LAYERS OF DEFENSE INCLUDING TRAINING AND INNOVATIVE COMMUNICATION AND NON-LETHAL DEFENSE CAN HELP SAVE LIVES DURING ACTIVE SHOOTER AND OTHER VIOLENT EVENTS.
The headlines this week have been awful. How many school shootings have we had already in 2018? In 26 days, 11 school shootings. And just yesterday a young 15-year-old boy was arrested for planning a shooting, thwarted by a watchful classmate and parent who did not doubt the idea of a young man killing his classmates. A sad time indeed.
School Shootings through January 2018
Schools work to prepare for active shooter incidents
There are organizations that are trying to bring innovative solutions to the problem. Both technology with new communication, simple tools such as door barriers and new safety protocols such as ALICE and non-lethal defense are helping to save lives.
In the past few years a new protocol, ALICE has taken off (Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Escape) which provides strategies to increase safety and protection. This program has been taught to more than 1,000,000 people throughout 50 states.
Threat Extinguisher Provides an innovative alert system. Once the Threat Extinguisher is activated is sets off a high decibel alarm and immediately texts an alert to staff and employees while also sending a notification to first responders. Now people can decide on the course of action for each unique circumstance. Should they run to escape, should they lockdown with a barricade, and get prepared to “counter” with objects at hand?
Threat Extinguisher is installed in schools where the canister can be easily pulled to activate alerts and notifications to be immediately sent. No need to call 911.
Door barriers can be utilized to “lockdown”, keep the intruder out of the room. This provides time to exit through windows or prepare to “counter” the attacker.
The program emphasizes the need to “counter” or fight back if a person’s room is breached and they are in imminent danger.
Current ALICE training teaches to attack the assailant or to throw objects at hand.
Threat Extinguisher provides an innovative new non-lethal defense to counter the attacker. Threat Extinguisher’s 5 million Scoville military-grade pepper spray can shoot up to 20 feet.
New innovations, simple barriers, and new training give schools a multi-layered approach towards critical incident safety. We lay a foundation by educating students and staff about violent threats including Active Shooter incidents and how to survive them. Secondly, we construct a layer of protection by barricading entry to rooms using a door barricade device. Lastly, we provide a third layer of defense by providing a non-lethal alternative to incapacitate an attacker who has breached our other layers of protection. Over-lapping layers of security afford the best chance of survival.
One of Threat Extinguishers clients, Worthington Christian Academy, was recently highlighted by ABC6onyourside in Columbus OH.