Active Shooters in Schools: The Enemy is Denial

Preventing juvenile mass murder in American schools is the job of police officers, school teachers, and concerned parents

with Doug Wyllie, PoliceOne Editor in Chief

“How many kids have been killed by school fire in all of North America in the past 50 years? Kids killed... school fire... North America... 50 years... How many? Zero. That’s right. Not one single kid has been killed by school fire anywhere in North America in the past half a century. Now, how many kids have been killed by school violence?”

So began an extraordinary daylong seminar presented by Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, a Pulitzer Prize nominated author, West Point psychology professor, and without a doubt the world’s foremost expert on human aggression and violence. The event, hosted by the California Peace Officers Association, was held in the auditorium of a very large community church about 30 miles from San Francisco, and was attended by more than 250 police officers from around the region. Grossman’s talk spanned myriad topics of vital importance to law enforcement, such as the use of autogenic breathing, surviving gunshot wounds, dealing with survivor guilt following a gun battle, and others. In coming months, I will present a series of articles addressing many of these subjects, but violence among and against children was how the day began, and so it is in this area I will begin my coverage... “In 1998,” Grossman said, “school violence claimed what at the time was an all time record number of kids’ lives. In that year there were 35 dead and a quarter of a million serious injuries due to violence in the school. How many killed by fire that year? Zero. But we hear people say, ‘That’s the year Columbine happened, that’s an anomaly.’ Well, in 2004 we had a new all time record — 48 dead in the schools from violence. How many killed by fire that year? Zero. Let’s assign some grades. Put your teacher hat on and give out some grades. What kind of grade do you give the firefighter for keeping kids safe? An ‘A,’ right? Reluctantly, reluctantly, the cops give the firefighters an ‘A,’ right? Danged firefighters, they sleep ‘till they’re hungry and eat ‘till they’re tired. What grade do we get for keeping the kids safe from violence? Come on, what’s our grade? Needs improvement, right?” Johnny Firefighter, A+ Student “Why can’t we be like little Johnny Firefighter?” Grossman asked as he prowled the stage. “He’s our A+ student!” He paused, briefly, and answered with a voice that blew through the hall like thunder, “Denial, denial, denial!” Grossman commanded, “Look up at the ceiling! See all those sprinklers up there? They’re hard to spot — they’re painted black — but they’re there. While you’re looking, look at the material the ceiling is made of. You know that that stuff was selected because it’s fire-retardant. Hooah? Now look over there above the door — you see that fire exit sign? That’s not just any fire exit sign — that’s a ‘battery-backup-when-the-world-ends-it-will-still-be-lit’ fire exit sign. Hooah?” Walking from the stage toward a nearby fire exit and exterior wall, Grossman slammed the palm of his hand against the wall and exclaimed, “Look at these wall boards! They were chosen because they’re what?! Fireproof or fire retardant, hooah? There is not one stinking thing in this room that will burn!” Pointing around the room as he spoke, Grossman continued, “But you’ve still got those fire sprinklers, those fire exit signs, fire hydrants outside, and fire trucks nearby! Are these fire guys crazy? Are these fire guys paranoid? NO! This fire guy is our A+ student! Because this fire guy has redundant, overlapping layers of protection, not a single kid has been killed by school fire in the last 50 years! “But you try to prepare for violence — the thing much more likely to kill our kids in schools, the thing hundreds of times more likely to kill our kids in schools — and people think you’re paranoid. They think you’re crazy. ...They’re in denial.” Teaching the Teachers The challenge for law enforcement agencies and officers, then, is to overcome not only the attacks taking place in schools, but to first overcome the denial in the minds of mayors, city councils, school administrators, and parents. Grossman said that agencies and officers, although facing an uphill slog against the denial of the general public, must diligently work toward increasing understanding among the sheep that the wolves are coming for their children. Police officers must train and drill with teachers, not only so responding officers are intimately familiar with the facilities, but so that teachers know what they can do in the event of an attack. “Come with me to the library at Columbine High School,” Grossman said. “The teacher in the library at Columbine High School spent her professional lifetime preparing for a fire, and we can all agree if there had been a fire in that library, that teacher would have instinctively, reflexively known what to do. But the thing most likely to kill her kids — the thing hundreds of times more likely to kill her kids, the teacher didn’t have a clue what to do. She should have put those kids in the librarian’s office but she didn’t know that. So she did the worst thing possible — she tried to secure her kids in an un-securable location. She told the kids to hide in the library — a library that has plate glass windows for walls. It’s an aquarium, it’s a fish bowl. She told the kids to hide in a fishbowl. What did those killers see? They saw targets. They saw fish in a fish bowl.” Grossman said that if the school administrators at Columbine had spent a fraction of the money they’d spent preparing for fire — if the teachers there had spent a fraction of the time they spent preparing for fire — doing lockdown drills and talking with local law enforcers about the violent dangers they face, the outcome that day may have been different. Rhetorically he asked the assembled cops, “If somebody had spent five minutes telling that teacher what to do, do you think lives would have been saved at Columbine?” Arming Campus Cops is Elementary Nearly two years ago, I wrote an article called Arming campus cops is elementary. Not surprisingly, Grossman agrees with that hypothesis. “Never call an unarmed man ‘security’,” Grossman said. “Call him ‘run-like-hell-when-the-man-with-the-gun-shows-up’ but never call an unarmed man security. Imagine if someone said, ‘I want a trained fire professional on site. I want a fire hat, I want a fire uniform, I want a fire badge. But! No fire extinguishers in this building. No fire hoses. The hat, the badge, the uniform — that will keep us safe — but we have no need for fire extinguishers.’ Well, that would be insane. It is equally insane, delusional, legally liable, to say, ‘I want a trained security professional on site. I want a security hat, I want a security uniform, and I want a security badge, but I don’t want a gun.’ It’s not the hat, the uniform, or the badge. It’s the tools in the hands of a trained professional that keeps us safe. “Our problem is not money,” said Grossman. “It is denial.” Grossman said (and most cops agree) that many of the most important things we can do to protect our kids would cost us nothing or next-to-nothing. Grossman’s Five D’s In the next installment of this series, I will explore what follows in much greater detail, but for now, let’s contemplate the following outline and summary of Dave Grossman’s “Five D’s.” 1. Denial — Denial is the enemy and it has no survival value, said Grossman. 2. Deter — Put police officers in schools, because with just one officer assigned to a school, the probability of a mass murder in that school drops to almost zero 3. Detect — We’re talking about plain old fashioned police work here. The ultimate achievement for law enforcement is the crime that didn’t happen, so giving teachers and administrators regular access to cops is paramount. 4. Delay — Various simple mechanisms can be used by teachers and cops to put time and distance between the killers and the kids. a. Ensure that the school/classroom have just a single point of entry. Simply locking the back door helps create a hard target. b. Conduct your active shooter drills within (and in partnership with) the schools in your city so teachers know how to respond, and know what it looks like when you do your response. 5. Destroy — Police officers and agencies should consider the following: a. Carry off duty. No one would tell a firefighter who has a fire extinguisher in his trunk that he’s crazy or paranoid. b. Equip every cop in America with a patrol rifle. One chief of police, upon getting rifles for all his officers once said, “If an active killer strikes in my town, the response time will be measured in feet per second.” c. Put smoke grenades in the trunk of every cop car in America. Any infantryman who needs to attack across open terrain or perform a rescue under fire deploys a smoke grenade. A fire extinguisher will do a decent job in some cases, but a smoke grenade is designed to perform the function. d. Have a “go-to-war bag” filled with lots of loaded magazines and supplies for tactical combat casualty care. e. Use helicopters. Somewhere in your county you probably have one or more of the following: medivac, media, private, national guard, coast guard rotors. f. Employ the crew-served, continuous-feed, weapon you already have available to you (a firehouse) by integrating the fire service into your active shooter training. It is virtually impossible for a killer to put well-placed shots on target while also being blasted with water at 300 pounds per square inch. g. Armed citizens can help. Think United 93. Whatever your personal take on gun control, it is all but certain that a killer set on killing is more likely to attack a target where the citizens are unarmed, rather than one where they are likely to encounter an armed citizen response. Coming Soon: External Threats Today we must not only prepare for juvenile mass murder, something that had never happened in human history until only recently, but we also must prepare for the external threat. Islamist fanatics have slaughtered children in their own religion — they have killed wantonly, mercilessly, and without regard for repercussion or regret of any kind. What do you think they’d think of killing our kids? “Eight years ago they came and killed 3,000 of our citizens. Do we know what they’re going to do next? No! But one thing they’ve done in every country they’ve messed with is killing kids in schools.” The latest al Qaeda charter states that “children are noble targets” and Osama bin Laden himself has said that “Russia is a preview for what we will do to America.” What happened in Russia that we need to be concerned with in this context? In the town of Beslan on September 1, 2004 — the very day on which children across that country merrily make their return to school after the long summer break — radical Islamist terrorists from Chechnya took more than 1,000 teachers, mothers, and children hostage. When the three-day siege was over, more than 300 hostages had been killed, more than half of whom were children. “If I could tackle every American and make them read one book to help them understand the terrorist’s plan, it would be Terror at Beslan by John Giduck. Beslan was just a dress rehearsal for what they’re planning to do to the United States.” A future feature will focus solely on the issue of the terror threats against American schools, but for the time being consider this: There are almost a half a million school busses in America — it would require every enlisted person and every officer in the entire Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps combined to put just one armed guard on every school bus in the country. As a country and as a culture, the level of protection Americans afford our kids against violence is nothing near what we do to protect them from fire. Grossman is correct: Denial is the enemy. We must prepare for violence like the firefighter prepares for fire. And we must do that today. Hooah, Colonel!

About the author Doug Wyllie is Editor in Chief of PoliceOne, responsible for setting the editorial direction of the website and managing the planned editorial features by our roster of expert writers. In addition to his editorial and managerial responsibilities, Doug has authored more than 600 feature articles and tactical tips on a wide range of topics and trends that affect the law enforcement community. Doug is a member of International Law Enforcement Educators and Trainers Association (ILEETA), and an Associate Member of the California Peace Officers' Association. He is also a member of the Public Safety Writers Association, and is a two-time (2011 and 2012) Western Publishing Association "Maggie Award" Finalist in the category of Best Regularly Featured Digital Edition Column. Even in his "spare" time, he is active in his support for the law enforcement community, contributing his time and talents toward police-related charitable events as well as participating in force-on-force training, search-and-rescue training, and other scenario-based training designed to prepare cops for the fight they face every day on the street.

It has long been accepted that it is hard to be a prophet in your own land. The 'experts' always seem to come from outside the agency and often show up preaching the same message. Organizations often tend to overlook the expertise that exists within their own ranks. This is not unique to one agency or organization. It is rampant throughout North America.

As I travel around North America speaking on the topics of Harnessing the Winning Mind and Warrior Spirit, The Pursuit of Personal Excellence and Excellence in Training I hear similar stories from officers and trainers regarding this issue. I have spoken to great trainers who are recognized as experts in their field, yet not allowed to teach for their own agencies. I have spoken to officers who have been recognized at a national level for their heroic deeds and great police work who are treated like crap by their own departments. The stories are too many to list and I will not reveal the names although some of you know who they are.

The question I always get asked is why? There are many possible answers, none of which make it any easier to accept. After hearing so many stories from so many great trainers and officers about their being 'black listed' by their agencies I have come to view it as a sign that we are doing something right.

I caution people to about the use of the phrase 'my agency'. My experience is that the majority of the people in the agency appreciate the work you do and support you. There are always a few however, who feel threatened. I believe it is partly a leadership issue. The leaders Jim Collins would refer to as Level 5 Leaders celebrate the success of people within their organizations, the greatest martial arts masters celebrate the day their students are better than they are, and great trainers celebrate the day their students become better trainers than they are. Why? Because they are confident in themselves and their abilities and they know their role is to develop their people and put the spotlight on their people not to outshine them. There are others however, who lack that confidence and want the spotlight for themselves. They want everyone to say "Look at how great that leader is." rather than "Look at all the great people in that organization." Great organizations are lead by great leaders who celebrate all the great people they have in their organizations. If you have not read Good to Great by Jim Collins then take the time to read it. You will gain some great insights about the traits and characteristics of Level 5 Leaders.

If you are one of the many who have been blacklisted by your agency or are being treated badly by them, first make sure it is not warranted. If the treatment is legitimately due to your success my advice is you can choose to let it bring you down, or choose to allow it to lift you up.
When you ask yourself What's Important Now? the answer will be clear. Keep seeking excellence, keep sharing your message, see your mistreatment as a sign you are on the right track and choose to allow it to lift you up.

Take care.
Brian Willis

If you are interested in booking Brian Willis for a Harnessing the Winning Mind and Warrior Spirit or Pursuit of Personal Excellence Seminar or an Excellence in Training Course contact him at winningmind@mac.com. You can visit his website at www.winningmindtraining.com for a list of presentations and courses Brian can offer your organization, staff training function or conference.
Make sure you check out www.warriorspiritbooks.com .

 
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Contact:
Betsy Brantner Smith
630-399-1645
BetsyBrantner@aol.com

Law Enforcement Icon Dave Smith Announces Nationwide Training Tour

TUCSON, AZ – Internationally known law enforcement experts and instructors Dave and Betsy Smith of Dave Smith & Associates are pleased to announce their 2013 training schedule, exclusively featuring their “Winning Mind” seminar series for law enforcement and military personnel.

Dave Smith, known for the “JD Buck Savage” video training series, his work as the director of education for the Law Enforcement Television Network [LETN], and as the general manager and senior instructor for Calibre Press and the “Street Survival” seminar, has been teaching his signature class, “The Winning Mind”, internationally since 1987.

With the Praetorian Group’s sale of Calibre Press, Smith will no longer be teaching the “Street Survival” seminar and will be focusing on expanding the “Winning Mind” series. “We’re training people to win and winning goes beyond gunfights and confrontations,” says Smith. “We want you to win the entire event. We want you to get home, be able to keep the home, and be emotionally healthy in your home.”

Smith’s wife Betsy Brantner Smith is also a veteran police trainer, former “Street Survival” instructor and a prolific author. She is the creator of the only training of its kind for women in law enforcement, “The Winning Mind for Women” and has been invited into hundreds of law enforcement agencies across the country to speak on the science of “gender intelligence” and its relationship to officer safety, leadership skills, tactical training and much more.

“This is not a new business for us,” Betsy Smith explains, “It’s a new focus. The ‘Winning Mind’ series is designed to inform and inspire anyone who works in a law enforcement organization.”

The Smiths will be partnering with Public Grants and Training Initiatives (www.PG-TI.com) to deliver low cost, open registration courses to public safety personnel nationwide and will continue to appear at national and regional conferences throughout North America.

The Smiths will also continue their work with the Praetorian Group’s popular PoliceOne.com website and innovative video training product, the PoliceOne Academy. 

“We’re excited to extend our partnership with Dave Smith & Associates,” says Alex Ford, CEO of the Praetorian Group. “Dave and Betsy Smith have been instrumental in helping us build upon PoliceOne’s mission to deliver critical information and must-have training content for law enforcement worldwide. We’re looking forward to working with them to deliver even more valuable training and online resources to the law enforcement community in the coming year.”

For decades Dave and Betsy Smith have successfully trained and educated thousands of law enforcement personnel throughout the world.  They are devoted to delivering the key concepts of “winning” in more than 50 different cities throughout the United States and Canada in 2013. For a full list of course locations, conference dates and registration information, visit www.jdbucksavage.com or call 630-399-1645.   

About Dave Smith & Associates
Dave “JD Buck Savage” Smith has been a law enforcement icon for nearly four decades. In 1998, Dave and his wife, police trainer and prolific author Betsy Brantner Smith, combined forces to create Dave Smith and Associates and “Winning Mind” seminars. Together the Smiths provide law enforcement training and consulting services that are unique, proven, and constantly updated.

Traveling to all 50 United States as well as to Canada, Mexico, the Balkans, the United Arab Emirates, and more, Dave and Betsy bring unparalleled experience, integrity, and commitment to the ever-changing world of policing and beyond.

The Smiths believe that the best way to honor our fallen is to tell their stories and learn from their sacrifices. Their training philosophy is that “survival” is minimalistic and that we must strive to WIN in every aspect of life.  To that end, “Winning Mind Seminars” celebrates those warriors who have won life and death confrontations physically, tactically, legally and emotionally. For more information, visit www.jdbucksavage.com.

About Winning Mind seminars
Dave “JD Buck Savage” Smith first presented “The Winning Mind” in 1987.  Since then it has evolved into one of the most remarkable training experiences that law enforcement personnel will ever attend.  By looking at the key components of peak performance, including who survives and why, the roles that optimism, risk and bureaucracy play in our personal and professional lives, and how individuals and organizations can make themselves truly resilient, Dave presents an entertaining and inspiring program designed to help everyone, regardless of their experience, optimize their odds of winning any confrontation.

“The Winning Mind for Women” is one of the most unique and popular courses offered by the “Winning Mind” team.  Sgt. Betsy Brantner Smith guides students through 8 hours of intensive, interactive training that will provide attendees with updates and information they can employ to improve and enhance both their professional and personal lives. For more information or to schedule a course, visit www.jdbucksavage.com.