At its July meeting, New York’s Board of Regents voted to amend §155.17 of the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education to require that emergency response drills are trauma informed. As defined in the regulation: Trauma-informed drills means avoiding tactics in training or drills that may introduce or activate trauma, such as the use of props, actors, simulations, or other tactics intended to mimic a school shooting, incident of violence, or other emergency, or inclusion...
On January 18, 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice released a report on its critical incident review of the law enforcement response to the tragic school shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. The report provides a thorough description of the critical incident review that has taken place over the past 20 months. It is perhaps one of the most detailed reports on a school shooting incident. The full report can be found here:...
Mass shootings in schools, houses of worship and retail/commercial/entertainment spaces tend to receive the most media attention. However, this may lead to a skewed perception of of what might be more correctly termed as “mass killing events.” Culling the data can be challenging, as can be getting up-to-the-minute data. Fortunately, a database maintained by a partnership with The Associated Press, Northeastern University and USA TODAY does much of the data collection and analysis. The Mass...
The Texas House of Representatives’ Investigative Committee on the Robb Elementary Shooting has released its Interim Report on the attack. The report can be found here. The Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training (ALERRT) Center has also released its Response Assessment and Recommendations concerning the attack. ALERRT’s report can be found here.
Sadly, the US is experiencing a wave of gun violence. Whether the result of an uptick in shootings in big cities, or high-profile shootings such as those recently in the New York City subway system, Buffalo, NY or Uvalde, TX, all have common denominators: needless loss of life and suffering. This begs the questions: Could steps have been taken to mitigate the loss of life? If so, what are they? Is public access bleeding control...
The Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund, the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association recently released a report concerning active shooter drills in the school setting. A copy of the report, The Impact of School Safety Drills for Active Shootings, can be found at: https://everytownresearch.org/school-safety-drills/. The report is a follow-up to a comprehensive safety plan the three organizations previously released. A copy of that plan, Keeping Our Schools Safe: A Plan to...
The National Threat Assessment Center (NTAC) recently released: Protecting America’s Schools – A U.S. Secret Service Analysis of Targeted School Violence. The report builds on 20 years of NTAC research and guidance in the field of threat assessment by offering an in-depth analysis of the motives, behaviors and situational factors of the attackers, as well as the tactics, resolutions and other operationally-relevant details of the attacks. In compiling the report, the NTAC studied 41 incidents...
Dr. Gerald Rosen has completed the NFPA 3000 (PS): Active Shooter/Hostile Event Response; Plan, Respond, Recover Program Specialist training offered by the National Fire Protection Association. The training prepares students to implement NFPA 3000 (PS) the world’s first active shooter/hostile event response (ASHER) standard. This consensus-based standard provides holistic guidance on community planning as well as active shooter/hostile event response and event recovery. Dr. Rosen’s Certificate of Completion can be found here.
On October 12, 2018, This American Life aired Episode 659 entitled Before the Next One. Act One of the episode, Ready as You’ll Never Be, is a candid interview of two teachers at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida that were at the school during the February 2018 shooting that claimed seventeen lives. The interview addresses the emergency planning revisions at the school that took place just a month prior to the shooting,...
On August 24 2018, a report compiled by the Clark County Fire Department and the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department in collaboration with the Federal Emergency Management (FEMA) Agency National Exercise Division was released to the public. A copy of the report can be found here. The purpose of the report is twofold: First, to analyze the emergency response to the Route 91 Harvest Festival Mass Shooting. Second, to present observations and recommendations with the...
