LJWorld.com / Colleges confront shootings with survival training

Archive for Wednesday, August 27, 2008

By Alan Scher Zagier - Associated Press Writer

August 27, 2008

Kansas City, Mo. — Hundreds of colleges across the nation have purchased a training program that teaches professors and students not to take campus threats lying down but to fight back with any "improvised weapon," from a backpack to a laptop computer.

The program - which includes a video showing a gunman opening fire in a packed classroom - urges them to be ready to respond to a shooter by taking advantage of the inherent strength in numbers.

It reflects a new response at colleges and universities where grisly memories of the campus shootings at Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois University are still fresh.

"Look at your environment through the lens of survival," said Domenick Brouillette, who administered the course at Metropolitan Community College, which serves more than 20,000 students. "Survivors prepare themselves both mentally and emotionally to do what it takes. It might involve life-threatening risk. You may do something you never thought you were capable of doing."

Nearly 300 professors at Metropolitan Community College were shown the video as part of a training exercise before the first day of classes on this downtown campus. The training, produced by the Center for Personal Protection and Safety, a for-profit firm based in Spokane, Wash., is also available for the school's students.

The training drills teachers and students in a "survival mindset," said Randy Spivey, a former U.S. Department of Defense hostage negotiator who is executive director of the center. The center's roster includes retired FBI agents and others with federal law enforcement experience.

The training discourages cowering in a corner or huddling together in fear, Brouillette emphasized at the Kansas City session.

Instead, Metropolitan Community College faculty members were taught to be aware of their surroundings and to think of common classroom objects - such as laptops and backpacks - as "improvised weapons."

The program has been bought by nearly 500 colleges, which tailor the company's safety messages - laid out in instructional videos and other training guides - to craft localized violence prevention programs. Spivey expects that by year's end that number will have grown to about 1,000 schools.

Schools may provide the training to students as well as staff, as at Metropolitan, or limit it to instructors or security personnel.

Kansas University could not be reached for comment Tuesday regarding whether it has considered the program.

Discussion

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27 August 2008
at 9:54 a.m.

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coolmom (Anonymous) says…

as it should be. no sheep mentality. “let's roll”
27 August 2008
at 10:30 a.m.

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bondmen (Anonymous) says…

Mental alertness and response readiness is very important to survival during a violent attack so the thrust of this training is positive. However, it's an old but true saying that one should never bring a knife to a gun fight. Just one student or teacher prepared to respond with a firearm would quickly break off the attack as attackers inherently fear being hurt.

Only one alert and properly armed student is superior to 10 students throwing backpacks and computers at a gun wielding perpetrator!

It's much easier to dodge a backpack and a Mac than a speeding bullet.
27 August 2008
at 10:37 a.m.

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beobachter (Anonymous) says…

another waste of the colleges limited funds.
27 August 2008
at 10:46 a.m.

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logicsound04 (Anonymous) says…

Not surprisingly, bondmen's myopic view missed the point of the training:

“the inherent strength in numbers”

A bullet might be harder to dodge than a flying found object, but one person fighting back is easier to engage than a group of people.

Furthermore, properly armed is not, in and of itself, the solution. Being properly trained with that “proper arm” is just as vital.
27 August 2008
at 11:26 a.m.

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claytoncramer (Anonymous) says…

The theory of a large group overwhelming the gunman is a good one. But what happens when the first several people get shot? It is amazing how well the threat works to get others to comply.

The real problem that no one wants to talk about is the failure of deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill as a strategy. There's a reason that these random attacks were almost unknown in 1960, and are common now. In 1960, a person who was mentally ill stood a good chance of being hospitalized before they became a killer. Not now.