Profs, students told: Fight back

Published on August 30, 2008 in College and Violence. 5 Comments By Joanne

Hundreds of colleges are using “a training program that teaches professors and students not to take campus threats lying down but to fight back with any improvised weapon, from a backpack to a laptop computer,” reports AP.

5 Responses to “Profs, students told: Fight back”

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Mrs. Davis
August 30, 2008 at 3:55 am

Never take a backpack to a gun fight.
Richard Nieporent
August 30, 2008 at 4:40 am

Never take a backpack to a gun fight.

LOL!

I guess they never heard of the Second Amendment.
Bob Diethrich
August 30, 2008 at 5:12 am

Funny how things change. It was about three years ago that I read about a school district in Texas that wandted to adopt this very same idea (I might have read it here, do you recall posting it Joanne?). The plan included even training teachers and elementary students to fight back, scream, throw anything they could get their hands on, and charge a gunman. The district was crucified in the media for this and they backed off the plan. Well, after Virginia Tech, that company started getting a lot of phone calls for information. I had never understood the mindset against this. I think of all those kids at Columbine just cowering there while Klebold and Harris picked their targets, praying to God that they don’t get chosen. The other “positive” thing to come out of the VA Tech disaster is a re-thinking of local law enforcment’s response to a shooter situation. The book, prior to this is for first responders to establish a perimiter, try to open up communicatin and wait for SWAT and command to show up. This was proven idiotic at Tech. I still remember those police, standing outside that building with guns on their hips and shotguns in their cars, doing NOTHING, while gunfire was still going on inside. Many law enforcment agencies are re-training their first responders to engage a shooter. We watched a video from the State of Texas, this year as part of our earlyl year in-service, that showed a dramitization of a shooter situation, and that video featured law enforcement moving into the school and not waiting around for help. Also my principal told us that our district is “re-thinking” its response plan, along these lines.
Robert Talbert
August 30, 2008 at 1:49 pm

If anybody thinks I’m going to use my beloved Macbook Pro as a mere weapon, they are severely mistaken. I’ll grab one of my students’ laptops instead. Some of the ones my students lug around are so huge (designed for watching movies, I think, more than for schoolwork) that the smallest threat of getting one upside the head would sent most people running.
Bill
August 30, 2008 at 3:58 pm

It’s a simple concept, when faced with the possible loss of your life, the mantra ‘Kill or Be Killed’ comes into play, use whatever you can to incapacitate and kill your attacker, make sure you continue to attack until there is no possibility of your attacker being alive. That’s how you survive a physical threat against your life.