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7 Lessons Learned From Sandy Hook

Apr 23, 2014 4:00:00 AM

school zoneThe reason I left the Indiana State Police to become a Risk Advisor at Gibson was in large part due to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. As a tribute to the lives lost, I’d like to share a few of the lessons learned. Included are the highlights from an article featured in Campus Safety Newsletter, 7 Lessons Learned from Sandy Hook. The article is very well-written and provides important insights based on the summary report of the incident.

I’ll give a brief warning that some of the content of this post is hard to read given the tragedy of the situation. However, I urge you to push past the discomfort in order to understand how to provide impact should you be confronted by an active shooter situation.

1. Actions by school personnel saved lives

Although loss of life was extensive, actions by school staff clearly reduced the number of fatalities at the school.

2. Locking interior doors worked

As in the vast majority of K-12 school shootings in the United States, not a single student or staff member was killed behind a locked interior door. Despite the fact that the locked front entry door was breached, the report indicates that no interior doors were breached by force.

3. Lockdowns must be implemented quickly

Most of the deaths in the school occurred in/at two classrooms where the doors did not get locked in time. With 20 of the victims being killed in/at two unlocked rooms, this incident demonstrates the need for all school personnel to be properly trained, specifically empowered, and practiced in making independent decisions to implement a lockdown, evacuation, or sheltering for severe weather without being instructed by anyone to do so.

4. All school staff must be trained and empowered to act

The report indicates that staff in the office never ordered a lockdown. While the report indicates that office staff accidently activated the intercom, the report states they did not intentionally lock down the school. While there could be a viable reason for this that is not included in the summary report, these findings demonstrate the need for all school staff to be trained, empowered, and practiced in implementing a school lockdown when appropriate without being directed to do so by a supervisor.

The report also indicates that numerous phones in the school can be used to access the intercom system. This finding should serve as a reminder that staff should be trained and empowered to use these types of capabilities to order a lockdown when appropriate. This should also encourage schools to expand the number of areas from which they can make school-wide announcements.

5. Staff and students must be taught how to respond under stress and on the fly

The report indicates that 10 students survived the attacks in the two unlocked classrooms by fleeing the rooms. This finding demonstrates the importance of staff and students being trained not to remain passive when they encounter an active aggressor in an enclosed area. The research on how the human brain functions supports the importance of teaching people to be prepared to change responses when a situation dictates.

6. Sandy Hook principal probably didn’t have a chance to fight back

While early media statements indicated that the school principal attempted to disarm the shooter, buying precious time and saving lives of students and staff, no such information is included in this report. The report states that the principal and two other staff members went into the hall to investigate and were quickly shot.

Although the full report could provide more detail, the lack of such information at least raises questions as to whether or not the principal actually attempted to attack the shooter. The report also doesn’t indicate if this alleged action had any bearing on the outcome of the attack.

7. Rumors after Sandy Hook prompted many schools to implement unproven strategies

Many concepts and strategies adopted by a significant number of schools have been demonstrated by the summary report to be based on early, unofficial, and inaccurate accounts of the Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting. This report indicates that millions of dollars and countless staff hours have been expended to implement active shooter response strategies based on occurrences that – according to the report -- never happened.

This should be a powerful warning about making improvements based on school security incidents as a whole. Students, parents, and elected officials often urge action be taken quickly after a catastrophic event like the Sandy Hook shooting, and sometimes the strategies that are adopted have not been proven to be effective. While most schools had opportunities for improvement immediately after the Newtown, Connecticut shooting, many opportunities to implement response concepts that have been proven to work were missed while unproven concepts were implemented instead.

With Gibson's education and public entity focus, we’ve assembled a team of highly skilled risk management and insurance specialists. Contact us for assistance creating proven and effective strategies to keep your school or organization safe.

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Gibson is a team of risk management and employee benefits professionals with a passion for helping leaders look beyond what others see and get to the proactive side of insurance. As an employee-owned company, Gibson is driven by close relationships with their clients, employees, and the communities they serve. The first Gibson office opened in 1933 in Northern Indiana, and as the company’s reach grew, so did their team. Today, Gibson serves clients across the country from offices in Arizona, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Utah.