Radical shifts in tactics have swept the field calling on officers to rush toward attackers without backup if necessary. Federal education and law enforcement agencies have also encouraged schools to switch from all-purpose lockdown policies and train staff and students to run if they can, hide if the must and, as a last resort, divert or even fight back against a gunman in the room.
The sad fact is that police and schools have, until recently, encouraged fear and passivity in the face of a gunman in a school and neither one of those accomplishes anything at all. The change is overdue and should be reflected in a wide awareness that the only choice is to act in any way possible to get away or to stop the shooter. Here is the link to the Times story.
Greg Crane, school violence consultant quoted in the Times:
We’re teaching kids to be passive, static targets, and they’re going to be victims.”
