Active shooter training planned

For many years, students in school districts across the country have been trained on what to do in emergency situations, such as a fire or a tornado. Many of those students are also being trained — or, as it is in the Holton school district, will soon be trained — on how to deal with the presence of an active shooter in their school building.

But as school officials have noted, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to training students to watch out for people who mean them harm. That’s why Ben Gardner of the Kansas Highway Patrol has recently been talking with Holton district parents, students and staff about what to expect when school leaders begin training students on how to handle dangerous situations in early February.

“Certainly, talking to the littler kids creates more challenges,” said Gardner, a Salina-based patrolman with about 24 years of experience with the KHP. “It’s better to just be straightforward and try to calm individuals and answer their questions so they’re better informed about what’s to come.”

Gardner — whom students referred to as “Trooper Ben” — led two informational meetings with district parents on Jan. 17 and 18 and talked with students of all ages in the district yesterday about what to expect when the district takes on active shooter training for students, noting that the training they receive can be put to good use outside the school.

One of the most important things about active shooter training, he told an audience of about 60 district parents in the Jan. 17 public meeting at Holton Elementary School, is getting students and parents to relax and exchange ideas about the subject.

“This is a hard topic,” Gardner said. “Any time we see it in the news, or hear it on the radio or see something on TV, it probably runs chills through your body… I know that’s what it does to me.”

The “run-hide-fight” method of dealing with active shooters — also known as the “ALICE” (alert, lock down, inform, counter and evacuate) philosophy, as USD 336 Superintendent Bob Davies noted — has become “sort of a standard,” Gardner said, even though not all aspects of that method are good for all ages, particularly when it comes to fighting back.

“For the smallest of kids, this is not realistic,” he said, noting that younger students would replace “fight” with “next” in their training. That replacement, he said, teaches students to draw attention in the event of a “scary situation,” particularly if they need to yell, kick or whatever it takes to “make it really hard for someone to try to hurt us.”

Even more important for students of any age, Gardner said, is paying attention to leaders, whether it’s a teacher, a school administrator, a law enforcement officer or another responsible adult who might be telling them to run to a safe place or to remain quiet so as not to attract the attention of anyone who means them harm.

Gardner, who was joined by Davies and Holton Elementary Principal Randy Fox in the Jan. 17 meeting, handled several questions from parents about the upcoming training next month, such as how often training will be conducted, whether threats can be tracked through school buildings and the “run-hide-fight” philosophy.

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