Tag Archives: active shooter events

News

Students Witnessing California Shooting Produced Active Shooter ‘Instructional Video’ Months Ago

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Event goes down amidst national debate on preparation/response methods to active shooter situations

VC Star/USA Today
(November 14, 2019)

When sophomore Elijah Mims, 15, performed in an active shooter training video for a class project earlier this school year, the Santa Clarita native never thought he’d actually be running for his life.

“We were just preparing for the worst, but we never thought anything would occur in a suburb like Santa Clarita. It’s such a lovely place,” Mims told USA TODAY in a phone interview.

In the instructional video, Mims played the role of a “person who was hiding,” later demonstrating to students how they could safely escape an active shooter situation. On Thursday, Mims found himself a few feet away from an armed classmate. He sprinted into an empty classroom, where he huddled quietly with dozens of other students until police entered the room.

“The video helped me out since I reacted right away and was able to do what I needed,” Mims said.

The school shooting that killed two and injured at least three people at Saugus High School Thursday comes amid a national debate around how to prepare for and respond to active shooter situations, with some schools and policymakers advocating a range of tactics — from “bulletproof backpacks” to curved hallways.

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Illinois School District Allows Students to Opt Out of “Active Shooter Drills”

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Parents Fear of Children Being Traumatized

Illinois Public Media
(September 10, 2019)

A Champaign Illinois school district is allowing students to be excused from school to avoid experiencing “active shooter drills” held on school grounds.

“The Champaign Unit 4 Board of Education clarified how parents can opt their students out of active shooter drills” at a September 9 meeting, Illinois Public Media reports. 

A new state law requires students participate in at least one active shooter drill during the first 90 days of the school year. The law allows school staff to exempt certain students from the drill at their discretion. 

Unit 4 board members opted to take the advice of the district’s legal counsel, and allow parents to take their children out of school during the drills, exempt students who are already exempted from fire and tornado drills, and provide accommodations for students with individualized education plans.

Parents at the meeting expressed concerns that the drills could traumatize both students and staff. Dianne Gordon, a Unit 4 parent, told board members that her seven-year-old daughter was “hysterical” following a hard lockdown drill at her elementary school last year. 

Orlando Thomas, director of achievement and student services at Unit 4, explained that parents would be informed ahead of time when the drills would occur at each school building. 

“I think we’ve done a lot to try to help the adults ease their reservation about the training,” Thomas said.

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Why Schools Should End Active Shooter Drills Immediately

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Evan Gerstmann
Forbes
(September 7, 2019)

School shooters represent a minuscule fraction of the risk to America’s schoolchildren. According to a 2018 Washington Post editorial, “the statistical likelihood of any given public school student being killed by a gun, in school, on any given day since 1999 was roughly 1 in 614,000,000.” According to a recent article in The Atlantic: “The Washington Post has identified fewer than 150 people (children and adults) who have been shot to death in America’s schools since the 1999 shooting at Columbine High School, in Colorado. Not 150 people a year, but 150 in nearly two decades.”

Nonetheless, 96% of America’s schools conduct lockdown drills meant to protect students from active shooters. These are required by state or local law in most cases.

The inordinate attention paid to a phenomenon that represents such a tiny proportion of the danger to school kids (a drop in the bucket compared to the danger they face from car accidents for example) can only be justified if one assumes that the psychological impact of these shootings on students is disproportionately great. But what if these lockdown drills are actually what is creating most of the anxiety?

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News

US Classrooms Being Equipped with “Lockdown/Shelter in Place Buckets”

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Used For Emergency Supplies, Relief

The “Land of the Free, Home of the Brave” has reached a new nadir under corporate police state control. Walmart is among the entities behind a program to equip public schools with five gallon capacity “safety” or “lockdown” buckets for readiness in the event the facility’s inhabitants undergo martial law for an extended period of time. Taking a page from “preppers” often lampooned in major media, the vessels will be stocked with first aid supplies and foodstuffs, and can even be used as latrines.

The idea of “shelter in place buckets” was floated shortly after the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland Florida on February 14, 2018, as the video below suggests.

Louisiana’s WAFB carries the syndicated story attributed to CNN:

With classroom shootings on the minds of many, one Michigan high school is trying to make their students feel safer.

Heidi Hummel and her classmates are gearing up for their senior year at Clio High School, but back-to-school prep has taken a more somber tone after recent school shootings.

This year at Clio, every classroom will have what’s called a “safety bucket.”

“We are unloading them and using them in the event, if we ever needed them, for a lock down,” Hummel said. “And we can have them for food and supplies if we were ever locked down for a long time.”

The buckets will go into every classroom in the school district. Assistant Principal Kevin Ayre said the school needs the public’s help to fill the buckets with potentially life-saving supplies.

“They’re going to be filled with gauze, bandages, water – you know, necessities in the situation where we have to be in a long-term lockdown,” Ayre said.

Walmart donated at least 144 of the buckets, and students and faculty said they’re great because in the case of an emergency they could use them as bathrooms as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIpvBvTFLXs

News

Parkland School Resource Officer Receives $8,702 Monthly Pension

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In April Broward County Sheriff and Marjory Stoneman Douglas School Resource Officer Scot Peterson began receiving monthly pension payments of $8,702, after resigning from his position less than two weeks after the February 14 school shooting.

Peterson was publicly chastised by Sheriff Scott Israel and President Donald Trump for allegedly failing to confront purported Parkland gunman Nikolas Cruz.

Peterson and his attorney later defended the actions, arguing that Peterson was being “unfairly attacked” and pointing out that Israel “omitted” important information while scapegoating the deputy in the event’s aftermath.

According to the Sun-Sentinel,

The 55-year-old Peterson, a Broward deputy for 32 years, was paid $101,879.03 last year — $75,673.72 in base salary plus overtime and other compensation, according to sheriff’s office records. Until the shooting, he was considered a trusted school resource officer at Stoneman Douglas, according to annual reviews of his performance.

He was eligible to retire from the agency in July 2010 when he had 25 years of service, a sheriff’s office spokeswoman said Wednesday.

On Feb. 14, surveillance video showed Peterson waiting outside the school as Cruz prowled the halls with an AR-15 rifle. President Donald Trump branded Peterson a coward, and Sheriff Scott Israel began an investigation into his actions. Israel said Peterson should have “went in. Addressed the killer. Killed the killer.”

The retired Broward deputy’s monthly payouts do not include medical benefits. An investigation of Peterson’s response to the shooting is ongoing, a spokesperson for the Broward Sheriff’s office said.

 

News

Police Respond to Errant Popcorn Maker Incident with Guns Drawn

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Editor’s Note: Yesterday afternoon our family dropped off our 12-year-old daughter and some of her friends off at the local movie theatre.  A short while later we were driving by the same location to run an errand and saw several police cars parked at the theatre entrance as
movie-goers and theatre staff were apparently being evacuated to the parking lot.

We phoned our daughter and she explained they had indeed been evacuated … because of a malfunctioning popcorn maker. As the report below reveals, she too observed police officers arriving at the scene with guns drawn and inspecting the full perimeter of the theatre complex in the same fashion. This is because, according to the police department’s Twitter feed, “[s]omeone pulled the fire alarm and reported they heard shots fired.”

Such is the paranoia and attendant police responses to everyday menaces like burnt popcorn the land of compulsory active shooter drills and the USA 21st century police state.

According to the PalmBeachPost,

Police say they evacuated the Cinemark Palace 20 movie theater in Boca Raton Saturday afternoon after a popcorn maker triggered a fire alarm.

Boca Raton police cleared the theater at 3200 Airport Road, near Glades Road and Interstate 95, around 5 p.m. after the fire alarm sounded and some people reported what they believed were gunshots.

Officers who responded to the theater approached the building with weapons drawn, a witness said, unnerving moviegoers. (emphasis added)

But after evacuating the theater and searching it, police reported on Twitter that there was “no indication of shots fired at this time.”

Esmeralda Romero said she was in the theater when the alarm went off but wasn’t concerned until police showed up with weapons in their hands.

“I thought it was just someone burned the popcorn,” she said. “Then the police showed up with their guns drawn. Management then came out and told us to leave.”

News

Active Shooter/Hostile Event “Standard Response Guide” Released

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According to FBI statistics there have been 220 “active shooter events” between 2000 and 2016 nationwide, resulting in 661 deaths and 825 injuries. This averages out to around 13 such occurrences and 41 deaths annually.* Along these lines, around 27 Americans on average are killed by lightening each year.

The prospect of “active shooter events,” be they drills or authentic, causes many-a-sleepless night for anxious bureaucrats, and so they have banded together to produce a “the world’s first active shooter/hostile event response standard” to promote the preparedness of public officials and first responders alike. Dubbed NFPA 3000 (TM) the 48-page document can be purchased for $52 from the National Fire Protection Association.

“As more hostile events continue to occur,” the NFPA declares, “it is critical for law enforcement, first responders, emergency personnel, facility managers, hospital officials, community members and others to have the information they need to be prepared when attacks happen.”

The “program scope,” according to NFPA’s website,

is limited to the necessary functions and actions related to preparedness, response, and recovery from an active shooter/hostile event response (ASHER). This standard applies to any community, authority having jurisdiction (AHJ), facility, and member of any organization who responds to or prepares for ASHER incidents.

The guidelines were produced by “a 46-member committee,” and “included representatives from law enforcement, emergency medical services, private businesses, the department of Homeland Security the FBI and the Department of Justice,” the Kansas City Star reports.

Among the incidents this committee is said to have studied in formulating the nationwide standard were the

attacks at the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando Florida, the Mandalay Bay Resort in Las Vegas (58 killed October 2017), Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. (27 killed December 2012), the Sikh Temple in Oak Creek, Wisc. (6 killed August 2012) and the Boston Marathon (3 killed April 2013).

Each of the above events has various inexplicable features yet nevertheless have been widely reported as genuine by major news media. And the “attack” on the 2013 Boston Marathon was arguably incomparable to an active shooter situation yet resulted in a military-style lockdown of the entire Boston metro region.

*The definition of an “active shooter event”is of course greatly expanded for sensationalistic effect by organizations serving as gun control lobby fronts.
News

Parkland Shooting Event Now Backdrop For Automated Security

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One may recall how over a decade ago the “Shoe” and “Underwear Bomber” operations provided the rationale for heightening security measures at the nation’s airports. Such efforts included harmful radiation-emitting full-body scanners and banning menacingly-large containers of shampoo and toothpaste.

A similar opportunity to cash in on tragedy appears to be taking shape in the wake of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting of February 14, 2018. Knightscope, a company founded after the Sandy Hook massacre by a former police officer, is now aggressively marketing its high-priced robots to school districts with the curious pitch that they will decrease the likelihood of an “active shooter” event.

In the prelude to the deployment of such devices, Knightscope has  permeated the educational process itself by introducing a contest encouraging students to submit essays explaining how they think robots will make them safer than conventional security protocols.

Continue reading Parkland Shooting Event Now Backdrop For Automated Security →

Live Coverage, News, Videos

Breaking: Active Shooter Reported at YouTube HQ

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Live coverage via WashingtonPost

Live coverage via ABC News:

Occurred at 12:46PM PST

“Female Gunman [sic]”–ABC News

“FBI Monitoring the Situation”

“Saw blood drips on the floor and stairs”… Then took Uber home!–YouTube staffer

YouTube HQ: Police confirm there’s an active shooter at company campus

UK Independent

There is an active shooter at YouTube headquarters at the California-based company located around 11 miles south of San Francisco, according to police.

The San Mateo County Sheriff and local San Bruno Police are working together to resolve the situation. Product manager Vadim Lavrusik tweeted that he “heard shots and saw people running while at my desk” but he and some colleagues have been evacuated and are safe at this time.

The police have advised the public to stay out of the area of the offices. Footage posted via Snapchat close to the campus in San Mateo shows some people walking down the street with their hands above their heads and police surrounding the building while wearing tactical gear.

The San Bruno City Manager’s office told BuzzFeed News that the city received several emergency calls from inside the building and the surrounding area regarding gunshots. Police are currently searching individuals who have been evacuated before allowing them to leave the scene to prevent the shooter from blending in with escaping crowds.

Police have released very little information, however, unconfirmed reports from local media said that the shooter is female, and two people are injured.

Continue reading Breaking: Active Shooter Reported at YouTube HQ →

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What Happens to Mass Shooting Sites?

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The New Zealand Herald

SCCZEN_AP160620143125_480x270
What’s happened to the mass shootings sites around America, including Pulse night club. Photo / AP

Sandy Hook, Columbine High School and Pulse nightclub share a shocking history.

On the night of June 12 2016, a gunman shot and killed 49 clubgoers in the Orlando club, injuring many more in massacre. The venue, which was built for music, dancing and celebrating with friends – now stands as a memorial site, closed and covered in flowers, balloons and photographs of those who lost their lives.

Continue reading What Happens to Mass Shooting Sites? →

Guest Posts, News

What An ‘Active Shooter Drill’ Looks Like

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‘While it looked and sounded real, it was only a drill.’

By Cody Shepard
The Enterprise 
(Jul. 26, 2016)

STOUGHTON – It was a situation Stoughton police say they never want to face.
“Control, I’ll be off at the Dawe school with an active shooter,” an officer said over the radio in an urgent manner. “I’m at the front door. I’m taking shots. Shots fired, shots TEMS-active=shooter-drillfired. Get me some help up here.”

While it looked and sounded real, it was only a drill. It aimed to prepare the town’s public safety agencies in the event a similar situation ever occurs in town.

The training video was released Friday by Stoughton Media Access Corporation. The exercise was performed by the Stoughton police, fire, public works and school departments.


Several officers arrived at the school and saw a cruiser near the front entrance, with smoke around it.

Continue reading What An ‘Active Shooter Drill’ Looks Like →

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CNN Readying DNC Sandy Hook Propaganda Arsenal?

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cnn-ciaH/t ‘Barry Soetoro Esq.’

CNN plays a central role in propagating current “active shooter” events, giving them the wall-to-wall coverage that terrifies a significant segment of their viewership and stampeding the herd toward polices like “common sense gun laws.” 

obama-body-guards

The cable news network was likewise on the scene as the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre event played out, presenting misleading and incorrect footage of the response to the shooting, while Anderson Cooper traveled (i.e. green screened) to the scene to interview individual family members of the victims, who as if on cue rose above their grief to recite various gun control boilerplate.

In apparent preparation for the Democratic National Convention and pre-coronation of Hillary Clinton beginning July 25 CNN is apparently fortifying its propaganda cache, uploading close to 100 videos July 21 on the Sandy Hook operation, a finding one MHB contact has graciously shared with the editor. “For some reason CNN just posted more than 30 different Sandy Hoax segments to YouTube,” he writes.

Continue reading CNN Readying DNC Sandy Hook Propaganda Arsenal? →

Guest Posts

Sandy Hook School Shooting: A Medical Practitioner Analyzes the Official Report’s Errors and Anomalies

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By Diane Jakopovic

(PDF: Medical Aspects of the Shooting at Sandy Hook School (Final 2)

Having worked as a Registered Respiratory Therapist (RRT) in a pediatric hospital for over twenty years, over 10 years of which were in exclusively in the intensive care units, and 5 years working as a Registered Polysomnography Technician (RPSGT) in the Neuro/Sleep Lab, I felt qualified to address some of what was written in the official report of the Sandy Hook School massacre. I am also certified as a Specialist in Pediatric/Neonatal Respiratory Care. However, I am not a physician, a nurse, an emergency responder, and I don’t live in Connecticut, so I felt it necessary to defer my logic and opinions to what their guidelines and protocols were, prior to the Sandy Hook shooting. Unfortunately, I was not able to find information to fit the exact circumstances at Sandy Hook (pediatric mass casualty) other than their Triage algorithm. I also found information that dealt with gunshots, transporting, etc. so pulled that information into my comments. Whenever possible, I included a link to those online documents.

(Section 1 – Triage & Tagging)

I began by reviewing their START Triage Protocol and pulled out some pertinent information. My comments are at the end:

http://www.emsconedonline.com/PDFs/STARTTriage.pdf

S.T.A.R.T – SIMPLE TRIAGE AND RAPID TREATMENT

A multiple or mass casualty incident can be defined as any incident in which more casualties are present than an initial response assignment can reasonably handle. More assets are required for triage, treatment, and transport than can arrive in a timely fashion.

SCENE SIZE UP
1. Conduct a scene size up.
a. Assure well-being of responders
b. Determine if (or render as possible) the scene safe prior to entering
c. If there are several patients with the same medical complaints consider hazmat, WMD, or CO poisoning. Call for the appropriate assets.

2. Take BSI (Bodily Substance Isolation – take precautions to avoid contact with bodily substances.)

3. Determine the number of patients. If there are multiple or mass casualties, communicate that fact through the proper channels, establish command, and establish a medical officer and triage officer.

 

I referred to their JumpStart algorithm, (for pediatrics, not adults):

View post on imgur.com

From the final report:

Book 6 – –1 (Kullgren): “When the search was complete we determined it was safe to begin evacuating students and staff.”

Book 6 – 00002113 (Cassavechia (Paramedic)): “Cassavechia stated that four separate patient assessments were made to guarantee no one was resuscitatable. Cassavechia said that the victims were formerly triaged using the SMART triage program.”
Continue reading Sandy Hook School Shooting: A Medical Practitioner Analyzes the Official Report’s Errors and Anomalies →