In the past, we called them active shooters. but police and sheepdogs also can be active shooters when they going after a bad guy who is actively slaughtering your children in a school setting (or as we saw in Kenya, in an upscale shopping center). So Lt. Col. Dave Grossman has taken to using the term Mass Slaughterer for these cold-blooded killers.
I am a big supporter of Col. Grossman and his theories about why we seem to be in an era of mass bloodletting. But even if you don’t believe him, he also has dozens of pearls of wisdom for how to make your schools safer for your children and their teachers. I covered one of my own recommendations, the Crisis Response Box) in this post. Here are some additional recommendations from the Colonel for making schools safer (that frankly might help make all workplaces safer…) Remember that adrenaline is pumping in these events and people lose their fine motor skills, memory, and most of their ability to think. This means that all of the labeling that I list below should be in easy to spot huge characters.
- Make it harder to get into your school or organization. Keep doors locked, use glazing that is hard or impossible to break, and keep a watchful eye on the grounds for people that just shouldn’t be there.
- Assign a unique label to each exit. Keep it simple – single letters or numbers work best – and ensure these labels are on the inside and outside walls ned to the doors and on all maps. Make sure the labels won’t be blocked when the door is open. This makes it easier to relay instructions. Hint: If the label is on the door, it probably won’t be visible from at least one side if the door is open. Even if you put the label on the door, also put it on the wall.
- Assign unique room numbers and ensure that rooms are labelled inside the door, outside the door, and outside the building on an exterior wall. I might be in the same room my whole career but when it hits the fan, my memory could go blank.
- Paint outlines of classroom walls on the exterior of the building and on the roof. If first responders need to get into a specific room from the roof or outside of the building, this will help them locate it.
What hints do you have to assist first responders? Please add them to the comments.
