Preparing for the unthinkable

Just yesterday morning (Friday), schools in my county were called off due to a

very legitimate threat. There was a 20 year old living just a few yards from the

high school who had guns, lots of ammo, armor, and had made threats to do

"severe bodily harm to several people at a school". Authorities were tipped

off to his behavior, and he was taken into custody before he was able to

carry out his plans. My daughter attends that very high school, and my son

attends the middle school. Very scary.

As far as anyone knows, this kid did not have anyone working with him, but

I'm still afraid about sending my kids to school on Monday.

Oh no! I hope it went okay. It does sound scary. I'm always worried about my kids as well, but I know they are tough little nuts and trust their school to protect them as much as they can.

I know the feeling. One of my daughter's 7th grade classmates brought ammo to school about a month ago. He's one of the last students that I would have thought lived in a home with firearms. Child is back after 2 weeks suspension and I'll be nervous forever.

Bringing this thread back up because one of our local schools' active shooter alarms went off a few weeks ago on accident which sparked a discussion amongst us nurses at the various schools in the county. 

Do you plan to run if there is a shooter and you can get out safely?

Personally, I am torn. I would want to run because an injured nurse can't help anyone and I know emergency personnel are on their way. The other half of me just wants to stay put. I have SO MUCH stuff I would need to bring with me to evacuate - first aid kit, emergency meds, my "brain" which is my big binder with all the student info in it. And at that point, will I actually be able to run effectively to get out? 

What are your thoughts? 

Is your district/schools active shooter/threat plan to run? 

We have an emergency lockdown procedure in the event of an active shooter or other emergency threat. Everyone locks themselves in their spaces and is supposed to barricade the door and as part of the planning/training, the teachers have been given time with the state police  to figure out where in their rooms they plan to hide & protect the students based on lines of sight upon entering the rooms. We are not supposed to leave out windows, etc. unless the police or other first responders have released us from the rooms. If a class is outdoors, they are supposed to move as far away from the building as possible and proceed to a designated emergency evacuation point.

We put go-bags in every classroom that have many of the things in previous postings on this thread - CATs included. 

I've gone through SETT but I doubt I would ever be called upon to triage unless there was a natural disaster and EMS was unable to respond due to road closures, etc.

k1p1ssk said:

Is your district/schools active shooter/threat plan to run? 

 

 

Whoever sets off the PA system for our active shooter alarm is to announce where they saw the shooter. Our school's plan/policy is that depending on the shooter location, the teachers and students (we are a high school) determine if they think they can run or not. We have 2 off campus re-unification sites that students and staff are supposed to run to. Those that are too close to the shooter to run are to lock down and barricade. There is nothing specific in the policy about what I am supposed to do.

nurse__ab19 said:

I have SO MUCH stuff I would need to bring with me to evacuate - first aid kit, emergency meds, my "brain" which is my big binder with all the student info in it. And at that point, will I actually be able to run effectively to get out? 

What are your thoughts? 

 

If you need to get out of there quick, you shouldn't be burdened by so much stuff.  You need to move and move fast. I plan to grab my go bag, (if possible). Possibly my shoebag with emergency meds but the reality is that EMS will be there already and they will help as best they can for anything that pops up. Hopefully, the go bags for the teachers have glucose tabs and the kids who can, are carrying their EPI and or MDIS, but I bet that is not the case in a "true" emergency.

Evacuation to a release point, or sheltering in place is the reality. We can only do so much and will be a sitting duck for a shooter if we try to grab everything.

And doesn't this just Su@&!? 

But it is the reality of the crazy world we live in.

Yeah, there has been a lot of discussion about if we need to evacuate, what meds do we take. If the goal is to get out ASAP, we shouldn't be wasting time trying to throw meds in a bag, imo. 

I decided to put my student specific epi-pens in my go-bag and if during an evacuation, ideally an ambulance comes and so if a kid is in acute distress due to asthma or whatever else, and I/they don't have their med to help themselves, I'm handing the kid off to EMS.