Active School Shooter Situations: Resources for Higher Education Staff

Emergency calls can involve actual or future threats of physical violence. This violence might be directed not only in or at IHE buildings, students, staff, and areas on campus but also at nearby buildings off campus. “Active shooter situations” are defined as those where an individual is “actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a confined and populated area.” Unfortunately, IHEs face active shooter situations as well. 

The better first responders and IHE personnel are able to discern these threats and react swiftly, the more lives can be saved. This is particularly true in an active shooter situation where law enforcement responds to a 911 call of shots fired. Many innocent lives are at risk in concentrated areas. This is why it is critical that IHEs work with their community partners (e.g., first responders, emergency managers) to identify, prepare, prevent, and effectively respond to an active shooter situation in a coordinated fashion. 

Active shooter situations are unpredictable and evolve quickly. Because of this, individuals must be prepared to deal with an active shooter situation before law enforcement personnel arrive on the scene. 

Planning 

As with any threat or hazard that is included in an IHE’s EOP, the planning team will establish goals, objectives, and courses of action for an Active Shooter Annex. These plans will be impacted by the assessments conducted at the outset of the planning process and updated as ongoing assessments occur. As courses of action are developed, the planning team should consider a number of issues, including, but not limited to 

How to evacuate or lock down students, staff, and visitors. (Personnel involved in such planning should pay attention to disability-related accessibility concerns when advising on shelter sites and evacuation routes.) 

How to evacuate when the primary evacuation routes are unusable. 

How to select effective shelter-in-place locations (optimal locations have thick walls, solid doors with locks, minimal interior windows, first-aid emergency kits, communication devices, and duress alarms). 

How the IHE community will be notified that there is an active shooter on campus as required by the Clery Act This could be done through the use of familiar terms, sounds, lights, and electronic communications, such as text messages or e-mails. Include in the courses of action how to communicate with those who have language barriers or need other accommodations, such as visual signals or alarms to advise deaf students, staff, and parents about what is occurring. IHE-wide “reverse 911-style” text messages sent to pre-determined group distribution lists can be very helpful in this regard. Planners should make sure this protocol is readily available and understood by those who may be responsible for sending out or broadcasting an all-IHE announcement. Rapid notification of a threat can save lives by keeping people out of harm’s way. 

How students and staff will know when buildings and campus grounds are safe:

The planning team may want to include functions in the Active Shooter annex that are also addressed in other functional annexes. For example, evacuation will be different during an active shooter situation than it would be for a fire. 

Sharing Information with First Responders 

The planning process is not complete until the higher ed EOP is shared with first responders. The planning process must include preparing and making available to first responders an up-to-date and well-documented site assessment, as well as any other information that would assist them. These materials should include building schematics and photos of both the inside and outside of the buildings, and include information about door and window locations, and locks and access controls. Emergency responders should also have advance information on where students and staff with disabilities as well as others with access and functional needs are likely to be sheltering or escaping, generally in physically accessible locations, along accessible routes, or in specific classrooms. Building strong partnerships with law enforcement, fire, and EMS officials includes ensuring they also know the location of available public-address systems, two-way communications systems, security cameras, and alarm controls. Equally important is information on access to utility controls, medical supplies, and fire extinguishers. 

Providing the detailed information listed above to first responders allows them to rapidly move through an IHE during an emergency, to ensure areas are safe, and to tend to people in need. It is critically important to share this information with law enforcement and other first responders before an emergency occurs. Law enforcement agencies have secure websites where this information is stored for many IHEs, businesses, public venues, and other locations. All of these can be provided to first responders and viewed in drills, exercises, and walk-throughs. 

Technology and tools with the same information (e.g., a portable USB drive that is compatible with computers used by first responders) should be maintained in secured locations around campus from which IHE officials can immediately provide it to responding officials or from which first responders can directly access it. The locations of these materials at the IHE should be known by and accessible to a number of individuals to ensure ready access in an emergency. Every IHE should have more than one individual charged with meeting first responders to provide them with the IHE site assessment, the IHE EOP, and any other details about IHE safety and the facility. All parties should know who these key contacts are. 

Exercises

Most IHEs practice evacuation drills for fires and protective measures for tornadoes, but far fewer IHEs practice for active shooter situations. To be prepared for an active shooter incident, IHEs should train their staff, students, and families, as appropriate, in what to expect and how to react. In a study of 84 active shooter events which occurred between 2000 and 2010, 34 percent involved schools or IHEs. 

Good planning includes conducting drills that must include first responders and campus public safety. Exercises with these valuable partners are one of the most effective and efficient ways to ensure that everyone knows not only her or his role(s) but also the role(s) of others at the scene. These exercises should include walks through IHE buildings to allow law enforcement officials to provide input on shelter sites as well as familiarize first responders with the campus, including accessible shelter locations and evacuation routes for people with disabilities and others with access and functional needs. 

Each person carries a three-fold responsibility: 

• First: Learn the signs of a potentially volatile situation and ways to prevent an incident. 

• Second: Learn the best steps for survival when faced with an active shooter situation. 

• Third: Be prepared to work with law enforcement during the response. 

Warning Signs 

No profile exists for an active shooter; however, research indicates there may be signs or indicators. IHEs should learn the signs of a potentially volatile situation that may develop into an active shooter situation and proactively seek ways to prevent an incident with internal resources, or additional external assistance. 

By highlighting common pre-attack behaviors displayed by past offenders, federal researchers have sought to enhance the detection and prevention of tragic attacks of violence, including active shooting situations. Several agencies within the federal government continue to explore incidents of targeted violence in the effort to identify these potential “warning signs.” In 2002, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) published a monograph on workplace violence, including problematic behaviors of concern that may telegraph violent ideations and plans. In 2007, the U.S. Secret Service, U.S. Department of Education, and the FBI collaborated to produce the report Campus Attacks, Targeted Violence Affecting Institutions of Higher Learning, which examined lethal or attempted lethal attacks at U.S. universities and colleges from 1900 to 2008. The report was published in 2010, and featured several key observations related to pre-attack behaviors, including the following: 

• In only 13 percent of the cases did subjects make verbal and/or written threats to cause harm to the target. These threats were both veiled and direct, and were conveyed to the target or to a third party about the target. 

• In 19 percent of the cases stalking or harassing behavior was reported prior to the attack. These behaviors occurred within the context of a current or former romantic relationship, or in academic and other non-romantic settings. They took on various forms, including written communications (conventional and electronic), telephonic contact, and harassment of the target and/or the target’s friends and/or family. Subjects also followed, visited, or damaged property belonging to target(s) or their families prior to the attack. 

• In only 10 percent of the cases did the subject engage in physically aggressive acts toward the targets. These behaviors took the form of physical assaults, menacing actions with weapons, or repeated physical violence to intimate partners. 

Concerning behaviors were observed by friends, family, associates, professors, or law enforcement in 31 percent of the cases. These behaviors included, but were not limited to, paranoid ideas, delusional statements, changes in personality or performance, disciplinary problems on campus, depressed mood, suicidal ideation, non-specific threats of violence, increased isolation, “odd” or “bizarre” behavior, and interest in or acquisition of weapons. 

Specialized units in the federal government (such as the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit) continue to support behaviorally based operational assessments of persons of concern in a variety of settings (e.g., IHEs, workplaces, places of worship) who appear be on a trajectory toward a violent act. A review of current research, threat assessment literature, and active shooting incidents, combined with the extensive case experience of the Behavioral Analysis Unit, suggest that there are observable pre-attack behaviors that, if recognized, could lead to the disruption of a planned attack.26 While checklists of various warning signs are often of limited use in isolation, the FBI has identified some behavioral indicators that should prompt further exploration and attention from law enforcement and/or campus safety stakeholders. These behaviors often include: 

• Development of a personal grievance; 

• Contextually inappropriate and recent acquisitions of multiple weapons; 

• Contextually inappropriate and recent escalation in target practice and weapons training; 

• Contextually inappropriate and recent interest in explosives; 

• Contextually inappropriate and intense interest or fascination with previous shootings or mass attacks; and 

• Experience of a significant real or perceived personal loss in the weeks and/or months leading up to the attack, such as a death, breakup, divorce or loss of a job. 

Few offenders had previous arrests for violent crimes. 

Threat Assessment Teams (TAT) 

Research shows that perpetrators of targeted acts of violence engage in both covert and overt behaviors preceding their attacks. They consider, plan, prepare, share, and, in some cases, move on to action. One of the most useful tools an IHE can develop to identify, evaluate, and address these troubling signs is a multidisciplinary IHE TAT. A TAT with diverse representation often will operate more efficiently and effectively. TAT members should include IHE administrators, counselors, current employees, medical and mental health professionals, and residential life, public safety, and law enforcement personnel. 

The TAT serves as a central convening body that ensures that warning signs observed by multiple people are not considered isolated incidents and do not slip through the cracks as they actually may represent escalating behavior that is a serious concern. IHEs should keep in mind, however, the importance of relying on factual information (including observed behavior) and avoid unfair labeling or stereotyping, to remain in compliance with civil rights and other applicable federal and state laws. 

Students and staff should be trained to:

• Leave personal belongings behind; 

• Visualize possible escape routes, including physically accessible routes for students and staff with disabilities and others with access and functional needs; 

• Avoid escalators and elevators; 

• Take others with them but not to stay behind because others will not go; 

• Call 911 when safe to do so; and 

• Let a responsible adult know where they are. 

Hide 

If running is not a safe option, hide in as safe a place as possible. 

Students and staff should be trained to hide in a location where the walls might be thicker and have fewer windows. In addition: 

• Lock the doors; 

• Barricade the doors with heavy furniture; 

• Close and lock windows, and close blinds or cover windows; 

• Turn off lights; 

• Silence all electronic devices; 

• Remain silent; 

• Use strategies to silently communicate with first responders if possible, (e.g., in rooms with exterior windows make signs to silently signal law enforcement and emergency responders to indicate the status of the room’s occupants); 

• Hide along the wall closest to the exit but out of the view from the hallway (allowing for an ambush of the shooter and for possible escape if the shooter enters the room); and 

• Remain in place until given an all clear by identifiable law enforcement.