychotic
gunmen; nothing so far seem to have slowed - much less stopped -
mass shootings at schools.
So teachers must consider what they themselves can and should do to
protect their own lives, and the lives of the young children who are
depending on them, warns Professor Banzhaf.
JOHN F. BANZHAF III, B.S.E.E., J.D., Sc.D.
Professor of Public Interest Law
George Washington University Law School
"The Man Behind the Ban on Cigarette Commercials"
FAMRI Dr. William Cahan Distinguished Professor
Fellow, World Technology Network
Founder, Action on Smoking and Health (ASH)
Inventor of the "Banzhaf Index"
2000 H Street, NW, Suite Stockton 402
Washington, DC 20052, USA
(202) 994-7229
http://banzhaf.net/ jbanzhaf3ATgmail.com
@profbanzhaf