Our analysts utilize a variety of research-based techniques to evaluate school crisis plans, staff development approaches, and drill processes.  For example, while drills for school lockdowns are conducted in the traditional top-down manner and go off without a hitch, we have worked a number of school shootings where there were long delays between shots being fired and a school lockdown being announced.  Even more commonly, school there have been lengthy delays between the time a potentially dangerous person is spotted on campus and when school lockdowns have been announced on the public address system. 

Unfortunately, many school lockdown approaches are so heavily based on active shooter incidents, they are prone to failure when far more common situations arise.  In addition, research on how people make decisions under life and death stress indicates that practicing for a wider array of emergency situations better prepares the brain than focusing intently on only one scenario such as active shooter.  After working seven K12 school active shooter incidents and far more school shootings, stabbings, and other weapons incidents, my experience has been that the more school officials focus intently on active shooter incidents, the less prepared they will be for them and for the types of weapons incidents that happen most of the time.  Every active shooter incident I have worked has been dramatically different from the other six I have evaluated.  A pronounced tendency for people to focus on the last horrific incident so much that they become less prepared for a wider array of active shooter incidents.

I think it is fair to say that every client who has observed our one-on-one crisis simulations has made changes in how they prepare for school lockdowns.  This is because the reactions they observe are far different from what they anticipate.  This is especially true for school organizations that have focused intently on active shooter situations.   As Lt. Col. Dave Grossman so well states it, the human mind is the most powerful survival mechanism known to mankind.  But, as the extensive research of Grossman, Dr. Gary Klein and a number of other experts shows us, we can accidently program people to except certain outcomes to the point they become far less effective under actual field conditions when they could face an almost limitless array of specific situations. 

There is considerable research to show that exposing people to a wider array of scenarios in training and drills can improve their chances of survival in an actual event.   Learning from this extensive base of knowledge can improve survivability while also reducing fear among school employees and the students under their care.

I will be returning to the Zambezi Delta Region this summer to conduct research for the Sequel to Staying Alive – How to Act Fast and Survive Deadly Encounters.  The research for this book will require extensive travel to conduct interviews with people who face life and death encounters.  For Staying Alive, we interviewed survivors of mass casualty shootings, other weapons assaults and military combat.  The next book will be based on interviews with a variety of practitioners who make life and death decisions on a regular and sometimes, daily basis. 

On this trip, I will have the opportunity to interview a fascinating individual, Poen Van Zyl.  Poen works as a guide in one of the most heavily populated wild game preserves in the world.  A South African citizen, Poen is fluent in English, Afrikaans, Portuguese and several tribal languages.  The vast and unfenced property Poen and a group of anti-poaching game scouts protect is home to astounding numbers of wildlife in comparison to a zoo or fenced national park.  The wildlife I saw visiting the National Park in Nairobi last month was depressingly paltry compared to the Zambezi Delta region, one of the last truly wild places in Africa.   While meat poaching rages out of control in most parts of the continent today, the thousands of square miles of the undeveloped Zambeze Delta region are home to bewildering numbers of wild and free animals whose numbers are steadily increasing through privately funded anti-poaching efforts.

Like the Africa of old, this means that someone taking a simple stroll in the woods can easily have a deadly encounter with a lion, elephant, cape buffalo, hippopotamus, or one of the regions innumerable crocodiles.  As but one example of the potential danger, a university study revealed that statistically, one person is eaten every other day in one fifty mile stretch of the Zambezi River. 

Poen and his masterful bush trackers know how to spot a mamba in the forest, the tiniest sign of an unexploded landmine left over from the bush war, a carefully concealed triggering device for a leg-hold hold trap made from a rusty car door spring, the faint sign of a lion is concealed in the bush or the body language of an elephant that indicates an impending charge.  Poen kindly agreed to share with me how they and the clients they guide into this remote wilderness region can travel such danger-filled territory in relative safety.  I will see how these brave men use situational awareness and pattern matching and recognition to detect and react to danger.  Like the public safety officials, members of elite military units, and emergency medical professionals I will interview, Poen and his game scouts will explain life-saving skills that can impact who lives and who dies.

I am excited to be able to interview the amazing men who make it their life’s mission to face death in the long grass with anticipation and respect for nature rather than fear.  I feel truly blessed and fortunate to be able to meet and interact with such fascinating people.  

The recent horrific terrorist attack at a college in Damaturu, Nigeria shows how mass casualty acts of violence are not unique to the United States. One of our analysts recently returned from a trip where she assessed a number of schools in Nigeria.

For 10 days in December, Dr. Sonayia Shepherd had the distinct pleasure of visiting Lagos and Ekiti States, Nigeria to study the school system.   She particularly assessed security and safety aspects.  Given recent terrorist attacks on schools and places of worship in Nigeria, school security is just as important there as it would be in New York, Texas or Oregon.  Unfortunately, most Nigerian schools must operate in facilities that would not come close to passing building codes in the United States.  Having worked in more than a dozen countries, Dr. Shepherd has considerable experience in understanding these types of challenges and adapting school safety concepts for school security assessments in developing countries like Nigeria. 

It is important to understand that education is given high regard in Nigeria. According to Nigeria’s National Policy on Education, basic education covers instruction provided  to children 3-15 years of age, which includes pre-primary programs (ages three to five), and nine years of formal (compulsory) schooling consisting of six years of primary and three years of junior secondary.  A recent study (2012) uncovered that Nigerian immigrants have the highest levels of education in the nation (United States), surpassing whites and Asians, according to Census data bolstered by an independent analysis of 13 annual Houston-area surveys conducted by Rice University and commissioned by the Houston Chronicle. So how is safety integrated into a system of a people in a developing country so committed to education?

Though extreme budget constraints pose significant facilities challenges, many aspects of student safety are considered as important as education. During the school security assessments, it was evident in Lagos that every school Dr. Shepherd visited was gated with a guard at the entrance. The campus conditions were basic at best and would have been considered unfit by Western building codes.  For the students and staff, positive attitudes are used to help offset building inadequacies.  Most schools were housed in a tattered building with no air conditioning (the temperature remained in the upper 90s F) and some schools did not have desks or seats for students to sit; however the austere conditions did not stop the education process.  Dr. Shepherd observed students as young as 6 years old carrying desks on their heads as they walked to school in order to have a seat.  This made Dr. Shepherd painfully aware that comforts we take for granted are often lacking in Nigerian schools.    

However, as in most developing countries, building conditions were not viewed as hazards in the same way as they would be here in the United States.  When questioned about the conditions, Dr. Shepherd was told by teachers and students alike that the exposure to potential risks was a small price to pay in order to become educated. When she consulted with an administrator about the hazards of unsafe physical conditions, he simply smiled and said, “We are limited in our ability to affect the building. Unless parents and community officials help then we must work with what we have and take care of ourselves and each other”.  He relayed the countless hours he spends fixing things (they do not have custodial services) and cleaning in order to provide a little bit of comfort. He also told Dr. Shepherd that it is the culture of everyone in the school to pick up after themselves and keep the environment clean. This concept is universal and it validates the importance of a positive school climate and culture. 

Dr. Shepherd watched the gate guards question every person that came onto the campus.  Dr. Shepherd was also questioned intently before being reluctantly allowed onto campus with an escort by a staff member.  It was evident that the safety of students was important even in a school operating in such basic facilities.  Dr. Shepherd learned a few things from this trip but reports that one major nugget given to her by a dean in Nigeria really stood out.  He told her that safety can be achieved even in the bleakest of conditions if the right people with the right attitudes occupy the building.  We could not have said it better.

Trying to address even basic school security issues can be extremely challenging in developing nations.  Deadly terrorist attacks pose even greater challenges for schools in Nigeria.  As the recent attack demonstrates, basic fire safety and security concerns can become major issues when a coordinated attack is carried out on an educational facility. 

A teacher leaving the Christian Primary School in Ado-Ekiti

A typical school building with a wall around it and the Gate Guard resting underneath a tree (far right corner)

A primary school in Ekiti State

Teaching Hospital/School in Ekiti State(for graduate students)

Properly implemented school lockdowns have been successfully used to protect students and staff for more than 100 years.  From a teacher preventing an armed aggressor from entering a Danbury, Connecticut in 1900 to more recent events, school lockdowns have successfully protected people from danger for many years.   Our clients often relate successful application of school lockdowns such as a case where an apparently dangerously mentally ill man opened fire in a high school parking lot in Henderson North Carolina in the mid-1970’s.  This instance occurred just two weeks after the school conducted a lockdown drill.  The man was killed in a gunfight with responding law enforcement officers but was unable to gain access to the school.

While properly implemented school lockdowns have been preventing tragedy for more than a century, many school staff are still not being properly trained and practiced.  In addition, school lockdown protocols are often poorly developed.  For more information on lockdown concepts that can be unreliable, we have developed a free web seminar.  This blog will focus on a few simple steps that can dramatically improve the reliability of school lockdowns: 

• Regular staff and substitutes must be issued a key to be able to implement a lockdown.

• Teaching with the classroom door locked is a practice we have been recommending to our clients for more than a decade.  This concept dates back at least to the early 1990’s and not only enhances security but can reduce lost time on task because teachers become less prone to give out hall passes.

• Requiring staff to keep their room keys on their person can dramatically reduce the time it takes for staff to implement a lockdown.  While it can be helpful to have classroom doors that can be locked from the inside, long delays from staff trying to find their keys can dramatically reduce the benefits of such improvements.

• Staff should be practiced in making the decision to lockdown their own work area and advising the office to secure the rest of the school independently.  Drills requiring individual staff to make these types of decision can dramatically improve decision-making and reduce fear. 

• Training and drills should emphasize the need for appropriate types of lockdowns (preventive or “soft” lockdowns) when signs of danger are detected.  Focusing only on scenarios where shots have been fired or where someone is brandishing a gun can easily result in missed opportunities to implement a lockdown before an aggressor produces a weapon.  Our experience has been that the vast majority of situations where lockdown is appropriate at a school do not start out with shots being fired or someone brandishing a gun. 

We have now run more than 5,000 one-on-one controlled crisis simulations and have found these to be highly important aspects for more reliable school lockdowns.  Though not intended to be an all-inclusive list, addressing these key points can significantly improve reliability of school lockdowns.