SCSD#3 Students Learn Skills to Help Them Survive a School Shooting

On Thursday, Jan. 12 and Friday Jan 13, the TAC*ONE training took place at SCSD#3. Thursday was training for students, and Friday was set aside for training the staff.

The training has been held for several years at SCSD#3, and Joe Deedon who is the founder and president of TAC*ONE consulting out of Denver, Colorado conducted the training, which is designed to help students and staff think how they would handle an active shooter scenario in a school.

A letter from the school to the parents described the training program. Dear Parents, we will be having trainers here from TAC*ONE to conduct training with our staff, students and local law enforcement. We would like to clarify that this will not be an actual active shooter drill. We will not be locking down schools and there will be no weapons shown to our students.

The trainers will be doing staff specific training and providing individual class instruction during this training. All student training will be age appropriate so as to not cause fear and there will not be any real guns displayed in our school. TAC*ONE instruction will be another tool to assist our students and staff in making good choices in the event of any emergency situations.

For the K-5 Active Shooter Training, the TAC*ONE instructors will spend approximately 20 minutes in each classroom. This age-appropriate training begins with the instructor asking the students what they know about school safety issues, and they let the age and knowledge of the students guide the conversation and questions.

The main features of this training are: • Teaching students hand signals the teachers will use to keep them safe • Teaching students how to “create chaos” in the classroom to keep safe • Giving students the opportunity to begin the conversation in an age-appropriate manner.

Middle School Training (Grades 6-8) – The training for middle school is more comprehensive. The highlights of this training are: • Students learn barricading techniques • Students learn how to evacuate safely (corners, hand signals, exits) • Students learn how to help teachers in the event of an active shooter engagement situation • Discussion on how to manage emotions in a stressful situation.

High School Training (Grades 9-12) The training for high school includes all of the components of the middle school training, and also includes a portion of education on the Parkland High School shooting. This discussion includes some information on some of the good decisions made during this incident, as well as some discussion on how more lives could have been saved using the TAC*ONE techniques.

The features of this training include: • Students learn barricading techniques • Students learn how to evacuate safely (corners, hand signals, exits) • Students learn how to help teachers in the event of an active shooter engagement situation • Discussion on how to manage emotions in a stressful situation • In-depth discussion on Parkland High School will be held in the auditorium with all students and teachers.

Since the Parkland shooting there have been others, as well as shooters in major retail stores, and the team discussed them as well.

Deedon added that his team tries come into the school at least once a year, sometimes twice a year. It maintains the program so the kids really catch on. He said the program has had good feedback from the school and especially from parents.

He talked about how the program started, and why it was held mainly in rural schools.

Some of the teachers, who are also parents, talked about the program. Amanda Andreen paraprofessional at SCSD#3, said this:

Jennifer Betz, History teacher and activities director, had this to say about Deedon and what the students learn.

Aubrey Holland, assistant cook, and her daughter Jessi said they liked the training, and it gave them more confidence. Stephanie Buhr, head cook, whose daughter Timber took the training at SCSD#3 and is now in college majoring in Criminal Justice, had this comment.

The morning session focused on the students learning to barricade a room, hand signals to help them move quickly, and silently to get away, and what to look for to make sure the area is safe. They learned to work with the teachers, and the older grades learned how to think and move independently in case the teacher is not available.

In the afternoon Deedon and Rich Krantz, another instructor, showed the high school students how to move through the halls to find exits or safe rooms, and then showed them some simple self-defense moves, such as punches, take downs and kicks.

The second day was training for the staff, and there will be a story on that tomorrow.