<h1 class='title'>Active Shooter and Workplace Violence Training: How to Survive an Active Shooter Situation</h1>

We live in dangerous and unpredictable times. Schools are no longer the safe havens they used to be with up to 44% of teachers annually reporting they were physically attacked while at school and an alarming rise in active shooter incidents in schools, the latest tragedy just last week in a Florida high school campus which sadly claimed the lives of 17 students and staff.

The workplace has also become more prone to violence with workplace homicides accounting for 9% of deaths in the workplace yearly in the US alone. Statistically, nearly 2 million US workers will become victims of workplace violence annually. Studies showed that 27 % of all mass shootings that occurred in the US since 1966 occurred at workplaces with 25% of these workplaces totally unprepared to respond to active shooter situations. According to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, workplace violence falls into 5 categories:
• Criminal intent: robbery, theft, hijacking
• Customer/Client: irate customer, patient attack on health worker
• Worker-on-Worker: employee-manager conflict, bullying, sexual harassment
• Personal relationship: love triangles, estranged relationships,
• Ideological: extremism, terrorism, religious, cultural and gender diversity, bigotry

The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) defines active shooter as someone “actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a confined and populated area.”  On average, it takes Police and First Responders at least 10 minutes to arrive on the scene of an active shooter situation. So much can happen in the course of those 10 deadly minutes waiting for First Responders to arrive. As such, the DHS advises staying calm and performing one of these three options:

Run

If there is an accessible escape route away from the active shooter, leave your belongings and immediately get out. Be constantly aware where the shooter is while moving quietly and crouching low behind work stations and furniture, whenever possible. Panicking, screaming and running together in a group can quickly draw an active shooter’s deadly attention towards you and make you an easy target. If you meet police on the way out, be aware that the police will be on an active shooter alert and may shoot when threatened. Keep your open hands over your head so police can verify you are unarmed. This is why it is important to leave your belongings behind and not carry anything on you that could be mistaken for a weapon. Obey police instructions. There will be a possibility that police will detain you temporarily to debrief you for vital intel about the shooter or just to verify and make sure the active shooter has not mingled with the crowd in an attempt to escape.

Hide

If no safe exit or escape route is accessible, go look for a spot where you can hide and barricade yourself, preferably in a room that has a door you can lock behind you. This was how 15-year old ANTHONY BORGES managed to save himself together with 20 other school mates during the Florida active shooter incident last 14 February. Blockade the door with heavy furniture and keep quiet but alert. Mute your phone. Be also alert for fire or the smell of smoke when you are locked inside a room. An active shooter incident at a Manila casino last June 2017 resulted in the death of 37 casino employees and patrons who perished not by gunshot but by asphyxiation due to smoke inhalation after the active shooter set fire to the casino. If you can break out a window to escape go ahead and do so. If the door is the only way out of the room you’re locked in, then you have to choose between smoke inhalation which will certainly kill or the possibility that the active shooter is waiting outside the locked door. Unless you are actually the shooter’s target, or you pissed the shooter off so much, the odds that the active shooter will be outside the door waiting on you is low. Before you open the door though, feel how hot the surface of the door is to check how bad the fire is on the other side. Immediately transition from an active shooter situation to a fire evacuation protocol. Do what you can to protect yourself from smoke and heat as you quickly leave the room. Head towards the safest exit ever wary that an active shooter may still be in the area. Act quickly and decisively. A few seconds can spell the difference between making it out alive or getting overwhelmed with toxic smoke.

Fight

Go for this option only as a last resort if and only if you are already in imminent danger i.e. the active shooter has his weapon in your face about to pull the trigger. Personally, I’d rather go down fighting than dying on my knees. Depending on the active shooter’s state of mental health, pleading or begging the shooter to spare you may only arouse even more bloodlust in the shooter. Go into self-defense mode. Go McGyver and improvise a weapon you can use to try and incapacitate the shooter. You probably had plenty of practice throwing your mouse, now would be the best time to put your mouse-throwing skill to good use. There’s plenty of stuff on workstations you can throw as a projectile or use as a slicing or stabbing weapon. Improvise! Commit to your action. Aim for sensitive soft points such as the eyes, the throat, the bridge of the nose, or the groin. Showing you are not afraid can rattle a half-witted lunatic which can give you a slight advantage. Fight like your life depends on it because in an active shooter situation, it does.

As mentioned earlier, as much as 27% of mass shootings in the US since 1966 occurred in the workplace. While there is no way we can predict a violent attack from a co-worker, it would be best to be aware of warning signs and behaviors among co-workers that might signal future workplace violence so that proactive intervention can be instituted:
• Sudden change in behavior, frequent absenteeism, and a rapid decline in work performance
• Depression, sudden withdrawal behavior and suicidal overtones
• Alcoholism and drug use
• Repeated open violation of company policies and persistent complaints about unfair treatment
• Paranoia
• Decline in personal hygiene and general physical appearance
• Sudden mood swings and short tempers
• Pending termination, suspension and sanctions

As the cliché goes, it’s always better to be safe than sorry. While we pray that workplace violence and active shooter situations will never occur in our workplace, it is still better to be aware and ready just in case. For more comprehensive information on active shooter and workplace violence training, you can DOWNLOAD a presentation prepared by the US Department of Homeland Security.

Stay safe.

Credits:
http://www.nsc.org/Measure/Pages/Workplace-Violence.aspx

https://www.ravemobilesafety.com/latest-workplace-violence-statistics/