School Shooter Contingency Plans

[heynurse1996]

So, we just had a super scary school lock-down, kid with suicidal ideations, saying he was "going out with a bang" talking about Columbine and with a gun in bag. Our awesome school cop was there and him and admin talked kid down till the police could get here.

I was wondering (god forbid) do any of you have a contingency plan. Its so sad we have to think like this as nurses but I want to be prepared for every scenario. We have a disaster plan with triage and all that good stuff in place but no school shooter plan as far as the nurse is concerned.

I hunkered down in my office with my go-bag, AED (tons of tourniquets, tampons and ABD pads, ambu bag ect.) listening to my radio.

What would you all have done? Any ideas of more stuff I can add for potential large casualty wounds? I know EMS would be there soon but given my last experience with them you better believe I'm getting in there too!

I literally was sat there in my office with my bag,AED under the desk with an aluminum crutch in reach (dead serious)

What are your all's thoughts on active shooter preparedness for school nurses? Once again I know its not something we like to think about but after today, I want to be ready.

[heynurse1996]

Your sense of humor is intact - that is a good thing! Be kind to yourself this weekend and in the days that follow. If you have an opportunity to do a critical debrief, do it. It may help.

If/when we go on lockdown my only immediate job is to grab kids in the halls and pull them in. Crosses my mind that I might be grabbing the shooter but nothing can be done about it and I figure I'd know if the kid was the shooter...

And then I wait. With my radio. In my back office. With small but deadly items to hurl - stapler, small fan, my Peds textbook.

When the all clear sounds I stay put so people can find me (unless I'm called out to the parking lot or someplace).

As nurses all we have is our often times inappropriate (occasionally morbid) sense of humor. Glad I had something to do after at least I felt as if I was helpful :/

[NutmeggeRN, BSN]

Update: Shooter is in route to psych evaul (former student) grazed an officer in the leg (he refused to go 911,I would have insisted but he was right his partner could drive him faster- so we stuffed him with tampons ABDs and tape and his partner drove him) He was alert through the whole thing and being all mr tough guy (made his partner take pictures!)

Also got to educate mr tough guy cop on what tampons were originally invented for since he was so embarrassed

Thank god it was none of my students but I am sure I will have a room full of anxiety induced episodes very soon

Also of note is I nearly went to jail for assaulting an officer since I was under my desk with my aluminum crutch in hand....they seemed to get a good laugh out of it though

Pleae take care of yourself...these are trying times

So scary for you! We have an active shooter plan and response in place. There is nothing specific for me. Once a shooter is announced (or heard) I have to hide in my room (or where ever I may be) just like everyone else. Lock my door, barricade, whatever I feel necessary. No one, me included is to come out until police or admin unlock your door. If I'm needed to help with triage after that, I would. More than likely I would be helping with student evac to our pick up centers.

This is our plan exactly as well.

[Farawyn]

Nothing specific for me, either.

Grab whatever kids I can and lock down.

Glad no one was hurt.

[lifelearningrn, BSN, RN]

Tampons? :/

We have active shooter/intruder drills, I have a "stop the bleed" emergency kit and my regular emergency kit. Praying it never happens.

[heynurse1996]

Wish I had! I guess better than nothing with the tampons gotta use what ya have sometimes

[offlabel]

Shoot back? Kinda cracking wise...kinda not...

[guest940422]

I'm not a school nurse but for some reason these boards keep coming up in my feed... maybe it's a sign. I can't tell you about schools today. But I graduated high school in 2003. We had a school shooting in the parking lot and (thank God) no one was harmed. For the next month no students were aloud in the "commons" the first floor open space with a balcony circling it on the second floor everyone would hang out in. The school was built pre-columbine and they realized the "commons" was a perfect shooting gallery. There were two open sets of stairs and that was the only way up to the second floor besides an elevator that could be disabled without a code. If someone went upstairs and started picking off students on the first floor, no one would even be able to get up to them without being a perfect shot. We thought they were going to instal stair wells or extra exits or something of that nature, maybe educate the students about reporting students even if they are joking (this is now post-columbine so there are 2000 high schoolers scared ********), nope, apparently while they hid us in the hallways for a month, they were going about the process of issuing walkie talkies to all the teachers since the classrooms didn't have phones. this way if someone started shooting us they could let the campus officer know to call the police.

This is in Texas, we love guns, the students organized a petition and managed to get EVERY student's parent to sign with a copy of their drivers license, a petition permitting teachers with concealed handgun permits to keep a firearm on their person on school grounds. That's how scared we were. Our parents wanted our teachers to carry guns and our teachers were willing to do it! have you ever even heard of a school petition getting EVERY parent?

Obviously the school board didn't go for it

[hppygr8ful, ASN, RN, EMT-I]

It is a sad fact of life that these shootings continue to occur. We just had one yesterday in a local school. I work adolescent psych so we may or may not get the shooter or some of the subsequent anxiety related cases in the next few days. When my son was getting his black belt in mixed martial arts his coach ran a class in constant situational awareness and what to do in an active shooter situation. The idea of Constant situational awareness and surveillance has save my butt countless times in the psych environment. I am posting a link to this valuable information. The mods may or may not think it's appropriate so I don't know if it will get through.

What to Do in an Active Shooter Situation | The Art of Manliness

Hppy

[mainecoonRN92, BSN, RN]

We are moving to using the ALICE approach

Alert

Lockdown

Inform

Counter

Evacuate

I like evacuate part

Getting the heck out of Dodge if I can (bringing whoever I can with me)

As soon as possible I would be triaging and utilizing people I know that can help.

I love the ALICE system. One of my schools (charter school) uses it my other school (preschool) uses a LOCK, LIGHTS, OUTTA SIGHT system.

ALICE does make sense for a K-12 school though.

[Amethya]

We had a lockdown today, some strange man was in our school parking lot. I just lock my door and barricade with my cabinet.