What should a free man do?

The Perfect Day

The Perfect Day in the terrorist lexicon describes a series of simultaneous attacks on American schools.

I've seen that when people look in on these Beslan pages, they usually tend to spend a minute or so on each page. Yup, my blog stats tell me that. To me that suggests most readers are not paying the proper amount of attention to the issue. What's the issue?  Terrorists killing American school kids.

At other blogs you'll find a yearly tribute to the slain and that has a certain usefullness.  But if the only "lesson learned" is that is that there are bad people out there and that we have to protect our kids, that's not a lesson ~ that's barely a reminder.  If the "lesson learned" is that when we give terrorists "respect" they'll leave us all alone, then that's not a lesson either ~ that's a canard.

Here at this blog, I take an objective look at Beslan and suggest some very easily-done tasks you can and should undertake in order to protect your kids.  Our kids.  So, turn up your compassion if you're the cold-hearted sort. Or perhaps what you really need to do is just once turn down your smug self-assuredness that those nasty terrorists are merely misunderstood freedom-fighters and mean us, and you, no harm.  Once disabused of that dangerous illusion, take the time to read carefully. Comment if you'd like, pass the link on if that suits you. But don't scan this stuff and then go back to some stupid reality show.  I mean, hey; you don't really watch that crap, do you?

If you've read this stuff before and haven't done anything yet... what are you waiting for?

If not you... whom? If not now... when?

Anyway; where were we?

Intel gathered from interrogations of captured terrorists a/o physical evidence strongly suggests men and women with holy warrior inclinations will consider news of the attacks to be a signal to kill the nearest unbeliever. For example, a taxi driver with passengers he believes to be of a religion other than his hears of the attacks on the radio and so drives his vehicle into a wall at high speed in order to kill them.

More info here.

Terrorists have publicly bragged that they have the right to kill 2 million American children. After several deadly attacks involving children in Russia, Osama bin Laden said he would inflict far worse death and destruction on America; presumably on children given the context of that particular remark.

Where do you find kids in bunches? Schools. Have you seen the video of terrorists training in building and room entry tactics and hostage control? It's a good depiction of their intentions and commitment, but you never hear the audio, do you? If you could crank up the volume, you'd hear them shouting control commands.  In English.

School emergency plans have been found in the possession of people who have no need to know that information. Schools across the country have been under purposeful recon for quite a while. Terrorists are taking these, and other, preparation steps every day in America.

Some believe American law enforcement agencies are responsible for defending our schools and students. But courts have decided no police agency is required to protect you, the individual citizen, from any enemy foreign or domestic; their only mandate is to protect 'society' in general. So, if you call them to come save you from a criminal or terrorist act and they're late on scene, guess what; there's nothing you can do about it. You cannot sue them. Certainly, they will do their best to respond to any threat. But if they can't get to the schools fast enough or in sufficient force, a lot of people are SOL, in view of the generally sorry state of security preparation in most American schools.

Listen up.

In reality the first line of defense is parents, staff and faculty, coaches, students with formal a/o informal leadership roles, contracted or proprietary security officers. If the cops get there on time, that's a bonus. Bottom line, it's up to you to protect yourself and those you love. So, it's important to have a good plan in place to make sure Murphy and his kin don't show up.

According to the plan, if/when that day comes, attacks will be perpetrated simultaneously at several schools across the country, probably all in the same time zone. The schools will probably not be in large cities where police SWAT can get there in a hurry but in towns where terrain, distance, and manpower issues create significant police response lag time. On the other hand, they might pull it off in a large city by creating a diversion to draw police tactical assets away from the attack site. Either way, terrorists will show up out of nowhere at grade schools where the kids, especially the boys, are too small to resist.

Following their Beslan model, they will come in hard and fast and loud and violent, probably herding everyone to the gymnasium or cafeteria, or multiple areas in the building. They will be trying to frighten everyone into complete, instant obedience. If they find males big enough to fight back, those men and boys will be summarily executed, perhaps in front of the rest of the students and staff. These murders will be committed while terrorists are hurrying people into the building, or once they have everyone under control there. Anytime after that; once they're sure they have control of their hostages and the perimeter, girls will be repeatedly raped and sodomized in front of everyone. Older girls and women might be taken to separate rooms and raped and sodomized there. Boys might be sodomized, too. Anyone who resists will be killed on the spot.

Sorry if this shakes you, but this is what they did to innocent boys and girls, men and women in Beslan. And, maybe you need shaking.

Explosives will be emplaced and charged to destroy the building. Terrorists will cover a/o booby-trap every door and window, preventing entry and exit. Nobody gets in and nobody gets out.

Will they negotiate? Who knows? If terrorists don't kill anyone in the take-over, there could be a slight chance their intentions are to negotiate for something. But if there is killing right away, and there probably will be, it's a pretty good bet their intention is to kill as many of the students and staff as they can.

Why?

With these attacks, terrorists hope to create a horrible revulsion here that will stir Americans to strike back against anyone who may follow Islam. When "moderate" Muslims all over the world see their co-religionists attacked by marauding Yankee infidels, it is believed the "radical "ranks will swell immediately. From this wildfire they hope will reemerge The Twelfth Imam who will lead Islam back to power and, under Muslim law and rule, the world will finally know justice and peace.

Alrightythen. Any questions?

To translate the double-speak of many Muslim secular and religious leaders, this ascension back to running the world will come only after 'terrible and unprecedented calamities, when persecution and injustice engulf the earth'. They want to kill our kids to push us to the point that we lash out violently in retribution. Then they can shout 'American persecution and injustice has engulfed the earth' and POOF... The Twelfth Imam pops out of the bottle.

I had a previous post viz Beslan. Maybe you should refresh your memory on that massacre if you think it can't happen here. If 19 men can plan and carry out 9-11, another group can pull this caper. They only have to be lucky once. Some believe political leaders are obliged to protect us from this potential horror. If that's true, then why did no government employee get fired for mistakes they made which permitted 9-11?

Yes, it is the right of parents of school children to petition various government agencies for help in enhancing the security profile of the school their child attends. But it is not the duty of any politician to get money for any particular school.  So, where does that obligation reside?

In your living room.

Okay, who wants to be unerschrocken now?

Time for you to read the rest of the Perfect Day posts, even if you read them before: 

School kill zones 

More of The Perfect Day

Adjunct to The Perfect Day

Perfect Day Recon

Lockdown

More Perfect Day

More Perfect Day

Here are some more thoughts on how we can be prepared for, and thereby prevent, an attack like what the Chechens pulled off in Beslan; a massacre they will try to duplicate here with far deadlier results.

While buses would be a smaller, perhaps less attractive target than an entire school, buses make great soft targets for any sort of bad-guy. Indicators that a school bus may have been hijacked may include

• Distress signals written in window fog or on paper placed up against the window
• Silent, still, seated children (some of them apparently crying?) while an adult, in addition to the driver, stands or sits in the bus watching them, perhaps speaking to them harshly.
• Is the school bus driver or adult passenger wearing a green, red, black, or yellow headband with foreign language words printed on it?
• Do you see the ends of weapons barrels just above the window frames? This is called flagging.
• Is there blood visible anywhere on the exterior of the bus, but especially by the front and rear doors?
• Is there blood visible on the inside of any windows?
• Does there appear to be a vehicle that is moving in tandem with the bus, possibly as a counter-recon or reaction vehicle?
• Are coats covering windows, blocking view into the bus?
  • I think it would be best if there were laws dictating that no school bus in this country may have tinted windows. 

Sometimes buses break down, but figure the statistical likelihood of one breaking down on a highway overpass. Those are busy areas and a driver would probably try to stop the bus in a less dangerous stretch of roadway, if there was a problem. An overpass with cloverleaf on/off ramps is perfect for a hostage takeover. Terrorists can see and control all the approach points. So if you ever see a school bus ‘broken down’ with kids in it on a highway overpass, it would be a great idea for you to call the police immediately and let them know what you see. Hang around until the cops get there and be watching for adults getting on/off the bus, the demeanor of the children, etc. Let the cops know what you've seen.

Some terrorists were mixed in with the crowd at School #1 in Beslan that day, which was a Russian holiday, 1 September. Since we know they’re going to do it, look for at least recon at school events to which the entire community can come without stirring suspicion; such as indoor sporting events, seasonal concerts, and plays.

Outdoor sporting events make it harder for terrorists to grab hostages and get them to somewhere they can be controlled. While chemical agents (gas) might be used effectively against an outdoor crowd, the results are too unpredictable ~ too many variables: wind, rain, etc. If the bad guys do an outdoor attack, it would most likely be a drive-by shooting, with multiple shooters; or with a homicide bomber in the stands and another in the parking lot to be detonated when the crowd runs for their cars.

What to do? Head calmly for cover away from the parking lot. Stay low, be prepared to drop. If you drop, be sure to do it with your feet pointed in the direction from which a secondary IED may be detonated.

Depending on the size of the venue, graduation ceremonies may be less likely targets for hostage-taking. Small schools which have their ceremonies at the school itself may be higher on the hostage-taking list because of the lower number of people at the event. Large schools which usually have their ceremonies at public auditoriums such as sports arenas would more likely be target of an attack such as in Bali. An explosion inside the event center would drive attendees out the exit doors. There, additional bombs could be detonated a/o shooters blaze away. A hostage scenario is less likely because there may be too many hostages for terrorists to handle.

At Beslan, a little girl saw a ‘suspicious truck’ pull up, then people started getting out of the back. Was it suspicious because people started getting out of it or for some other reason? Only she knows. But what makes a truck suspicious?

• They may ride low in the rear because of being loaded with people a/o equipment.
• Weapons or parts of weapons may be visible from outside the vehicle ~ flagging.
• People may peek out from places they were hiding in the vehicle, to see if they're in attack position yet.
• Maybe a few guys show up in a truck and say they’re there to take a look at the leaking roof but the truck they’re in has no signage on it telling you it’s a commercial vehicle.
  • By law, the vehicle is required to be marked in English. Is it?  
• Maybe trucks show up with a dozen people and a batch of ladders and a hammer. A hasty but polite query indicates nobody requested any work requiring that many people and ladders ... and just one hammer. That’s suspicious, seems to me.
• There is a posted speed limit on school grounds. If something in the vehicle speed, direction of travel, a/o manner of approach is out of the ordinary, take a closer look without endangering yourself and call the cops right away if trouble seems to be approaching.
• Like the bus drivers mentioned above, what are the occupants and drivers of these vehicles wearing? Is it something that could be ‘religious headgear’ like bandanas?
• Vehicles left running outside schools, w/o drivers a/o passengers, are suspicious as well.

In a crisis situation, volunteers can really make a difference. But don’t show up like the bystanders at Beslan. If you’ve got a gun, you’d better have proper licensing for it if you decide to bring it with you for some reason. That's a real tough decision you have to make there. Be prepared to defend yourself in court if you screw up. Cops will have enough to do so do not add to their tasks by making them arrest you. Or shoot you.

Terrorists may rent lodging a/o storage close to the attack site in order to expedite delivery a/o emplacement of weapons a/o people. They may rent apartments/homes with good sniper angles to the school or avenues approaching/leaving the school. Or, rather than rent, they may just take over a dwelling. So, if a guy with a rifle busts into the home or apartment next to you and that home or apartment overlooks the cute little grade school across the street, you should probably call the cops right away, hmmm?

Terrorists may shoot pedestrians a/o motorists along the way to the school just to add to the carnage; to draw out the crime scene and to slow down arrival/attrit responding police and other ES. Slow-down allows them more time to set-up, more time to get control of hostages. So, if you're seeing shooters in vehicles taking out pedestrians and other drivers, think. Ask yourself what school might be up ahead there, the direction the shooters are traveling. Call 911 and get that info to cops on the street ASAP.

More than a week before the attack, intel said some school in Beslan would be hit. Three days prior to the attack, families living in Beslan who shared common religious beliefs and practices with the terrorists, just disappeared. They took their belongings with them and left town. Why? Their Chechyan connections who lived in the area told them an attack was coming. So, does your kid notice there are several/many kids of a certain ethnic group suddenly not at school one morning? If so, it might be a good idea for him to call you and let you make an educated decision about his attendance, at least for that day.

On a danger spectrum, terrorists with concealed faces may be less dangerous than those not concealed. Terrorists not masked aren’t worried if you can identify them later. Why? Probably because they know, one way or another, they won’t be leaving there alive. A masked terrorist may believe the entire set-up is to take hostages and negotiate for something so he wants to be able to get away and not be recognized later. If talking to any of the terrorists is ever a good idea; and it's probably not, the masked ones are most likely your safer bet.

If you’re in the crowd around a school crisis scenario, be looking for suspicious people who may be terrorist spotters, etc., in addition to looking for bombs and suspicious vehicles. Discreetly report these people to police. If immediate action is necessary, be prepared tactically, legally, emotionally.

I did some research and discovered that Washington State clearly shows lockdown as the default response to any ‘intruder.' What does your state proscribe? You need to know so find out and get back to me on that. As I wrote earlier and as others recommend, lockdown cannot be the default response to active shooters. If it's clear that there is one unarmed person/intruder, then lockdown is probably best. But if this 'intruder' is not alone and is armed and an exit is close by, I'm out the door running for cover with everyone I can convince to follow me in hot pursuit.

But it'll never happen here. Forget what I said.

Lockdown

I want to add this post for emphasis.

Teachers and other school staff work for you. You pay their salaries. You are indeed the boss of them.

If you have school-age children then you need to know what exactly the school plans to do in the various emergencies that may come up. An active shooter attack is more likely than a fire at any school in this country. Look it up, do your own math. If you haven’t read Terror at Beslan then you need to do so ASAP.

Here’s the point: if you take the time to do online homework, you’ll see that the default response for an active shooter is for the school to go into lockdown. Well, looks like I did your homework for you.

Lockdown, lockdown, lockdown. No, no, no. When the terrorists began their assault at Beslan, around 40% of the students and staff ran like cuh-razy to get away from the school. A few hid in the boiler room. Every single one of those children and adults lived.

You decide for your child. You take this matter into your own hands. You tell your child what to do in event of an active shooter or terrorist attack or hostage-taking. You do it. You decide.

Knowing what you know about The Perfect Day and Beslan, do you want to take the chance that the cops will get there in good time with sufficient men, equipment, intel, and resolve to crush the terrorists and free all those taken captive? They'll do their absolute honorable best but believe me; it ain’t gonna happen that way. Murphy will be on scene for the duration. If that’s how you want it, then you have to do nothing except maybe pack an extra lunch for your kid so he or she will have a snack to share with the nice terrorists.

Do you want to take the chance that teachers locking kids inside classrooms and telling them to be quiet will fool terrorists into thinking school is closed for the day and they really screwed up? Do you want to take the chance that the hinges on classroom doors can’t be pulled with a pair of pliers, that they can’t be blown off with two blasts from a 12 gauge shotgun? Do you want to take the chance that the throw of the bolt into the door frame is deep enough to prevent removal, that the glass in the door windows a/o in the windows next to the doors is punch-proof? Do you want to take the chance that the school has payed for Mylar to cover your classroom windows and make them bullet-proof?

If you don’t want to take that chance then you have to teach your children what you want them to do when shooters are coming.

It may very well be the best option that the kids and staff get out of the school immediately and not wait to find out what that strange man wants or what all those people with guns are really going to do. The Russian counterterrorism experts who were there during and after the Beslan massacre recommend everyone get out of the building immediately.

You think about it. You decide for your kids. You tell your kids what to do. You tell your school in writing what your kids will be doing if the shit hits the fan. Then you teach your kids and make sure they remember.

And tell 'em you love 'em... every day.

Talk to the parents of other kids and let them know of your decision and the facts that drove it.

Do not be a sheep. Be unerschrocken.

Perfect Day Recon

Since the terrorists/active shooters will be right there, in/around the school, they should be pretty easy to spot if you're paying attention.

They will be walking or driving infiltration routes, whether on streets, sidewalks, or paths. They will take pictures of the school and then walk up to the school and take pictures of the streets, buildings, terrain, and foliage that surrounds it. Some recon will take place during the school day as they try to find out the best time to make their attack. But some recon will take place after the school's closed for the day a/o during the weekend.

The very least a school needs is CCTV that records periodic shots of all access routes into the school, but especially of what would be the probable terrorist entry point. Cameras should be positioned to not just show the doorways but the approaches as well. A CCTV professional can help you get good angles.

They may come in and ask to see the security or police officer, just to see if you've got one there. They may call in a bomb threat and be watching your reaction time/procedures from that taxi there on the corner.

They may come to sporting events or musical/drama/other performances inside the facility. If so, they'll be interested in hallways and exits and heating/cooling vents and windows and doors and police presence. So, what you might see them doing is taking photos of areas and things where no action is taking place, where no one else is looking. If they seem to be alone a/o you're pretty sure they don't have kids at your school a/o they come late and leave early, those might be indicators that add up to a reportable suspicion.

Again, you have to decide based on the totality of circumstances that you see there at the time. It's your intuition that needs to be heeded if you're sensing that something's just not right. Don't listen to someone who tries to dissuade you from what you're feeling in your gut.

These terrorists don't have to look like they came from any particular part of the world or from any particular ethnic group. Your observations are of their behavior, not what they look like ... although that factor should not be ignored at all.

I mean, if a granny comes to a basketball game to see her grandson play and she's got poor vision and is color blind and doesn't understand the game and can't figure out exactly how to use her new cell phone camera, then she might look like she's not taking pictures of the action everyone else is watching on the court. Is she a terrorist? I'll go out on a limb and say no.

Pay attention out there, folks.

Adjunct to The Perfect Day

If you hear of a terrorist/active shooter situation developing or underway at your kids’ school, do not go to the school. Depending on their tactical sophistication, terrorists could be trying to draw you toward the school, exploding roadside bombs hidden in vehicles a/o objects along the routes in, or shoot you as you approach. If they set those charges, they’re probably meant for responding police and medics but maybe they want to create some roadblocks by pulverizing any inbound vehicle(s). There will be dozens if not hundreds of emergency vehicles and personnel on site. News crews too. If you’re in that crowd, you’ll just add to the confusion and the time it takes for emergency assets to arrive, assess, and act.

Wherever it is that you are made to wait, be aware that terrorists may have rigged some kind of secondary explosive device with the intent of blowing up bystanders.

If by some stroke of “luck” or divine intervention you happen to be on scene after terrorists have secured the school but before police have responded on scene in force, some parents might feel like trying to get inside in order to rescue their child, by way of snatching him/her or trying to negotiate for safe return. I can’t tell you what to do in that case, only what the likely outcome will be.

If you’re the father of a child hostage, they’ll probably shoot you as you approach the school. If they let you in, once they find out you’re just going to be another worry for them… they’ll kill you.

If you’re the mother of a hostage child, they might be a bit slower on the trigger as you approach. Once you get inside, if they permit it, most likely they will not unite you with your child. They’ll put you with the other women whom they’ve already raped a/o intend to rape and that will be that. Sorry, I don’t mean to be crass; but you’re almost certainly not going to, whether Mother or Father, walk into that situation and come out unharmed with your child.

I know you love ‘em and you want to save them from this horror but if this happens, it’s too late for you to do much about it. The most you may be able to do is to call your child on a cell phone to see if they’re okay and to let them know you’re there. Encourage them, but don’t stay on the phone too long because terrorists might single them out as targets just for being on the phone. There are many possible emotional reactions your child may manifest if you speak on the phone while they’re hiding or being held hostage. I can’t pretend to know how your child will act. So you’ve got to control your fear and anger and only do and say what will help your child to be brought out those school doors safe, back into your arms.

Maybe all you’ll be able to do is gather other parents and find ways to support emergency teams, if they’ll permit, which they probably will not. Keep your cell phone battery charged so if your child calls you, you can answer. If you have land-line voicemail, call that from time to time to see if your child has left any messages for you about the situation. If your child tells you anything about the situation that may provide intel to the responding police, tell the police right away. Call friends and family and let them know that they should call you immediately if your child in the school calls them.

It’s odd how things come to pass. What if your child is swept up in an attack but manages to see there are 6 terrorists, they all have “machine guns”, and everyone's in the cafeteria. And what if your boy manages to get his cell phone out but can only speed dial and leave a message at the first number on his screen ~ Aunt Anne. I’ll tell you, SWAT can do some wonderful things with that information.

If it ever comes down to this horror; you’re not in charge of the situation, you can’t control the outcome. You are in charge of you. If you can't do something, then be something ~ strong and unerschrocken.

Miracles do happen. Pray. And act to comfort and encourage each other.

More of The Perfect Day

It is the responsibility of parents to be sure their children are aware and trained in basic survival practices and tactics.  If parents want safe kids, then they have to do something. A drop and cover reminder at school once a year just ain't gonna cut it anymore.

Here are some thoughts and suggestions viz getting up to speed on the safety of your kids, too often written and spoken of errantly as 'school security.' Don't call or email ~ walk into the school your children attend and ask to speak face-to-face with the person in charge of security. Ask these questions:

• Is there a terrorist attack reaction plan here? Not a general 'disaster' plan ~ an active shooter/terrorist attack/hostage situation response plan.
• They don't have to show it to you but you need to get a direct answer to that specific question.
• If they say they can't or won't answer or that they don't have a specific plan, then you need to go up the chain of command and take names on the way.
• If they have a plan, ask if school leadership endorses it and stays proactive in its implementation.
• Does each member of the staff understand and buy into the program? Hey, what if the Principal has this great plan and some smarty-pants teacher just refuses to get with the program? Then the plan just broke down.
• Does that mean you may have to talk with any/every teacher your child has and find out what each individual teacher will do in event of trouble?
• Maybe.

If you're a parent, grandparent, guardian, step-parent, foster-parent; an authorized somebody needs to go up and down the school leadership roster until you are sure there is a terrorist attack response plan on paper that is updated periodically by a security professional and which is practiced at least once every three months. In a deadly situation, a bunch of staffers bouncing around the hallway wondering who's in charge and what to do next is going to get a lot of people hurt. Or killed. There can't be just one Plan; there must be a Plan B in case Plan A goes flying out the window.

All school facilities including bus parking lots need to be with fitted with CCTV cameras, multiple monitors, and a trained staffer dedicated to keep constant watch on those monitors. Cameras need to be hidden well so that someone pulling recon on/in the school won't see them easily or at all. Check online to find those specialty cameras. That security specialist needs to have direct, redundant communication capability with local police; that's two phones, one cellular and one land-line. If you're that specialist, it would be good to have the local SWAT number set as a speed-dial to maybe try to bypass any 911 operators who might do nothing more than tell you you're exaggerating. Believe me, in The Perfect Day scenario, or any other attack/hostage situation, you don't need to be chatting it up with a 911 operator who thinks it's her primary directive to calm you down to her subjective satisfaction and theeeeeeen have you answer every single question on her checklist before she asks her shift supervisor to make a decision. If she wants to know the color of every suspect vehicle and then what color hair each terrorist has, tell her this: The only color you need to think about is the color of the children's blood about to be shed if you don't get every cop in the world over here right now.

Schools should set up dedicated telephone voice-mail accounts to allow suspicions a/o safety concerns to be reported to the appropriate people in a timely manner. Dedicated ~ it's not for leaving announcements about snow days or the lunch menu; it's for security reporting only. That voice-mail box needs to be checked several times a day by the same person running the CCTV. An email address is a good idea as well but there should be a least a voice-mail box so people can call in.

Staff and faculty, even student leaders, need to understand they can call 911 from anywhere on school property; they don't have to waste time trying to get permission to have security call the cops. Oy. Get on the phone. As redundancy, send a runner.

For protection when the school is closed, do not settle for a drive-by security guard who rattles the chain on the gate a/o doors once or twice a night. In my experience as a security consultant, when customers contract for drive-by door-shakes by mobile security guards, the guards usually make less than half of the required checks. Security companies deliberately take on more checks than they can make in a night, but bill customers for even the checks they didn't make. Also, in my experience, if a customer contracts for armed security, the security company usually has an unwritten policy which only they and the guard know about; that the weapons are for decoration only ~ if taken from the holster, the guard will be fired. Betcha didn't know that. It's SOP for most security companies.

I've suggested CCTV be installed and I'll stand by that.  But the fact is that while having CCTV will cause trouble in schools to drop, the only area where you will see no noticeable decline will be in incidents caused by people coming from outside the school, bringing trouble with them.  So, while CCTV can be good at some things, it is by no means the only thing you should do.  In my view, it is imperative that armed security officer, as described above, be on site.

Terrorists might try to get personnel, weapons, and explosives into the school at night to hide and stage for a morning attack. If that's possible where your kids go to school, then that school needs an armed, dedicated security officer on site at night and on weekends. If that can't be done for some reason, not one single student should be allowed in any class room or inside any other school facility in the morning, every morning, until the entire facility has been checked for 'suspicious' stuff and situations. And by the way, the morning checks can be conducted by parents a/o volunteers. Probably two would be enough. It's very basic, sorta recon with overwatch: one checks, the other watches the checker from a short distance. They both have walkie-talkies. After the school and outer grounds have been cleared to permit students on campus/in the building(s) the staff security specialist/security officer should check with local law enforcement and other sources to see if there are any alerts to be taken into consideration on that day. Specialists must take their concerns to deciders immediately.

If there are finance issues, use your imagination. I mean for Pete's sake, cheerleaders have bake-sales and carwashes so they can go to dopey cheer camp. Why can't parents sponsor events to raise money for CCTV, to pay for a consultant to do a thorough inspection, for walkie-talkie radios for crossing guards? Some things could be done for free. Train crossing guards and bus drivers to look for suspicious people and situations and to call the security specialist on that handy-dandy radio. Bus drivers can be taught to look around and under and in their bus before they leave the bus storage site to pick up kids in the morning.  Talk periodically with merchants and residents along approaches to the school and ask them to be alert and call 911 if they see something suspicious or downright dangerous ~ and then call the school. Trust me; most schools have no clue about these measures.

Have a soldier, preferably a trained sniper; take a look at the terrain and foliage around the school, demonstrating how he'd approach the school. Have him show you where he'd hide himself and his gear, where he'd shoot from, alternate locations, his angles of fire, and escape routes. Then take the guy out for dinner. Buy him a cold one. Based on that hardcore sagacity, put in concealment like bushes and trees so shooters in the woods or down the street can't clearly see entry/exit choke points, also known as fatal funnels, from likely shooting locations. Don't forget to take out concealment that shooters can hide behind or in. Put in cover, something that will stop bullets like a BFR (big freakin' rock) or three and make it look pretty, like it's just innocent landscaping when it's actually something for students to get behind if shooting starts when they're outside. Stop spending money on stupid beauty bark. A higher level of safety can be accomplished with shovels, rakes, and a quick look through craigslist for free or donated landscaping rock, and a pickup truck. It can be done in a weekend. Think, people. Why are you going to wait for money to flow downhill to your school?

Lockdowns should not be the automatic response to active shooters or terrorists in a school building. For that matter, they should not be the default response in any situation. Tactics are dictated by what's happening on-scene at the moment, not by what seemed like a good idea as concocted a while back by a bunch of people sitting around a table talking theory.

If I'm a teacher and I look out my classroom window and see 'intruders' heading for the other end of the school, I'm running for the nearest exit with the key, which I keep safely around my neck, to any lock on that exit door. I'm taking my kids out of the building, heading for the nearest cover. I'll tell them it's early recess and we're all racing to the big house just down the street and then we're going to play hide 'n seek. Of course, if I'm teaching high school, I'm going to be a bit more creative than that. But I'm not going to lock my kids in the room and hope that guy with the gun doesn't saunter down the hall and force my door open and throw in a pipe bomb and then start shooting kids as they run out of the classroom. If I were a teacher (and I was a church youth director with over 120 kids in my charge so I'm not talking through my hat here) I'd stay on top of my options and do what was best for my kids at the moment of attack.

Every school needs to have an intercom or public address system; I guess they all have some sort of set-up, eh? But school admin office workers need to have a one- or two-word duress code that they can announce to the entire school with the push of one mic button and one phrase. I don't know ~ make the word Rosebud mean Everyone get out of the school right now. Make Thunder mean Lock classroom doors immediately and be quiet. Have names for different areas of the school so you can give quick commands. The west wing can be Disneyland, the east wing can be Death Valley. Okay, Death Valley might not be a good idea, but you get the point.

Assuming an attack can be spotted in the approach phase, staff with access to the PAS can just key the mike and say Disneyland, Thunder; Death Valley, Rosebud ~ whichever most clearly describes the situation on the ground then and there and the most appropriate response to that situation. Say it twice so if it wasn't heart clearly the first time, maybe it will be the second.

Plans are created using statistical probabilities to assess threat and risk, so any disaster plan that includes fire drills but does not include active shooter/terrorist response plans and drills is counterfeit. There has not been a fire in an American school in decades but there are fire drills in schools every year. But shooters have targeted schools and students many times before and after Columbine. Run school shooting through any search engine and read the names of the unnecessary dead.

Parents, students, school officials, law enforcement agencies and emergency medical service personnel all need to work together in the creation and implementation of school emergency plans. These plans need to be reviewed frequently and edited whenever a change needs to be made. School staffers need to know that the plan is the plan; they don't get to apply their religious/political world view to it.

If you're a teacher or staffer and you see what appears to be an attack on your school that even looks a little bit like The Perfect Day/Beslan scenario, it would probably be best to get your kids, regardless of age, out of that building as quickly as possible. In my opinion, that should be the framework of Plan A. My children are in their 20's now, but if they were still in school I'd tell them to get out of that school at the first hint of attackers, with or without staff approval, and take as many others out with them as possible.

I'd like to recommend some excellent resources to you and thank the authors for their prescient thinking and writing. And special thanks to Glenn Beck at CNN for having these men, and others, on his show a few weeks back, discussing in depth this very serious threat.

Glenn Beck
Our Schools: The Ultimate Soft Target; by former FBI Special Agent Don Clark
Lessons from Beslan; by John Giduck
The Ends Islamist Terrorists Seek; by M. Zuhdi Jasser, MD
The First Commandment; by Brad Thor

School kill zones

The school year begins in a few days, if it's not already begun for some of you.  Do you recall what happened exactly three years ago today in Beslan, Russia?

Here's a reminder if you forgot. It happened in Russia.  And no one can conclude that it could never happen here in the good ol' USA.    

It's been reported a suspected terrorist, who'd fought with his fellow jihadists in Chechnya, ended up in Minnesota, where he applied for licenses to transport hazardous materials and drive school buses.         

Then there were the two college students who, once arrested, explained that they were foreigners and didn't know the difference between a regular commuter bus and a yellow school bus full of children.  Hmmm.

Since Columbine, there have been several arrests made of school "children" who were planning similar atrocities against their schoolmates.  The VATech shooter is just another example, though he was in college.

It has happened here.  It can happen here again.

Be careful.  Don't just drop the kids at the school door or watch them trundle off to the bus stop without exercising due diligence as a parent and actually going to the school(s) to find out exactly what security measures are in place.  Do your homework. 

• Are there CCTV cameras on site? 
• Who monitors them and when? 
• Is there a police officer or sheriff's deputy on site? 
  • When?   
• What are the rules of engagement for these officers? 
• Is there a campus security force? 
  • Is this person/force made up of school staff, like the gym teacher when he's got a free hour, or dedicated security officers?   
• Is the security force trained and armed? 
  • If not, why not? 
  • What are their ROE? 

Find out if your children will be held at school or sent home in case of an emergency. Make sure the school knows how to reach you at home and work. This includes land-line telephone and cell phone numbers, pager numbers and email addresses.                                                                                    

If your child has special medical conditions, make sure he or she always carries or wears identification showing his or her blood type and the special medical conditions.  Since an emergency might cause an overload and shutdown of local and cell phone communication systems, your children should carry the phone numbers and email addresses of at least two out-of-state family members, a/o friends.  Your child should notify those distant relatives/friends using other than overloaded local circuits and your family a/o friends can contact you long-distance, too.  

If your child tells you there was a bomb threat hoax at school, pay attention with more than faux parental concern.  Bomb threat hoaxes are often done by terrorists to probe and assess reaction tactics and times of responding security and police forces and school staff.  If your child tells you three weeks in a row there was a bomb threat at 1:30 on Wednesday, looks like there's a pattern developing there, eh?  Maybe you want to keep your child home next Wednesday... after you've let the local police know of your concerns, huh?   

Most schools in the US do not have adequate security plans in place.  Eight years after the Columbine massacre, over seventy percent of schools do not have CCTV and less than half have security personnel on campus.  Seventy percent of schools lock some, but not all of their doors.  Nearly all leave their front doors unlocked and unwatched by security personnel.   

As we saw in the case of the multiple murders in Maryland, Virginia and Washington DC in October 2002, snipers can terrorize a community.  Forgive me for being a "situational realist" but schools are perfect for snipers.  So, regardless of the motivation of any shooter anywhere, there are certain principles you may want to keep in mind as you're approaching what can become a "kill zone" or "fatal funnel". 

Walking or driving toward a destination: As you get about 1000 yards away from your destination(church, school, shopping center, etc.) slow down and scan the street ahead of you and any places where a sniper could hide. The reason you start about 1000 yards out is that it's the maximum effective range of rifles most likely to be used in this type of attack.  Report suspicious vehicles and person(s) you may see to 911 on the way in and, if you feel strongly enough about your suspicions, don't get out; or only disembark at a covered entrance. Remember that cover is something that will stop a bullet.

A suspicious vehicle might be a van parked with the rear facing the entrance to a potential target building/area, with the van door/window opened enough for a sniper to shoot out of.  A truck with some sort of camper shell with a rear door propped open a little bit or with rear or side windows broken out; or a regular car with a strangely large hole in the trunk lid may be suspicious.  Maybe you detect movement in the vehicle.  That's two strikes. 

A suspicious person might be one wearing unusual clothing for the weather such as a long coat to hide a firearm; or someone carrying a long case that could carry a rifle, who is approaching or leaving an area where he could have been hiding or intends to hide. 

Assuming you go inside, once you're done, pause for a few moments inside the building to look for suspicious vehicles or persons outside. If you see something unusual, ask security or management to have the situation checked out. Or call 911 and have the police check the situation out.                        
If a situation like Beslan develops with multiple bad-guys taking hostages; don't get in the way of the police responding to the scene or those who may be at the scene.  It's not possible to tell how a hostage situation will end up.  Beslan ended in planned tragedy.  But just last week the Taliban released South Korean hostages they'd held for weeks.  Of course, that was the result of cowardly negotiations between terrorists and the South Korean government.  It is the policy of the US that we don't negotiate with terrorists.  Maybe the best you can do is stay on scene to be there for your child, no matter what happens.  And pray if you got 'em.                                                                   

Item last: don't forget that terrorists and those who assist them sometimes have families.  Remember that, because they tend to move frequently, their children often enroll in school after the start of the school year, and may leave prior to the end of the school year with little or no notice.  The children of terrorist supporters are often unwittingly privy to information and activities regarding terrorist plans. Sometimes this information circulates among children, but is ignored, discounted, or misunderstood by parents or other adults. For example, if your son told you that the kid down the street said "My dad makes bombs in the basement because he wants to kill all the unbelievers, you might want to take the little tyke seriously and let the authorities know.  While the children of terrorists and terrorist supporters may attend school, outside of school, they tend to have limited contact with neighbors or other children. 

Remember, it's not what they look like, it's what they do.  If you see something, say something.