"Secure, Get Out, or Defend": BOE reforms district active shooter policy

At the beginning of November, in a meeting led by Dr. Antonio Shelton and Officer Sparks from the Santa Monica Police Department, Samo’s staff and faculty met to discuss a revised procedure and protocol set in place for teachers to use in the circumstance of an active shooter on campus. For many, while this meeting was informational and beneficial, it was also very emotional given the topic at hand.In the past, the set-in-place protocol has always been hiding, locking down and creating shelter spaces for students in case of a situation like this. They were never told to try and fight the gunman or flee, but rather to stay put in the most invisible way possible. After re-evaluating this procedure, district officials realized that this plan was not as up-to-date with the ways this kind of attack could go down. In the past, teachers have been encouraged to lock down, call law enforcement and wait for help to come. However, officials realized that often, shootings only last for 10 to 15 minutes, the time which it would most likely take for law enforcement to arrive at the scene. Hence, the district decided to implement a new, more proactive and real-life plan for acting in situations like these.“In my opinion, that faculty meeting was among the most valuable I can recall for it showed that the district really sat down, sifted through the evidence and recent thinking on the issue and presented us with a real-world response plan,” English teacher Randy Denis said.At the beginning of the meeting, there was a video shown that depicted an active shooting. The video was produced by the LA County Sheriff’s Department as a new initiative and was called “Surviving an Active Shooting.” It was a staged video, but the events of the video forced the viewers to think about what they would do in this situation. During the meeting, Shelton and Sparks used this video to present a new set of options to which teachers should resort in the case of an active shooter.One of the I House advisors who is also one of the Advisor Department Chairs, Yumi Valencia, felt that the video was the most provoking and emotional part of the meeting. She felt that it was hard to watch the video and that it was a hard subject to discuss because it called to mind the possibility of something like a shooting occurring on campus. “It was emotional and intense for me because I never want to be put in that situation, but it is a reality of life and today’s society. I am glad that we were able to talk through and debrief on the video, and kind of collaborate as a team of staff members,” Valencia said.Shelton also explained that the district wants the staff and faculty to have “Situational Awareness.” Situational Awareness refers to the ability to pinpoint and comprehend information about what is occurring or about to occur. This kind of awareness is what could lead people to make smart decisions in these situations. The procedure given to the staff was a three-point plan that coincided with the lessons of the video. The default protocol is now “Secure, Get Out, or Defend.” This plan is mostly an encouragement for teachers and staff to act on their feet and rely more on their instinct than pre-existing, default responses. “I think that there’s no right or wrong answer when you’re put in that situation; I think that at that moment you do what you need to do to be safe and to protect students,” Valencia said. “I think sometimes it’s not black and white-there’s a gray in between and I think sometimes for some people it’s really hard to figure that out, they want to know what’s the right answer… and there’s never a correct answer. Life isn’t just one way.”There were “good practices” that were given as a suggestion for how people should act in a circumstance like this, given the three-point plan. If in one of these situations and given the opportunity to “run,” teachers and staff were instructed to have an escape route and plan in mind, evacuate regardless of whether others agree to follow, leave your belongings behind, help others escape, if possible and prevent individuals from entering an area where the active shooter may be. In discussing the option of “hiding,” teachers were instructed to hide out of view of the shooter, find a place to hide that is protected from possible gun shots, remain calm, silence phones and any source of noise and dial 911 as quickly as possible. Teachers were encouraged to use the last option, “fighting,” only as a last resort if they are in “imminent danger”. In this case, they were instructed to act as aggressively as possible against him/her, throw items and improvise weapons, yell and most importantly commit to their actions. “The presentation and video also reminded me to make other preparations, such as lowering my blinds and blocking out the door window. It also led a good discussion with my classes about how safe they feel at school. I was surprised to hear that some students did not even know the school had an active-shooter plan at all,” Denis said. “Talking with them about the possibility that–in a worse-case scenario–we might all have to rush the gunman was both unsettling and reassuring.”There were not many actual changes made to the system; the meeting was rather an installation of a new approach to this type of situation that could endanger the school. “It is our belief that we are providing options to our staff that will support the safe exiting of the students from campus, provided that it is an option,” Shelton explained. “We are a big campus and it is pertinent that we provide as many options as possible to support the optimal outcome concerning situations in regards to an active-shooter being on campus. As a principal, my biggest concern would be the safety and well-being of students and staff. Making certain that they are safe is my number one goal.”