School teachers train to take on active shooters

By April Corbin

Friday, Aug. 4, 2017 | 2 a.m.

At first glance, it looks like the front office at Lamb of God Lutheran Church & School has two first-aid boxes attached to its walls. Inspect a little closer and you’ll find that one of the unassuming white boxes exists for something far more serious than everyday scrapes and bruises.

It’s a fingerprint-activated safe promising assistance in the event of every teacher’s worst nightmare: an active shooter.

The box — one of 32 now installed in classrooms, offices and common spaces around the campus — is part of a personnel protection and security system offered by Kansas City-based SafeDefend. Lamb of God became the first school in Nevada to install the high-tech system, though the company already has several clients in the area, including One Nevada Credit Union.

In the event of an active shooter, a teacher or staff member can run to the box and unlock it using a fingerprint. That triggers a phone call to 911 and a series of strobe lights and alarms from devices around campus to warn others (similar to but distinct from a fire alarm). Inside the lock box are tools like a baton, pepper spray, strobe light, tourniquet, gauze and other medical supplies designed to abate hemorrhaging.

On Wednesday, teachers and staff at Lamb of God gathered for a training and demonstration of the new system and the tools at their disposal.

“(Shooters) are expecting you to react to them,” added SafeDefend President and CEO Jeff Green. “This changes that. You are now being active.”

Training Director Doug Parisi explained that a shooter’s weapon, hands and wrists will typically be the first things to enter a room. Then, using a short pool noodle and spray bottle, he demonstrated how a teacher could strike an assailant as soon as he or she attempted to enter a classroom, possibly disarming or prompting attackers to leave in search of easier targets.

“We’re not training you to take out an active shooter yourself,” Parisi said, “just make them inefficient.”

The tools build off a “run, hide, fight” philosophy used widely in active-shooter trainings. Parisi and Green encouraged the staff to plan for the worst-case scenario and to acknowledge that while law enforcement will handle the situation once they arrive, they will not arrive quickly enough. Almost three-fourths of active-shooter scenarios end before police get to the scene.

The response time at Sandy Hook Elementary during the country’s deadliest mass shooting at a K-12 school was six minutes — about as long as the period of time from the shooter’s first to last shot.

“Seconds matter,” stressed Green.

“Survive 'til they arrive,” added Parisi, who worked in law enforcement for two decades. “It’s about possibility versus probability. The probability is that this will never happen, but the possibility is it can, and the results are catastrophic if it does happen.”

He went on to compare active-shooter safety systems to fire alarms and drills, which are still mandatory at schools despite the fact that the last fatal school fire occurred in 1958.

The majority of teachers responded positively to the training, which included getting the chance to handle a baton and pepper spray in order to familiarize themselves with using them.

Fifth grade teacher Kristin Lundy said she received some active-shooter training at a school in another state and was taught to throw chairs and books at assailants. Having more effective tools specifically designed to cause damage to attackers was reassuring to her.

“It’s nice to feel prepared,” she said. “I never have my phone out in the classroom. I like knowing I can just use the box to call 911.”

Classroom aide Amy Zuhlke agreed.

“I have more confidence now,” she said. “I have tools and can have a plan.”

School administrator Sanna Klipfel said hearing that kind of response is why the school was willing to invest in active-shooter protection.

“It’s that peace of mind,” she said, “it’s being responsible for all these kids and the staff.”

Klipfel and Green declined to say how much it cost Lamb of God to install and implement the SafeDefend system, but the Garden City Telegram reported last year that it cost the Unified School District 374 in Kansas approximately $45,000 for their system of 62 lock boxes.

Klipfel said the school fundraised $25,000 through an auction last year. Additional funds were found elsewhere in the church and school budgets.

Green said he has asked Clark County School District to consider a pilot program.