How to survive an active shooter attack and best protect yourself and your students:

• If you are with the students, get them out of the area if possible
• If unable to get them out, help them hide quietly and deny access to the area you are securing in
• If your hiding place is compromised, coordinate with the students to fight the shooter using any means possible
• Secure the area; do not let anyone get near where the shooter is

The three steps to surviving an active shooter event:

1. Avoid / Run – if possible, get out as fast as you can. Think about, plan and visualize where you are running to before you move. Have a destination to focus on. Stay low as you rapidly move to the closest exit in a zig-zag pattern to be a tougher target to hit. Keep your hands up as much as possible so that law enforcement doesn’t mistake you for the shooter as you exit. Have an exit plan.
2. Deny / Hide – if the exit is blocked and you are unable to escape, your next best course of action will be to lock-down and hide – quietly! Silence your cell phone or anything else that can make noise. Consider in advance where you should hide. Turn off all lights. If at all possible get away from doors and windows and hide behind cover.
3. Defend / Fight – when you can’t escape and run away, and your hiding place is compromised, there will be no alternative but to fight. This is your last resort…if you have other options, use them. You must understand that this decision will be one that could very well be the most difficult thing you have ever done and possibly the last decision of your life. However, you simply cannot just wait helplessly to be killed in cold blood.

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