Schools considering teaching students to fight back

After hearing the news that fellow teens had once again been gunned down in an American school, local students spoke up and asked for change.

No longer did they want to hide or run; they wanted to fight back. And they wanted their school to show them how to do it.

Those discussions prompted a change in policy at the Central Nine Career Center, where more than 1,200 high schoolers take classes in trades or other career skills. And it’s also leading local high schools to consider changes as well.

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For years, schools have practiced lockdown drills, where students are told to stay in their classroom. They are taught to hide and barricade the doors and wait for help.

But after the latest mass school shooting in Parkland, Florida, in February, where 17 people were killed, local students wanted a change. They wanted to fight back instead.

The approach is gaining popularity across the country and is also a part of the Indiana State Police training to be prepared for an active shooter, said Mike Quaranta, assistant director at Central Nine.

After the Parkland shooting, officials at Central Nine decided to lock the classroom doors once students are in class as an additional security measure. But for students, that just wasn’t enough.

They wanted to know what they could do as individuals if the worst were ever to happen, Quaranta said.

The school’s previous plan had been to lockdown and wait, but the new best practice is to empower students, teaching them to fight back or get out based on the situation and their surroundings. School officials met to discuss what that would look like and then began meeting with students, Quaranta said.

They told them to grab whatever is closest to them — a book, a chair, a phone — and fight back until they could get away. They answered student’s questions. The goal was to help them be prepared, Quaranta said.

Students handled the discussions of what is a scary and uncomfortable topic well, and parents were also responsive, with only a few calls and one complaint, he said.

“Students feel empowered. We were empowering them,” Quaranta said.

And the change has prompted discussions at other local schools, including when students who attend classes at Central Nine approached officials at Nineveh-Hensley-Jackson schools, suggesting they follow their lead.

School officials had already been looking at ALICE training, which stands for alert, lockdown, inform, counter and evacuate, which was incorporated into guidelines from the U.S. Department of Education a few years ago, replacing previous plans that included only a lockdown.

“We are not there, but we are talking about ‘should we begin?’ Do we equip students to defend and fight versus a strategy of hunkering down,” Nineveh-Hensley-Jackson Schools Superintendent Tim Edsell said.

And if students are hearing about it and asking, then school officials need to look at it, Edsell said.

The issue for school officials is preparing students for the worst, while also not scaring them, local officials said.

At Central Nine, that isn’t as much of an issue since all of their students are high schoolers, Quaranta said.

But for other local school districts, the way they talk to kindergarteners is going to be different from what high school students are told to do, officials said.

At Clark-Pleasant schools, their focus has been on teaching students that their teachers and other adults in the building will guide them in what to do, Superintendent Patrick Spray said. And then they work with teachers to make sure they have thought out their response to what they would do in a crisis situation, such as if a shooter was in the building, he said.

For the youngest students, that means making sure they know to follow directions in a situation that may be chaotic, but not scaring them with the what-ifs, he said.

But for older students, that could include a discussion with their teacher about how to defend themselves.

At Franklin schools, especially with older students, officials do talk about three steps: run, hide, fight, Superintendent David Clendening said. That response has been used in other schools where shootings have happened, he said.

They talk about scenarios and have lockdown drills, and they walk through their responses in an age-appropriate way, using language students know, he said.

“You do have to balance training with not wanting to scare kids,” Clendening said.

Students in kindergarten, first and second grade at Greenwood schools aren’t included in any training for an active shooter situation, Superintendent Kent DeKoninck said.

Instead, they are taught to listen to their teacher and don’t open the door for anyone, he said.

But at Greenwood Community High School, students have been given scenarios, including if an active shooter was in the building during transition time, and asking them to think about what they would do, superintendent Kent DeKoninck said.

For years, schools taught students to lockdown and shelter in place. But in some recent incidents, that has led to students being basically sitting ducks when a shooter comes into the building, he said.

That’s why continued discussions and training are important, so students, staff, school officials and police can do their best to prepare for the unthinkable, he said. They still emphasize that students should listen to their teachers, but they are also looking at other options that need to be added on top of the traditional run and hide, which could include fighting back, DeKoninck said.

“Every situation is different. The handbook goes out the window,” DeKoninck said.

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Here is a look at what Indiana State Police train schools in an active shooter situation:

Prevention: Includes developing a safety plan, securing the campus, training and improving the plan.

Escape: If you have a safe path to a secure location.

Lockdown: If a safe path to get out isn’t available, then a lockdown is the best option.

Fight: When faced with imminent danger, take lethal action.

SOURCE: Indiana State Police presentation

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