Out of both words in this title, which one means more? If you chose survival, you're wrong. Prevailing is the correct answer. Why? I'll tell you why. Today I experienced one of the best trainings I think I've EVER been through. It helped give me perspective not only in my workplace but also in my home, at the mall, out in public, etc. Many other teachers joined me as well as we learned, "Strategos". It is a training on what to do if an intruder comes into the school building, or any building for that matter.
In the morning, the instructor gave us so much information to process and talked statistics about school shootings that date all the way back to the 1700s. This is not new knowledge people. The guy gave us the real facts. Sugar coated? No way. We were told that we are the first line of defense whether we like it or not. We also learned that it may take up to 15 minutes for first responders to come upon the scene. Needless to say, we found out the truth about what "could happen".
This is the book that he recommended us to read. It's the facts and the whole story about Colombine. It discusses how the two young males had been planning this for months. They had their targets and their plan in place. It even goes into detail about the security videos and the weapons/explosives they used.
Lunch was served at noon and then the afternoon was the "scenarios". I'm not talking about walking around the school just talking about what to do. This guy only showed us three rooms and discussed what we could do to protects ourselves. The second part, he came around with an air gun and pretended to actually come after us. IT WAS SCARY! The first two times, he told us to just hide. He reassured us that he would find us. This is the natural instinct to do in a matter of emergency and feeling frightened (We talked many times about the Colombine shootings and how a women called 911 and just hid the entire time when she could've been doing something, she was also in the library). The hard part was that we couldn't run or hide until the first shot went off. Man oh man, talk about adrenaline! We hid and tried to be out of sight. It was hard because when other people came into the room with us (a couple of teachers and I stuck together), we almost didn't want them coming in because we were trying our best to be out of sight.
The second scenarios that we ran through, we could lock and barricade the door. This is called Lock Down. Many schools are doing this now and it's the best thing to do to use up time. My group did GREAT! It was still suspenseful before we were called out.
All I can say is that after that training, I feel better knowing what to do in case of an event like that ever taking place wherever I am. I recommend anyone to take this course whether you are a teacher, janitor, volunteer, etc. at a school. Safety is the most important thing first and foremost.
