DELCO KEEPS KIDS SAFE
SAFE SCHOOL SUMMIT FOCUSES ON HELPING EDUCATORS DEAL WITH SHOOTERS
UPPER DARBY >> A woman burst open a ballroom door at the Drexelbrook Corporate Events Center Tuesday and yelled, “Active shooter! Lockdown! Lockdown!”
A group of individuals got up and sat along a wall before the “shooter,” armed with a Nerf gun, came in and methodically shot one after another.
“Every shot pretty much hit their target,” Louis M. Gentile, director of public safety for the Upper Darby School District, said. “So, now, we’re going to do a little better and we’re not going to be as passive next time.”
Gentile was heading one of the four breakout sessions at the 2018 Safe Schools Summit, where one of the messages to the 250 educators and law enforcement officials attending was — do something.
The “Securing and Defending the Classroom” session, and three others, were part of the summit hosted by Delaware County District Attorney Katayoun M. Copeland. The annual event was first established almost two decades ago in response to the Columbine massacre.
Copeland explained that the goal was to bring members of the law enforcement and education communities together to share protocols and best practices to keep schools as safe as possible.
“There are steps that we can all take to ensure that we are prepared and ready to respond, if God forbid, that moment ever comes,” she said, adding that it was her hope that attendants would walk away with more ways how to protect themselves but with the knowledge there are people willing to help and work with them before, during and after an event.
William M. McSwain, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, said school safety is a universal concern and requires everyone’s attention.
“The well-being of our children is on the forefront of everybody’s mind, regardless of whether people reside in the city or a suburb or a rural area,” he said. “The safety of our children and their schools is paramount no matter where you live. We all have to be in this together to prevent tragedy in our community and to help troubled individuals find the resources that they need.”
He pointed out that school shootings are rare, citing the U.S. Centers for Disease Control that 37,000 individuals were killed in the United States in 2016 by firearms. Of that, he said, about 61 percent or 23,000 were deaths by suicide. Of the remaining, he added hardly any were due to school shootings.
“That being said,” McSwain said, “one single school shooting is obviously one too many.”
And that’s why he and others at the summit urged attendants and all community members to be vigilant and act.
He pointed to the case of An Tso Sun, who pleaded guilty in August to charges he threatened to carry out a mass shooting at Monsignor Bonner and Archbishop Prendergast High School.
On March 26, Sun told a fellow student, “Hey, don’t come to school on May 1. I’m going to come here armed and I’m going to shoot up the school. Just kidding.”
The student told a social worker and authorities were alerted. When they searched the Taiwanese exchange student’s bedroom, they found 1,600 rounds of ammunition, a crossbow and arrows, various firearms and accessories and shooting equipment.
Sun’s sentencing is scheduled for December.
“To me,” McSwain said, “the true hero in this story is the student who heard the alleged threat and reported the incident to school officials. Thank you to the student for being a good citizen and reporting it.”
He continued, “I know everybody in this room knows this, but it cannot be said too often. If you see something or you hear something, please speak up and say something. Countless incidents have been averted because of vigilant people.”
He urged educators to determine a baseline for students’ personalities within the first couple weeks of school to use as comparison to determine if something is off.
He told parents to familiarize themselves with their kids’ technology - check their cell phones weekly, look at their social media accounts and check their rooms.
McSwain said the first line of defense is citizens.
“Silence is not an option and the community is there to help,” he said.
Back in the defending the classroom session, Gentile spoke of the different approaches to take from lockdowns to shelters-in-place to evacuations and reverse evacuations.
“Seconds do count,” he said.
Gentile urged attendants to not prop their building doors open and to keep their classroom doors locked all day.
“Once you lock your door, you’re done,” he said, adding if there’s a lockdown and the fire alarm rings, stay put, do not leave. ‘Do not respond to anything.’”
He said be quiet, turn off the lights, close the shades and keep the students silent and near the interior wall and to barricade or tie down the door, depending on which way it opens. He told the attendants they had to be strong for the kids, that they would follow their lead.
“The last resort is fight,” he said. “Don’t be a passive target. People will be shot. People will be injured ... but less people will be shot and killed.”
And, Gentile demonstrated that in his simulation.
In the first try, no one fought back. In the second, attendants were given balls to throw at the fake shooter before they were to run themselves.
“You’re going to see,” Gentile said, “the more active you are, the more less passive you are, the less people in this room get hit. You can do something in an active shooter event that mitigates what’s going on.”
And, he said, that was most important.
“Do not be a passive target,” Gentile emphasized. “Do something. Don’t be a passive target.”