New program generates results

  University Police Officer Bethany L. Hayes began teaching active shooter situation training sessions this semester. Her presentations have been shown to all first year seminar classes and faculty/staff members. Up to now, almost 300 students and faculty/staff members have received training.

  "All the first year seminar students have been trained, faculty gets trained in the first of November and we have the RAs and Student Life Department scheduled for this winter," said Hayes. "Then we'll start implementing, hopefully, to the upperclassmen."

  The purpose of this training program is: first, sharing survival concepts with the students, faculty and staff; and second, partnering with the entire campus community to maximize survivability in shooting incidents.

  "The meaning of this program for students is to teach them to be aware of their surroundings, and for the police department is to start to create a proactive measure with students by interacting with them," said Hayes.

  Hayes' presentation is about 50 minutes long and includes two videos, a slideshow of concepts and images, and basic interaction with students.

  The content of this presentation includes the history of school shootings, measures students can take to protect themselves, how police can help, and what proactive measures schools are taking in active shooter situations.

  "I break down [the measures students can take] into ALICE – alert, lockdown, inform, counter, and evacuate – and we go through each step," said Hayes.

  Students are taught different techniques in Hayes' presentation from what they learned about active shooter or emergency situations in their high school and middle school classes. 

  "When we were in high school, all we learned about active shooter situations was to lock down and stay still," said First-Year Lynsey Woodyard. "Compared to high school, Officer Hayes taught us more about trying to actually do something about it if we have the chance, instead of sitting there and waiting."

  In elementary through high school, emergency situations result in a lockdown; people secure the room, turn off the lights, cover any windows and retreat to a corner of the room.

  "The problem with a lockdown is—I'm not saying it's a bad concept, it's just not the only thing they can do—once they are in the corner they're sitting ducks and they're targets," said Hayes. "Everything hinges off of that shooter getting in the door. Once the shooter gets in the door, he has full access to all his victims; they are staying in one spot, right where he wants them to be."

  In Hayes' presentation, students were taught that traditional lockdown is one option but it does not work when someone is actively killing teachers, students, and workers inside a building or classroom. Students were told that they should trust their instincts to run, hide or to attack.

  "I tell them that you can break the window, or you can move all the stuff and you can barricade the door," said Hayes. "The reason it is important to tell them is that they've never thought of it before…I want them to protect themselves and be confident about their abilities to save their lives."

  Students are also taught about countering if there's no other option or if the shooter is coming into the room. They are taught how they can take the shooter down, what they can do to hold that person down, what they should do for the people that might be injured, and what information they should report when they call the police department.

  "When we start to teach countering, I'll show them how to take me down, and I'll try to see if I can get up," said Hayes. "I usually pick five of the smallest girls in the classroom. We always typically thought girls are weaker, but when they are holding me down, there's not one time I even got close to getting up off the floor."

  Students who took the class are asked to fill out questionnaires and Hayes reported that the feedback from students is positive. Some students suggest they should make this a topic for "Hot Topic Tuesday."

  "I wish there was more time spent on this training," said First-Year Seminar Mentor Kaitlyn Bandy. "50 minutes is a short amount of time to learn such important information. This is a great session and Officer Hayes is really passionate about the topic and training. It will be good to see more students and faculty trained for these type of situations."

  Some students felt that this topic was depressing and scary to discuss, but, after this class, they felt more prepared to talk about this situation and face it, if necessary.

  "We've got a lot more calls for stuff since this has happened that I don't think we've had before," said Hayes. "After several incidents have happened, the student or a couple of faculty members came up to me and said ‘If I hadn't have that class I wouldn't have known what was going on and I wouldn't have been aware.' So already, just the few people we've trained on this campus, we are already seeing results."