if yer gonna die... at least die on yer feet, not yer knees.
Posted on 04/17/2007 4:31:25 PM PDT by DeerfieldObserver
The Independent School District of Burleson, Texas, just south of Ft. Worth is the first in the country to adopt a policy of training students to immediately fight back and use their advantage in numbers to take tactical control if a gunman enters their classroom.
A group of Texas security experts with a company called "Response Options" has made instructional video tapes showing a gunman bursting into a classroom and being swarmed by students. The instructors tell students to throw their books, book bags, desk and chairs using everything and anything to disrupt and take down a gunman. Robin Browne, a major with the British Army, helped design the training course and says it is necessary for students and teachers to throw themselves into the line of fire.
"This is not a burglar. This is not a bank robber," Browne said. "This is someone who has come onto school property with the express intention of using a deadly weapon to hurt and dominate people who cannot necessarily defend themselves." A person who enters a school, Browne said, "is in the same category as serial killers."
"We are dealing with a predator here and a predator, when he is offered prey and the prey gives in will take advantage of that prey," he said. "What we are teaching here is for the children to not allow the predator to take control. … They actually become the superior the dominant party in the room, and it is actually the gunman who becomes the prey."
A Lesson From Columbine and Other School Shootings
Browne says waiting for police to take control is a deadly mistake and says that 15 people who died and 24 were injured at Columbine as police struggled to take control. By the time police responded the hostage at the Amish schoolhouse in Nickel Mines, Penn., students and school officials had lost control and ultimately, five girls died and the gunman, Charles Roberts, killed himself.
"If you have got 15 sixth, seventh and eighth graders, they can be an incredibly effective weapon," Browne said.
The students are instructed to respond the instant they see a threat.
"It doesn't give the guy any time to try to collect his thoughts, you just storm him and start hitting him with stuff," said one student, Ray Longo. So far parents, teachers and students support Burleson's take charge policy. But outside of Burleson, Texas safety experts are appalled at the notion of students being trained to storm a person with a weapon.
"When it comes to fighting an attacker even SWAT teams have a hard time knowing what to do. How can we expect kids to know what to do," said Ronald Stephens, executive director of National School Safety. Stephens also says the child who leads the charge is most vulnerable.
"Rushing a gunman with scissors or staplers or a book might cause a gunman to shoot that person on the spot," he said.
Browne concedes that his program of fighting back carries risk. He admits that the first student to swarm an attacker may pay with his or her life. However, he believes the risk may be worth it to save other lives.
"He won't be able to shoot the fourth, fifth, eighth, twentieth or thirtieth student," he said.
“Has any other civilized society treated it’s young so callously?”
The Allied forces in World War I.
There are a couple of factors to consider here. If the gunman is intent on killing people (Columbine, VA Tech) then the overall risks of rushing the perp and disarming him is less than the risk of staying quiet and getting executed.
If the guy just wants to terrorize them by holding them hostage until the jog is up, then everyone should be placating him.
I’d rather have some of them armed. Even a Taser’d be better than nothing.
Brilliant idea. /sarc
Easy to do in training. Very hard in practice, especially if someone is really shooting at you.
The instructors tell students to throw their books, book bags, desk and chairs using everything and anything to disrupt and take down a gunman.
All of these actions require dangerously close proximity or exposing yourself alone to gunfire. Unless it is a coordinated, simultaneous act, it will not succeed against an armed assailant who dispatches from the doorway (not the center of the room) anyone who approaches.
An armed response is called for.
I think it was after the Amish school shooting when I told my 6th grade boy that if someone that shouldn’t be in his class shows up at the door, or if a classmate is acting odd, to pay attention. The first sign of a threat he starts throwing stuff at the perp and gets his friends to join in. If the kids can react first and get the perp off-guard rather than the other way around I think they would have a chance.
Here’s hoping and praying (and odds are) it never happens to my kids.
I think they stopped this program because of people saying how dangerous it was for the kids to fight back. I believe that the information about the end of this program was in the Dallas Morning News.
is being transformed into sheep, to be lined up for fleecing and slaughter?
“...waiting for police to take control is a deadly mistake...”
The police with all their gear did not protect one student or save one life yesterday. As usual, they showed up with the yellow chalk to outline where the bodies fell. It is way past time for people to wake up and realize that each of us is responsible for our own safety and that of our loved ones, just as our forefathers said when they gave us the Second Amendment right of self-defense.
Those kids at Virginia Tech would have had a chance had they been permitted to carry.
They gave the Allied forces weapons, so they had some sort of chance against the enemy.
SOP - I've never seen or heard of ANY first responders going in to try to take out the bad guy and save some lives. They would probably be fired and prosecuted if they did. I saw this during the live coverage of the MacDonald's massacre and many other live-coverage situations.
True enough. However, in a situation such as this, where the gunman was not a pro, I would say that if even three students went for it, one of them would have gotten trough. It would have taken great courage. However, if kids had some training and gave some thought to a scenario such as this before the fact, the outcomes could be improved.
We were talking about this at work today. At age 19 I would likely have been too surprised and overcome by fear to do anything. However, after many years of watching things like this go down, I believe that I would act quickly. If kids had any training at all, they would be better prepared to evaluate the options.
if yer gonna die... at least die on yer feet, not yer knees.
Callously? What else can we do when a suicidal maniac attacks? The point is a good one although unbearable to think about.
I suppose your co-workers believe it is better for people to simply be slaughtered by sheep? Tell them to remove their heads from the sand.
The last people I want telling me how to respond to a dangerous situation are the "safety expert" bureaucrats. They don't have a very good track record.
The closer an armed person is to an unarmed person the bettter. Taking down an armed attacker is easy as long as you are aggressive.
I hardly call cowering behind cars in the parking lot until a half-hour after Harris and Klebold killed themselves "struggling to take control".
United We Stand?
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