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What advice do you have for a teenager in school during an active shooting?

7K views 53 replies 51 participants last post by  foxytwo 
#1 ·
I have 2 teenagers in school. There've been 2 threats in our city since Sandy Hook. One of which actually was arrested and weapons were seized. There aren't enough police to station one at every school and teachers aren't armed. What advice would you give to a teenager in school today in terms of what to do if an active shooter comes to their school?
 
#2 ·
They need to have a plan. Right now at work, if someone comes in shooting I'm going to close my door, lock it and kick a hole in the sheetrock to get to the next room and take the elevator upstairs...that's the plan, may work, may not but at least I have one.

They should close the door and try to brace it with something because shooters are not there to open doors and try to get past barriers, they are there to kill as many easy targets as possible, that's all they usually have time for. Screw regular mace, have them throw some bear mace in their backpack (if it's legal at their school), for a hallway situation. If your stuck in the hallway and everyone has locked you out, at least you can mace the shooter and the entire hallway for that matter and then run like hell. If it can stop a bear, then I'm sure the shooter will go into acute respritory failure if you do it properly. Hell, you could even use it if the shooter breaches your door, just light em' up with bear mace.

**Remember, check to see if mace is legal to carry at their school. Some schools/states classify mace as a "dangerious weapon".**
 
#3 ·
I would run my ass off, im not going to go out hiding in a closet. If that means throwing a chair through a window and diving out 2 stories, so be it. Ill survive a broken leg, I may not survive being shot.

Chances are the shooter is untrained, high on adrenaline, and the odds of them hitting a moving target is low.
 
#4 · (Edited)
Run, hide, fight. Get out of there if they can, close and lock doors if the shooter's in a different area, look for cover if available, concealment if not, talk to his buddies about everyone rushing the shooter at once (yes, someone will probably get shot, but not everyone will - same mentality many people developed in response to hijackings after 9/11).
 
#5 ·
My son was told not to go with the idiotic plan the school had. He was to get out of the school as fast as he could and keep going. Call 911 to let them know what is gong on and to give a description of himself so they know who he is.
 
#15 ·
My advice is to have them throw a chair through a window if they're on the first floor and escape.
I didn't watch Rob's video, which may cover these points. Both of these posts have the right idea. First and foremost, you need to have a plan. You need to escape and evade. First, secure your immediate are to the extent possible, quickly. Lock the door if you can, put a barrier up infront of it, etc. Then find your exit. Use a chair to break the window if necessary. Get out of the danger zone. Move rapidly and methodically, while paying attention to your surroundings. Do not head in the direction of police or other first responders as they may mistake you for the bad guy and they may be targets of the bad guy. You may encounter school administrators whose duty and goal is to control you and get you to huddle down somewhere and you need to be psychologically prepared to tell someone that you may perceive as an authoritative figure wher to stick it. One you get out, make your way to a predetermined rendezvous point (have multiple) and call for help.
 
#8 ·
I haven't found lockdown to be effective as many feel. My first priority would be escape, the faster and farther the better. I'll explain to the principal later. Secondly would be "duck and cover." Third, and lastly--Fight back!!! There's not a lot of safety in numbers, but as a last resort--there is a lot of offence.
 
#9 ·
We also had an alert on 12-21. I kept my kid home, we had a doctors follow up appointment so we did not go to school today. Last day before the break nothing going on today. My thought would be to get out thru a window and head for the parking lot. Many parked cars you could hide behind. Most cases the shooter is a single person ( not a group ). If it was a group of shooters they could have somebody outside shooting people as they exited the building. That would be a different situation.
 
#10 ·
I could not agree more with getting out of the school ASAP & call 911. Then urge the school to have armed personnel on site at all times.
 
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#12 ·
The video is good and as Rob mentioned these incidents are incredibly rare. Yes have a plan of action but remember you better have alternate plans because you never know how things will go down. Odds are a student is more likely to get struck by lighting than shot in a school. When you stay in a hotel or on board a airplane you should know where the closest routes of escape are and the same applies to schools.
 
#14 ·
There are around a million schools, and 1 or 2 shooting incidents a year. Teach your kids to study hard like they are in competition with Asian students and nothing short of perfect 100-percent scores are acceptable.

In my day, I carried a gym bag to school and I fabricated a false bottom in it and had a pair of steel nunchackus hidden there and this is probably too much information.
 
#19 ·
Have you considered homeschooling? I was homeschooled as a kid and I know there is alot of opinions about it but think about the safety.

Goose
 
#21 ·
IMHO trying to train young children to respond to an armed intruder in a school would be counterproductive and disrupt the learning process. Parents and school authorities would be better off concentrating on better means to ensure no armed whack-job ever gets past the front door: All exterior doors should be locked from the outside and equipped with crash-bars in case of fire. Security personnel should be stationed at the front door before and after school to protect students as they enter or exit the building. Metal detectors should be part of the entrance equipment with hand scanners for the security people. If possible, the school should be placed on the route of police patrol units with frequent and random presence. Some sort of visual emergency signal, perhaps a blue light, should be fixed in a highly visible location that could be activated like a fire alarm from several locations. Schools, like malls and other public places are extremely difficult to defend without disrupting their purpose. As a retired teacher of 35 yrs. I don't favor arming teachers or students for a plethora of reasons, mainly along the lines of armed security guards in banks. I do think an armed police resource officer is a good idea if the school or district can afford it.
 
#45 ·
IMHO trying to train young children to respond to an armed intruder in a school would be counterproductive and disrupt the learning process. Parents and school authorities would be better off concentrating on better means to ensure no armed whack-job ever gets past the front door: All exterior doors should be locked from the outside and equipped with crash-bars in case of fire. Security personnel should be stationed at the front door before and after school to protect students as they enter or exit the building. Metal detectors should be part of the entrance equipment with hand scanners for the security people. If possible, the school should be placed on the route of police patrol units with frequent and random presence. Some sort of visual emergency signal, perhaps a blue light, should be fixed in a highly visible location that could be activated like a fire alarm from several locations. Schools, like malls and other public places are extremely difficult to defend without disrupting their purpose. As a retired teacher of 35 yrs. I don't favor arming teachers or students for a plethora of reasons, mainly along the lines of armed security guards in banks. I do think an armed police resource officer is a good idea if the school or district can afford it.
I don't think any of us like that idea, but I think I'd much rather them have the information to form a rapid, educated decision on the spot to gather/create whatever tools necessary if they can't get away. To tell them to just hide and hope the police save them or the shooter doesn't find them is a much less favorable idea to me.
But that education has to happen at home NOW because they're certainly not going to get that at a public institution unless they happen to have one of the few profs that are here on DC...:frown:
 
#22 ·
Lockdowns are OK if they are trying to lock the BG OUT. Not so much for an internal threat. I agree with the RUN concept but I would say RUN IN A ZIG ZAG FASHION IF YOU ARE BEING TARGETED. Then there's these (watch the video!):

Active shooters in schools: The enemy is denial

A Parent

 
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#27 ·
While I agree that this is a bit og hypocrisy; there are more than just O's kids there. Ambassodors kids as well as other national and international leaders kids attend. Yes O's kids of body guards as have every other POTUS kid. While we are at it O has body guards; wonder if he will have them give up the MP 5's, Uzis and M16's when the ban comes?

I know; share whatever it is I'm smoking!
 
#26 ·
My son had a shooter in his high school and the shooting hit the local news radio within minutes while I was working at home and listening. We panicked as parents and our knees got weak trying to begin mobilizing to respond. At that very moment the garage door began opening and he said he heard a pop and couldn't determine if a firecracker or whatever, so he walked instantly out of the closest exit to the car and left. This son always seemed to have street smarts from the time he could walk. Put me in the "Run Forest Run " category, LOL.
 
#28 ·
As a teenage in public school your chances of being killed by a shooter are slim to none. You however will face being killed by a drunk driver, killed while driving drunk or in a car full of drunk teens. If not that you will be killed in some other car car crash. If you manage to avoid those your good to go for a bit . You have a much more likely chance of AIDS than you do being shot.
So turn off the liberal news become a conservative and live a long happy life.
 
#29 ·
If flight is not a possibility, turn the lights out, lock the door, remain beside it and then, after discharging it in his face, try to mold the fire extinguisher to the shape of the shooter's head as he enters the room.
 
#31 ·
Escape if possible and LEO hasnt gotten there yet. Running from a building where a shooter is into a bunch of nervous hyped up LEO isnt something Id relish doing. Otherwise know where the most hidden unaccesable place in the school is get to it and stay there, be it inside a locker, air vent, any nook or cranny not likely to be noticed. A mass shooter isnt going hunging thru every little corner for individuals hes there because its a target rich environment where he can kill as many as quickly as possible. If all else ffailed keep moving, fast using cover as much as possible. Hitting a running rabbit in a rabbit hutch of rabbits is harder than shooting a sitting one.
Telling teenagers to try to swarm someone armed with a AR unarmed ehhhhh I dont know about that one :ticking:
 
#32 ·
As a high school teacher, my plan is to lock the door, stack desks in front of the door, and fashion weapons from what we have on hand. Text books make good projectiles, my golf clubs in the closet make a good weapon, so does my tactical pen. We have a sledgehammer that's a trophy from a rivalry game that would certainly make a heck of a dent in an attacker. We have black spray paint that will blind an attacker. I've read enough about the shooting in Tennessee (I think) where one kid attacked from the inside while his friend waited on teh roof that I hesitate to flee the school. There is a ton of open ground to cover between my window and any cover, at least a quarter mile.

I'd love to CC. The emphasis on being concealed. I don't want to spook the sheep, but I don't want to be a sheep, either.
 
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