Saturday, December 14, 2013
BENTONVILLE – Bentonville School District employees recently underwent training on what to do if there were an active shooter on a school campus.
Bentonville Resource Officer Steve Vera spent the last several months going to each school training faculty and staff on what to do in the event of a shooter situation. He presented “Run, Hide, Fight,” a program developed by the Department of Homeland Security.
Today marks the one-year anniversary of when Adam Lanza fatally shot 20 children and six staff members at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. The event caused school administrators across the country to look at increased safety measures.
Bentonville's district has one high school, three junior high schools, four middle schools, 10 elementary schools and one prekindergarten school. Its student population is 15,026.
Vera started training employees at the beginning of the academic year and finished about two weeks ago.
At A Glance
Run, Hide, Fight
The “Run, Hide, Fight” training has been one of several safety enhancements Bentonville High School has made since Sandy Hook. Doors are to be locked at all times. Now, the only unlocked door funnels visitors through the front office. The PTO also supplied window coverings made of felt for each classroom. The coverings are typically rolled up and can be unrolled if a situation were to occur. All district schools also do lockdown drills, said Steve Vera, resource officer. Though there isn’t a required number — fire and tornado drills are required once a month — each school should dot at least two a year.
Source: Staff Report
The training has been used across the nation, and Vera wanted to bring it to Bentonville after being exposed to it at a conference this summer. It was important all staff and administrators in every school were on the same page and received the most up-to-date training, Vera said.
“It was basically about a 35- to 45-minute presentation to the staff,” Vera said. “It’s pretty much common sense, but we go over what their options are.”
What to do depends on the situation, Vera explained. If there’s direct contact with a shooter, it may be best to run and escape; if not, it may be best to hide in a locked room and keep the building on lockdown; and there is the option to fight using nearby objects as weapons.
Vera added a mental preparedness section to the training, teaching employees the importance of always being aware of their surroundings.
“Being able to be mentally prepared to act in a situation increases chance of survival,” he said.
Vera trained employees at Cooper Elementary School in October during a staff meeting.
“He told us what to do in an actual situation,” Principal Matt Young said. “It wasn’t theoretical. It was a breath of fresh air to hear that.”
The Sandy Hook shooting made school personnel, especially in elementary schools, reflect on how to maintain a welcoming, but safe, environment for students, Young said.
“We want them to feel safe, but we don’t want them to feel like they’re in jail,” Young said of increasing security.
No school can prepare for every “what if,” but the training Vera offered gave teachers the license to use their minds to make a judgment call on what would be best for the situation’s circumstances, Young said. Vera gave them “tools in the tool box to make the right decision.”
After Sandy Hook, parents got nervous sending their kids to school, parent Susan Flint said.
“The thing that scares you the most as a parent is that they did what they were supposed to do,” Flint said of the Sandy Hook shooting. Flint has a daughter who is a junior at the high school. Flint is the co-president of the high school parent-teacher organization. She also works at Ruth Barker Middle School.
Flint went through the training when Vera went to Ruth Barker Middle and again when he spoke with the PTO.
“I’m thrilled that they’re doing this kind of training,” Flint said, adding school personnel are much more prepared now.
Having an increased police presence on campus also helps calm parents’ minds, Flint added. She spoke of Vera’s long tenure at the high school. Vera said he’s worked at the high school for 13 years.
“He’s been around for so long, he’s really a part of our system,” Flint said of Vera. “He knows the kids, and the kids know him. He makes it his business to know the kids and that helps put parents at ease.”