The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Gunset Training Group or its affiliates.
Click HERE to view the original post on the GunSnobbery Blog
Earlier this week Nashville released their final case summary for the Covenant shooting. It makes for some frustrating reading. If you haven’t read it, take a few minutes (unless you’re about to go to bed) to read the case summary and come back.
I’ve talked about the Covenant shooting, from the law enforcement perspective here and here. I was also fortunate that I was able to attend a debrief of this incident last November. For my brothers and sisters in blue, I don’t have much more to add about the law enforcement response other than to say – be ready for the fight to start as soon as you pull up. We are seeing more and more active killers engaging cops as soon as they pull up and we’ve got to start incorporating that into our plans. Metro Nashville PD did a fine job dealing with this.
This article is really a wake up call, I guess, for everyone – cops, fire/EMS, parents, teachers, tax payers, church goers and anyone else who regularly visits or has friends and family that visit or attend schools. We have to do better.
The rest of this article will cover what I see as the insanity that we see when we analyze active shooter events. It has been said that insanity is “doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results”. That’s exactly where I believe we are at when it comes to active shooter preparation. Let’s start with how easy it was for the shooter to enter the building. I break active killer threats down into two broad categories – inside threats and outside threats. Inside threats are threats from people who are supposed to be present on any given day – for example, killers who attend the school/business/church (like the Columbine killers) and come in like they would any other day. But on that day they bring a weapon with them. These are the threats that are very difficult to counter.
Outside threats are threats from people who don’t normally have access to the facility. These should be easier to counter if you plan accordingly and deny them access or at least delay their access. This killer was an outside threat. To get into the building, all the killer had to do was shoot out some glass and walk right in. It was that easy.
Today, there is ZERO excuse for not hardening the entryways into our schools. NONE. We have building and fire codes for everything, but we still haven’t made hardening the school against an active killer a legal requirement. But even if it isn’t a legal requirement, I think schools have a moral obligation to spend the money and harden the entryways to their buildings. Especially when there is grant money available. How, you ask? One way is to install security film on the glass at the entryways. Shooting out glass to enter a school is not an isolated event. It has happened before. I spoke about this incident last year. Hardening the entryways to a school is not rocket science. But some school administrators refuse to take these matters seriously. I’ve spoken with school administrators and have given active shooter presentations to school administrators several times. Some of them just don’t get it. In one of those conversations I was told, “we aren’t building a prison” when I brought up this topic. That is a direct quote. I was recently given a tour of a brand new school and I was horrified by what I saw. The other Officers I was with had the same thought as I did – it’s a shooting gallery. But if the cops cannot do anything about it, what can you do about it? Keep reading.
The next little bit of insanity is a bit more complex. One of the things that happened during this incident is that the smoke from the killer’s gunfire had the side effect of setting off the fire alarms early in the incident, as in within the first minute. I firmly believe that this unintended side effect of the gunfire contributed significantly to the deaths of five of the six victims. Why?
To answer that you have to understand modern fire suppression systems, so bear with me. Here’s a quick down and dirty on how suppression systems work in modern schools with smoke detectors and sprinklers. If you have ever been inside a modern school during the day, you may have noticed doors throughout the hallways that stand open. These doors are spring loaded. On the backside of the door some mechanism (usually a magnet or latch of some sort) is holding the door open, preventing the spring from closing the door. These are fire doors, intended to slow the spread of fire and smoke when they are closed. And they work well. When they’re closed. With an automatic fire suppression system, the mechanism holding the door open automatically releases the door whenever the sprinklers are activated, the smoke alarm goes off or a pull station is pulled. This allows the door to close automatically. Once the fire suppression system is activated for any reason, the audible alarm will also activate.
Now that is out of the way, let’s get back to answering the “why” I think this contributed to these deaths. There are two parts to the answer. The first part of the answer is pretty simple. In a school (or church), even with the fire doors propped open, it’s hard to tell that gunshots are, in fact, gun shots. When the doors are closed, it makes it even harder to hear the gunshots, especially over the audible alarm. When the gunshots are on another floor, the problem is compounded. From witness accounts and video footage, the first time that Cynthia Peak and Executive Principal Dr. Katherine Koonce knew there was an active shooter was when they encountered the killer. By then it was too late.
The second part of the answer deals with our Pavlovian response to hearing an audible fire alarm. What did you learn to do in school anytime a fire alarm went off? Easy. Immediately stop what you’re doing, line up in an orderly manner, walk single file out of the room with your teacher and leave the building. No questions asked. Just do it. It’s been taught for decades. And many states are still teaching it to our kids.
But what was once a rational automatic response needs to be re-evaluated because that Pavlovian response can get people killed (and has on multiple occasions). Study active killer events for any length of time and you will see how this Pavlovian response has worked to the killer’s benefit. Take the 1998 incident in Jonesboro, AR for example. The killers’ (there were two, ages 11 and 13) entire plan revolved around activating a fire alarm and then shooting people when they evacuated the building. It worked. They killed five people. Or more recently, in the Parkland incident. At Parkland, like Covenant, the smoke alarms went off and the kids did what they’d been conditioned to do – they left the classroom to evacuate the building thinking it was a fire drill and encountered the killer in the hallway. And many of them died.
So what do we do about this Pavlovian response to fire alarms? That’s not an easy question to answer and the obvious answer might ruffle some feathers with my brothers and sisters in the fire service. There are really only two choices – immediate mandatory evacuation or discretion to evacuate when the threat from fire has been confirmed. In some states and cities, the answer is simple – immediate mandatory evacuation because it appears to be (or is) required by law. Like Columbus, OH.
Some states, like Indiana, allow a certain amount of discretion in when to evacuate when a fire alarm goes off. Since I live in Ohio, I tried to find out if Ohio law requires immediate evacuation and could not find the specific law in the Ohio Revised Code, the Ohio Administrative Code or the Ohio Fire Code. And the information I did find during my search was contradictory. For example, I found two STATE universities which had contradictory information. One required evacuation based on state law and one said just the opposite. I would think state universities would have the same policies and that those policies reflected state law. Silly me.
So what’s better – immediate evacuation or evacuation after confirmation that it’s a true emergency? There is no absolute answer to that. We know that the last mass casualty fatal fire in a U.S. school happened in Chicago in 1958. 95 people died and this incident led to many of the fire and building codes that we have in place today. I haven’t found a documented incident of any school (elementary through high school) related fire fatalities since then. There may be some, but I couldn’t find them. Do we attribute the fatality free decades to the improvements in building codes and building design? Or is it a result of mandatory evacuations and fire drills? Or a combination of the two? Once again, I haven’t found a good answer to that question.
The statistics show that there are thousands of fires a year in U.S. schools. And there are some that argue that rigid adherence to the building/fire code and mandatory immediate evacuations are the reason why there have been no fatalities. But I have been on a few “fires” and fire alarms at schools in my career. As a former firefighter (I did the firefighter and police thing for 6 or 7 years) and arson investigator, I’m skeptical about giving immediate evacuations too much credit for those fatality free years. Especially in the last 30 years. I think the improvements to the building/fire code are much more valuable than the evacuations. I would need more empirical data to prove to me that evacuations played a significant role in the lower fatality rate. Which is why I believe that giving schools discretion on when to evacuate is the correct course of action.
So what does all of this mean for you? Well, now that you understand (hopefully) what is at stake, you can do a few things. First, educate your family. If you have children old enough to understand, talk with them about how fire alarms can be associated with active shooter incidents. If you have a spouse that works at a school, make sure they understand.
Second, ask the school board questions. Or at least bring forward your concerns. Depending on what your questions are, they may decline to answer based on security concerns. But you can at least tell them your concerns and ask them to look into it. It may be more beneficial to meet with one of them for a one on one discussion versus addressing it in an open meeting.
Third, find out what your state or local laws are regarding mandatory immediate evacuations (start with the Fire Department) and if the law does not allow discretion, it’s time to talk with a state rep or state senator because that is the only way the law will get changed. And be ready to stay the course because nothing happens quick in the legislative process.
And remember – Fire codes and building codes apply to churches and colleges as well. If you attend a church or college, many of these same issues apply.
One final thought – if you find yourself in the shoes of the killer’s parents, do more than they did. The signs were there, just like so many other incidents. The mental health issues brought up in the case summary were truly disturbing, but that’s an article for another day.
