School safety, security, and violence prevention resource

Ok.  I exaggerate.  You really don’t have to be scared, very scared over the prospect – actually, now, the reality, of teachers being authorized to carry concealed firearms in our schools.  But I am going to talk about a few problematic aspects of non-law enforcement officers carrying deadly weapons in today’s (crowded) classrooms

 

But first a little context.  I have been a use of force instructor and a PPCT Instructor Trainer since the late 80’s.  I have carried a gun on and off duty since the early 70’s.  I am considered an expert in weapon retention and disarming (handguns and long guns).  Ok.  Hope that takes care of my credibility in the field (you can Google me).  Relative to the topic of teachers carrying weapons, a school district in Harrold, Texas (anybody surprised that this has happened first in Texas?) now has elected to allow their teachers and staff members to carry concealed firearms “to deter and protect against school shootings when classes begin this month, provided the gun-toting employees follow certain requirements—“

 

Training, in my mind, is a big issue.  But I am assuming that, in order to carry, teachers will be required to pass professional training in holstered and drawn handgun retention; firearm qualification (accuracy with time requirements); tactical firearms (skill and accuracy under variegated stress situation, including movement, various poor lighting situations; using barriers and barricades in the environment, returning fire while using cognitive skills (Bad Guy/Good Guy Discrimination; Recognizing difference between cover and concealment, et al.); the safe handling of firearms in crowded environment and even the safe handling of dangerous weapons. Wait a second, Dog, I almost forgot trainings in drawing a firearm quickly from inside a sweater, shirt, sports jacket, etc.  Then there’s drawing and shooting a firearm with the support hand after the gun hand has been disabled.  Sheesh. 

 

Or, Not.  I doubt seriously that all schools, from elementary to the collegiate level, will spend the time and the bread to require their teachers and staff to not only acquire but to pass all of the abovementioned training.  If they do and I am wrong. Swell.  If they don’t, then, like I said at the start, be very afraid.

  Frankly, I cannot imagine teens in a high crime area – especially gang-bangers – not attempting to take a gun off a lone teacher, be he or she smaller of larger than they.  Then again, even allegedly more benign rural areas will have their share of problems.

 

Even forgetting the obvious possibility of disarming, my prime concern is for teachers who do not have the same mentality  of professional law enforcement personnel.  By definition, they care about their students, have an emotional investment.  Under deadly Survival Stress, a teacher in no way can be expected to be prepared – without extensive training – which, heretofore, our educational system has been want to provide – for his or her psyche, Central Nervous System, and Motor Performance System to be bombarded with stress hormones which will kick off his or her Fight Or Flight Syndrome (Sympathetic Nervous System Activation), and, as a result the teacher will have to deal with what law enforcement trainers such as myself call The Catastrophe Theory – in other words the bottom falling out – meaning he or she will immediately experience:

 

 

MANIFESTATIONS OF THE CATASTROPHE THEORY

 

• At about 175 BPM any skills the teacher might have that involve fine and complex motor skills will fail.  Only skills trained in Gross Motor Skills will work.  Without proper training and/or practice teachers will be unable to:

Ø       Load or unload his/her firearm.

Ø       Handle the clip or magazine required for the effective handling of the gun under life or death survival stress.

Ø       Hit the small buttons on a cell phone (9-1-1) to call for help because, when the heart rate escalates, all the blood floods away from the finger tips.

• Under survival stress, the teacher’s heart rate will soar to 220 BPM and above.  Blood will flood away from the extremities, including the periphery of the eyes where the teacher will lose over 70% of peripheral vision!  Think of it, Dog.  The minimally trained teacher is in a life or death situation in a classroom packed with students and he or she has no peripheral vision.  Add to that that the gun toting teacher is scared to death.
• Besides losing peripheral vision the shape of the eye will mutate because of vasoconstriction and the pupil dilating in an attempt to access as much tactical/visual information as possible.  This will result in an inability to focus and a loss of near vision. 
• At 175 BPM, which a teacher will achieve in less than 2 seconds when a deadly threat invades a classroom, I guarantee teachers will be unable to make critical life or death decisions and consequent actions, including these fundamental acts:

Ø       there is a good chance, unless they will have indexed and prepared themselves ahead of time, a teacher will not even draw the gun.  Research shows that over 70% of law enforcement officers die in action without even touching their holsters.

Ø       Since their weapons are concealed inside or under clothing, unless he or she is trained how to do so, he or she will fumble with articles of clothing, which will delay their draw when they finally decide to draw.

Ø       Unless the teacher has the foresight to design a pre-determined survival plan, when a gun wielding terrorist enters a classroom, the teacher will freeze.   This is not a prejudicial assessment.  It is a combat fact.  The teacher must be Spinal Tuned through training and/or self preparation in order to react decisively under critical incident stress.

 

     Let’s review.  Without a culture change, extensive training and some real good mental conditioning, when a domestic or foreign terrorist explodes into a classroom, most likely firing from the hip, your friendly neighborhood teacher will most likely be slow to draw, and, when he does, will have great difficulty, especially if the invader moves in order to infiltrate the students, telling the invader from the students (the invader may appear as a blur(.  The teacher will have no peripheral vision and will be unable to focus.  Worse, he or she will be relying almost soley on his or her Primitive Brain rather than his or her Neo Cortex (Smart Brain), which he or she relies on under normal circumstances, when the Parasympathetic Nervous System is dominant.

 

Golly Gee and Gosh. 

Stay Safe

Hammer

 

 

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Posted on August 18th, 2008 by Harry A Widger
Filed under: Administrators, College, High School, K-6, News, People Involved, School Grade Level, School Safety Issues, Shootings, Students