Situational Awareness and Prevailing Mentality

1. Situational Awareness and Prevailing Mentality

2. Nationwide Strength • National client-base covering 27 states • Cloud-based all-hazards preparedness solution • Nation’s largest educational preparedness initiative • Leading situational awareness system SafePlans corporate mission is straightforward: Protect people and places Through proven strategies, innovative thinking, and the latest technologies, SafePlans is able to provide the very best practices in risk management anuwhere in the country WE PROTECT PEOPLE & PLACES

3. Situational Awareness SafePlans SchoolSafetyNews.com is the Nation’s largest educational security database and blog.

4. Collaborate with Law Enforcement Planners should engage law enforcement during the planning process, not when a crisis is imminent. First and last resource in a dangerous intruder environment

5. Introduction The chart below was developed by Alexander Volokh and Lisa Snell in 2005 and compares concerns of educators in 1940 to those n 1990.

6. When Would You Want to Know? Parking Lot OR Front Door Front Door OR Office Office OR Hallway Hallway OR Classroom

7. Situational Awareness The Proper State of Mind Situational Awareness is the ability to identify, process, and comprehend the critical elements of information about what is happening around you.

8. When Would Know? Parking Lot OR Front Door Front Door OR Office Office OR Hallway Hallway OR Classroom

9. Attack Categories For the purposes of this training, attacks may be placed into the following categories: Insider Attacks are carried out by persons closely affiliated with the school; such as students. • Prevention: Threat assessment & situational awareness • Mitigation: Intruder Response Outsider Attacks are carried out by persons not closely affiliated with the school; where the school was viewed as a soft target. * Prevention: Physical security & situational awareness * Mitigation: Intruder Response

10. Situational Awareness The Proper State of Mind Situational Awareness is the ability to identify, process, and comprehend the critical elements of information about what is happening around you. An important element of this mindset is first coming to the realization that a threat exists. Ignorance or denial of a threat make a person’s chances of quickly recognizing the threat and avoiding it slim to none.

11. Sandy Hook Highest Fatality Rate in Mass Killing 26 killed, 2 wounded Newtown CT Dec. 14,2012 After killing his mother, Adam Lanza arrived at Sandy Hook Elementary around 9:30 a.m. He fired shots into the locked front door and gained entry. Lanza’s attack lasted nearly 11 minutes and 20 children and 6 adults were murdered. Heroic actions by school staff undoubtedly saved lives. Outsider attack

12. Jeff Cooper’s Color Codes

13. VA Tech Shooter Delays Rapid Deployment of Police 33 killed, 27 wounded Blacksburg, VA April 16, 2007 Seung-Hui Cho exhibits numerous warning signs that go ignored. After killing two students around 7:15 a.m. in the dorm, Cho entered Norris Hall two hours later and chained the doors shut. Despite rapid SWAT and patrol response, Cho was able to kill 30 more people and fire over 170 rounds.

14. Pre-Attack IndicatorsPAIN

15. No Profile • Core Common Factor in Mass Killings: Majority Expect to Die During Attack (3 Wishes) * Pre-Attack Indicators (PAIN) Exist in the Physical Appearance and Behavior of the Attackers.

16. Physical PAINS

17. Behavioral PAINS

18. Secondary Attacks Secondary Device Definition: An explosive device that is place in an area of evacuation or staging to inflict greater casualties and/or disrupt emergency response. Diversionary Attack Definition: An attack wherein a force uses a means of deception with the purpose of drawing the target into an area more conductive to attack.

19. Columbine Multiple School Shooters Summary 15 killed, 23 wounded Littleton, CO April 20, 1999 Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold exhibited numerous warning signs that were ignored. After several explosive devices failed, they entered the school at 11:19 a.m. and began shooting. The shooting continued until they killed themselves at 12:08 p.m. Police did not enter the library until 3:22 p.m.

20. Norway Largest Loss of Life in Mass Killing Attack 77 killed, 209 wounded Osio, Norway July 22, 2011 In two sequential attacks, Anders Breivik first used a car bomb in a government quarter of Osio. Less than two hours later, disguised as a police officer, he gained access to a remote Island hosting a government youth event where he murdered 69 people.

21. Prevention-Mitigation Schools should not be soft targets of opportunity • “Prevention is the action schools take to decrease the likelihood that an event or crisis will occur.” • “Mitigation is the action schools take to eliminate or reduce the loss of life and property damage related to an event or crisis, particularly those that cannot be prevented.” Two Main Prevention-Mitigation strategies to stop violent intruders: Improved physical security Threat assessment programs

22. When Prevention Fails

23. Have a Plan To address the complexities of violent intruder incidents and the deficiencies of the basic lockdown concept, SafePlans uses three-option system.

24. RUN RUN. Implement a running evacuation if: • You have direct contact with the shooter. And/or • You cannot lock the shooter out of your location. This video footage from the attack at Columbine High School shows students implementing an impromptu running evacuation of the cafeteria. While disturbing, this action undoubtedly saved lives.

25. Hide While a locked door is good. There are other ways to HIDE Effectively such as barricades and tying off doors HIDE hideif: • You have indirect contact with the shooter. And/or • You can likely keep the shooter out of your location until law enforcement arrives Remember: Lock the door if you can Do not use your body to support the barricade Silence cell phones

26. Tying off doors Tying off doors limits the attackers ability to open doors, even if they are unlocked. Tying off doors is used to reinforce doors that open out (toward the hallway) where barricades have limited value.

27. Jamming Door Handles Doors that open into the hallway For handicap accessible handles (levers pushed downward to open), wedge a chair or small table between the handle and the door, preventing the handle from unlatching the door.

28. FIGHT Last Resort The FIGHT option is to be used as a last resort. Violent intruders are very and the HIDE and RUN options greatly improve upon the basic lockdown. However when it is not possible to RUN and HIDE, you must FIGHT back against the attacker. When fighting back it is possible that people will be injured or even killed. However, if you do nothing, it is a certainty that more people will be injured or killed

29. Last Resort - FIGHT FIGHT When you must FIGHT: Commit to fighting back Lead others to help Provide clear and confident instructions Use improvised weapons, such as fire extinguisher, chairs, and books Act with aggression until the threat is incapacitated If you have direct contact with the attacker and the attacker is blocking your path, then there is no way you can RUN or HIDE. You must then FIGHT back and neutralize the attacker.

31. Prevailing Mentality

32. Mental Preparedness Feb. 23,2010 Littleton, CO 2 wounded 32-year-old Bruco “Strong Eagle” Eastwood Arrived at the middle school just as students were leaving for the day and opened fire with a high powered hunting rifle. Two students were wounded before Math teacher, Dr. David Benke, tackled the gunman, helping to subdue him until police arrived “I had always told my students since Columbine that if anything happened in school, I would hope that I would be able to do something.” Dr. David Benke, Math Teacher Deer Creek Middle School

33. Understanding the mental process of Combat Universal Human Phobia Fear +175+ HBPM • Irrational thinking/decision making • Freezing VS. slow motion time • Vasoconstriction • Auditory exclusion • Submissive behavior • Poor communication/speech • Perseveration Extreme survival stress

34. Your Mind and Combat Above approximately 175 HPBM there is a breakdown of cognitive processing. The Forebrain begins to shut down and the Midbrain takes over.

35. Decision Making in an Emergency During an emergency you could be required to make life-or-death decisions. Air Force Colonel John Boyd developed a model to help explain this type of decision making process. The system is called the “OODA Loop.” OODA is an acronym that stands for Observe, Orient, Decide and Act

36. OODA Loop According to Boyd’s theory, emergency response can be seen as a series of time-competitive, Observe-Orient-Decide-Act (OODA) cycles The “loop” occurs when collective actions have changed the situation. The cycle continues throughout an incident

37. Observe First you become aware of a potentially dangerous situation.

38. Orient Orient yourself to the situation so you can best determine you response option.

39. Decide Decide the best possible response, based on what you know at the time.

40. Act Carry out the action plan to the best of your abilities, based on what you know at the time.

41. The Loop Repeats Remember, the OODA Loop process can occur several times during an emergency.

42. Applying OODA to RUN/HIDE/FIGHT • Observe • Situational Awareness • Pre-attack Behavior • Orient • Contact + Location = Response

43. Applying OODA to RUN/HIDE/FIGHT • Level of Contact? • Direct vs. Indirect • Path of Escape • Yes or No? • Ability to Secure • Yes or No?

44. Applying OODA to RUN/HIDE/FIGHT In a moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing. The worst thing you can do is nothing. President Theodore Roosevelt

45. Vasoconstriction Vasoconstriction is the narrowing of the blood vessels resulting from contraction of the muscular wall of the vessels. Probably a survival mechanism but can greatly reduce fine motor skills.

46. Submissive Behavior “Get in a line, I am going to kill you all.” Oikos University Shooting 7 killed, 3 wounded Oakland, CA April 2, 2012

47. Passive Targets, Easy Victims When law enforcement officers counter a shooting incident, the hit ratio is only 12 to 18 percent. • Shooter’s hit ratios are dramatically higher, with some as high as 80 percent • The difference is not attributed to shooting skill, but rather the passive response. • Available targets are predictable and stationary.

48. Direction and Control “ Very little innovative thinking occurs under combat conditions, we must plan and train for the next fight before we’re in it.” Dave Grossman Whatever you are drilled to do you will perform under stress. Perseveration: The repetition of a particular response.

49. Training • Allows us to overcome extreme survival stress • Stress inoculation • Firefighter and a Firehouse • Two-way-street • Provide the training & participate

50. Tactical Breathing • Technical term is called autogenic breathing, but in the combat community it’s referred to as combat breathing or tactical breathing. • Technique to control fear and stress by limiting the role of the body’s Sympathetic Nervous System. • Sympathetic Nervous System controls out Fight or Flight response and is part of the Autonomic Nervous System