School Administrator Response to the Active Shooter/Active Assailant™

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School shooting attacks have occurred in the United States since 1764. However, since 2000, school shootings have increased significantly in frequency and lethality. School shootings have now become a commonplace event, occurring in cities large and small throughout the United States. Since the 1999 Columbine school shooting, more than 95 fatal school shooting events have occurred in the United States. In addition to these attacks, law enforcement and school administrators prevented more than 4,000 other attacks. In some cases, these attacks were thwarted just minutes before the attack was to begin.

 

This course also covers other types of school mass violence attacks. The term “active assailant” includes perpetrators who utilize other attack tactics (such as explosives, knives, vehicles, fire, and so forth). There is a significant increase in the number of mass violence attacks in the United States in which the perpetrator used something other than a firearm.

 

This presentation focuses on key issues for school administrators, law enforcement personnel, mental health providers, and other stakeholders. This presentation begins by discussing threat leakage. Threat leakage occurs when a potential perpetrator communicates their intent to do harm to a target. Leakage is fact-based, dynamic, acute, and often accelerates as the attack approaches. Leakage occurs both intentionally and unintentionally. Leakage follows a continuum of behavior and is often identifiable if authorities understand it. Numerous school shooting events were thwarted by school officials who understood and recognized threat leakage.

 

In 2021, Threat Suppression presented this class to 2,000 school employees in Oklahoma. In the weeks following, school staffed successfully identified and thwarted two pending school attacks. The school superintendent and county sheriff directly credited this course with stopping the attacks.

 

This course also discusses how to determine a threat. All threats are not created equal, and threats made in the heat of the moment are unlikely to be acted upon. Threat assessment must be holistic, team-centered, and integrate multiple approaches. This presentation helps to determine if a threat is low risk, medium risk, high risk, or ultra-high risk.   

 

This course also discusses how to create a Notification Center, Family Reunification Center, and Incident Assistance Center. Universally, educational institutions have expressed concern in how to effectively recreate these centers. In addition, the care of families of the injured and deceased is discussed. Last, this presentation discusses recovery and “new normal operations.” This also includes location use after the event, installation of new security features, legal issues, and more.

 

Our staff have conducted meetings and walk-throughs with responders at many school shooting locations, including Columbine, Virginia Tech, Townville Elementary, Sandy Hook, Uvalde and more. Threat Suppression staff have trained more than 200,000 people on active shooter response. The Department of Homeland Security, Department of Justice, Department of Defense, and Department of Education all recommend the active shooter training available at Threat Suppression. This training is directly credited with thwarting 15 school shooting events.

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This class is only for school administrators, active public safety members (police, fire, and EMS), military law enforcement, and government officials. To download a copy of this course brochure, please click here.

 

If you would like more information on booking this course, please email info@ThreatSuppression.com, or call 1-800-231-9106.