Classrooms at risk in emergencies: White Hall has vulnerabilities if a shooting were to occur
March 27, 2013 |
By Morgan Eads| @KyKernel
meads@kykernel.com
Posted near the door of nearly every classroom on UK’s campus is a sign that highlights what students and employees should to do in certain emergency situations.
The first step listed in an active shooter situation is to lock or barricade the door “if possible.” In several large classrooms in White Hall Classroom Building, this is not possible.
Forums on safety at UK highlighted potential holes in security should there be a shooter on campus, with UK’s largest classroom building especially at risk. While some of the rooms have no locks, instructors do not have the keys to lock others. Additionally, furniture bolted to the floor in some classrooms makes barricading the doors nearly impossible.
White Hall has more than 3,000 seats in its 58 classrooms. If they are in a room that is difficult to secure, students and teachers have to be prepared to take alternative actions, said Dave Benson, executive vice president for global security operations for the national Center for Personal Protection & Safety.
“If you know the doors don’t lock and you know the windows open, you have an idea of what you can do,” Benson said in an interview with the Kernel.
Some of the larger classrooms in White Hall that hold up to 300 students also have out-swinging doors. In the Virginia Tech massacre of April 16, 2007, students were shot while trying to hold out-swinging doors that could not be barricaded, crime prevention officer Alan Saylor said.
The Kernel attended two forums and spoke with safety officials to learn what should be done in emergency situations. Students and employees need to be aware of their surroundings before an emergency to know whether they are in a room with such vulnerabilities, said Saylor, a member of the UK police department.
“You are the first line of defense, not the police,” Saylor said. “What you do and what you don’t do in that particular circumstance, your response to that situation will save lives.”
Many school shooting incidents are over by the time first responders arrive on the scene, Saylor said. According to a video presented by the Center for Personal Protection and Safety, people have three options if there is a shooter on campus: get out, hide out or take out.
Saylor expressed reservations about the “get out” option, saying if there is one shooter, you have to assume there could be two and that someone could be shooting outside as well.
According to the video, if getting out of the area and hiding are not possibilities, there is no other option but to take out the shooter. Though some people might not see themselves being capable of such violence, Saylor said that it is a necessity.
“You’ve got to reach into yourself and be something that you are not,” Saylor said. “You’ve got to be a lion, not a lamb.”
Benson also expressed the importance of being ready to do what is necessary.
“You have to do the best you can to save your life and the lives of your friends,” Benson said.
As soon as an active shooter is discovered, campus and Lexington police will swarm to the area and UK Alerts will immediately go out. The potential sound of hundreds of phones on campus going off with alerts could pose a threat to those hiding from an active shooter. This potential issue has not gone unnoticed by the campus police. Saylor recommends keeping phones and noise makers on silent at all times.
“In an emergency situation, are you really going to remember to shut this thing off?” Saylor asked, gesturing to his own phone.
Though forums are being offered on campus for students and employees interested in learning about what to do in case of a school shooting, there is no required course or protocol in this kind of situation, leaving many students and employees unprepared.
Sociology instructors Lisa Conley and John Johnson said the forum was helpful in planning for such an event. Neither thought such a forum should be mandatory, but they agreed attending one should be strongly encouraged.
“I really wonder if anyone could ever be prepared for something like this,” Conley said. “I don’t think many are.”
“This is good,” Johnson said. “If everyone came to this I think they’d be much better prepared.”
Several points were raised that might have otherwise gone unnoticed. Conley said before this training she would have urged her students to huddle in a corner rather than spreading out to confuse the shooter, as police suggest.
“I think it’s helpful,” Conley said. “I think it is unfortunate we live in a society that we have to talk about these things, but we do have to talk about them.”
Any building or location has vulnerabilities, buildings on campus being no different. Being prepared for anything and to do whatever is necessary to survive is vital in an shooting situation, Saylor said.
“Think of those that love you, they want you to come home,” Saylor said. “Are you going to do what you need to do to make that happen?”
Posted in: Active Shooter, Interesting
Health Workers Learn To Be on Alert for Shooters
March 8, 2013
By SHELLEY HANSON Staff Writer , The Intelligencer / Wheeling News-Register
After attending a seminar about how to deal with an active shooter in a hospital, nurse Cheryl Bee looks forward to participating in more training. Bee, a nurse at Wheeling Hospital, described the stories relayed Thursday about past shootings as interesting and informative. ”What sticks out in my mind is that there’s a lot of planning involved. We need more hands-on training,” Bee said.
She was among the many health care workers and first responders who attended the session conducted by Spokane, Wash.-based Center for Personal Protection and Safety. Held at Oglebay’s Wilson Lodge, the event was sponsored by the West Virginia Hospital Association. In addition to emergency managers, firefighters and law enforcement, participating hospitals included Wheeling Hospital, Wetzel County Hospital, Reynolds Memorial Hospital, Ohio Valley Medical Center and Weirton Medical Center. During the lunch break, Carol Gallaher, a nurse at Wetzel County Hospital, said the seminar was informative. ”It was interesting and very helpful, I believe,” Gallaher said. ”I think we need a little bit more protection for our facility. I think everybody could benefit from this. Every workplace could benefit from this.” Lena Palmer, a lab technician at Wetzel County Hospital, said she used to think if such a situation arose she would be ready, ”but actually we’re probably really not.” Palmer said now she will be more alert and thinking ahead about what could happen.
Dave Benson, executive vice president and principal of CPPS’ Global Security Operations, said the purpose of the session is to teach hospitals how to be aware of pending shooting situations, how to respond during a shooting and how to recover afterward. Planning and practicing scenarios with local law enforcement, he noted, is essential. ”Is it likely or probable that this will happen in your area? Honestly? Not really. The probabilities are higher than they have been in the past. But active shooter events still remain an improbable, extremely high impact event,” Benson said. ”That means it may not happen, but you better darn well think about it. Because if you don’t and it happens, it will rock your world like nothing else ever has,” he added. “And you will lose a portion of your building, a portion of your ER and lose your entire campus for a period of time… The sooner you all understand that by working together we can get our arms around some of these dynamics, the better the circumstances will be.”
Jeff Ewing, senior adviser for CPPS, said the best advice he has for visitors or patients during a shooting is to listen to the hospital workers, who should be guiding people to safer areas with doors that lock or barricading rooms to keep the shooter out.
Posted in: Active Shooter, Interesting
Several Health Care Providers Take Part in Active Shooter Training
Posted: Mar 07, 2013 6:02 PM EST Updated: Mar 08, 2013 8:13 AM EST
By D.K. Wright, Digital Journalist and Dave Benson of the Center for Personal Protection & Safety
When there’s an active shooter in a hospital, it’s not like a school where the goal is to get everyone out of the building because the patients can’t leave. It is up to the employees to protect them. “That means sometimes they may have to barricade themselves and their patients in the room,” said Dave Benson of the Center for Personal Protection & Safety. “They may have to throw things; they may have to move people around.”
Health care providers from Wheeling Hospital, OVMC, Wetzel County, Reynolds Memorial and Weirton Medical Center, along with fire and EMS personnel learned how to look for warning signs, and how to trust their first impressions. “Folks spend an awful lot of precious time trying to figure out of they heard gunshots, if they didn’t hear gunshots, oh my goodness, what’s going on,” Benson said. “Believe what you see and hear.” They learned to spread out, not clump together because that provides an easier target and to use whatever is at hand as a weapon if necessary. “Whatever it takes. Throw something in their face, a powder fire extinguisher. You can take a powder fire extinguisher off the wall and spray powder in their face from 20 feet away,” Benson said.
The day long training was not meant to be a one-time event. It’s one of these skills that are perishable and you need to refresh. And it evolves with every event, sadly we learn more and we do better at providing response strategies,” he said. They say being trained gives you a significant over untrained, in case of an active shooter, where seconds count.
Posted in: Active Shooter, Interesting
At-Risk International & CPPS form a Strategic Alliance to Provide Security and Education Solutions Internationally
A long-term business relationship has become a strategic alliance. The CEO of CPPS, Randy Spivey, and President of AT-RISK International, Chuck Tobin, have long recognized the value in working closely together to serve the global community in their shared mission to combat violence in the workplace.
The two business leaders have taken this a step further and formed a strategic alliance, fostering even more potential for comprehensive solutions to the ongoing challenges faced by their clients in overseas travel and workplace violence. As leaders in their respective industries, the alliance was an inevitable solution to the next step in industry leadership.
CPPS is best known as a leading developer and provider of customized training and consultation solutions, directly addressing the challenging issues of terror and violence in our society today. They’ve helped forge industry standards in the education, prevention and response to workplace violence and travel threats.
AT-RISK is recognized as an industry leader in providing operational solutions to their client’s overseas travel and workplace violence matters. As a leading provider of executive security services, investigations and consulting, AT-RISK has established new global standards of performance for this community.
The strategic alliance between these two companies creates the possibility of full spectrum solutions for their clients in global education, consulting and operational security needs and creates new opportunities for these thought leaders to explore even better ways to mitigate the risks associated with foreign travel and workplace violence.
Posted in: Interesting
Focus On The Family partners with CPPS to bring a one-day Ministry Safety & Security Training Conference to its Campus
Focus On The Family has partnered with the Center for Personal Protection and Safety (CPPS) Ministry Division to bring a one day Ministry Safety & Security Training Conference to its campus on Thursday, April 25, 2013
CPPS CEO Randy Spivey states, “We’re so honored to be working with Focus On the Family to provide training and education that raises awareness and saves lives. Focus On The Family is one of the world’s premier providers of training and support for clergy and faith-based organizations and it’s a privilege to work with them in this important endeavor.”
The CPPS Ministry Security Conference (MSC) has trained more than 4,000 students from faith-based organizations, mission groups and related law enforcement on how best to create a safe and secure environment for houses of worship and faith-based campuses . CPPS is the #1 provider of faith-based safety & security training and resources in America. The April 25 training event covers the following important topics:
- Protecting Your Children, Worship Experience & Ministries
- Response Options in an Active Shooter Scenario
- Key Differences Between Trained and Untrained Individuals in a Crisis
- What to Do When Law Enforcement Arrives
- How to Recruit & Train Volunteers For Your Safety & Security Team
- Travel Safety Best Practices for Short-term Volunteer Mission Teams
- Basic Principles for Preventing Violence Within A Faith-based Organization
- Domestic Violence Issues Spilling Onto Your Faith-based Campus
- How To Be Prepared For Medical Emergencies
- Early Intervention – Recognizing & Responding To Early Warning Signs
The Center for Personal Protection and Safety (CPPS) is a leading developer and provider of customized training and consultation solutions. Partnering with our clients, we empower individuals to be stakeholders in their personal safety and security in the workplace and while traveling and living abroad. As thought leaders in the industry, CPPS creates and leverages best-practices, providing practical solutions to some of today’s most extreme challenges.
- Active Shooter and Other Forms of Extreme Violence
- Intimate Partner Violence and Stalking
- Workplace Violence to Include Ministry Workplaces
- International Travel Safety and Kidnap Survival
- Living Abroad and in High-risk Environments
- Threat Assessment and Management
CPPS clients include more than 50 percent of Fortune 100 companies, 1,400-plus colleges and universities nation-wide, numerous U.S. Agencies to include the FBI, DOD, VA and Social Security Administration and over 50% of the largest Faith-based organizations in America.
For registration information for this event contact Rev Jerry McConnell jerry.mcconnell@cpps.com 509-252-8533 or visit the CPPS website www.cpps.com
Posted in: Uncategorized