Beslan In America, Part 1Beslan In America, Part 2As the old saying goes, "Our children are our future". When it comes to our children, most parents will do anything to keep them safe. When our children are threatened, we tend to disregard anything resembling normal courses of action, dropping everything to come to their aid. It is our natural instinct.
The chances that your local school will come under attack are remote. With the tens of thousands of elementary and middle schools across the country, being overly paranoid about such an attack would be akin to playing the lottery. There is a difference between being paranoid and being prepared and walking that line can save you and your child's life.
In the event of an attack at one of our nation's schools, terrorists will rely on these parental instincts and use them to their advantage. They would count on parents, as well as the media, to converge on the school en mass. Although it goes against everything you do and feel as a parent, you cannot just drop everything and run to protect your child. There are, however thing you can do to protect your child.
The following is a good guideline to follow in preparing and dealing with a terrorist attack. My thanks goes out to the fine people at
The National Terror Alert Response Center for the following information.
What You Can Do As A Parent
Most importantly, plan now. Take the necessary steps today that will ensure you and your family’s safety.
Be Alert …Get An Alert
The sooner you are aware that a terror attack is underway, the sooner you can react and the greater your chance for staying safe. We strongly recommend that you subscribe to an Emergency Alert Notification service and keep your mobile phone, text pager or PDA with you at all times.
We use and recommend Alerts USA. Yes, we advertise on this site for them and there’s a reason. Their alert notification service is in our opinion, beyond comparison. The system alerts you regardless of location, with near real-time notification of terrorist attacks, threats, warnings and advisories. The alert is sent directly to your cell phone, text pager or PDA and is available on any mobile device, on any network, anywhere in the United States. This is the same alert used by many government agencies, law enforcement and counter-terrorism organizations. (see the list on the Alerts USA website)
If an attack is underway, whether it’s in a school, a mall, a subway or any other location, one of the best safeguards you can have is an early notification.
When you receive an alert…ACT IMMEDIATELY.
Create a Plan
Preparing for a potential terrorist strike provides you your best chance of survival in the event an attack actually takes place. Preparedness should always be considered in the home, school and workplace for any unexpected event.
Keep Current Authorizations On File
Most schools will only allow an authorized family member or guardian to pick up a child from school. Be sure to have all authorization forms signed and registered with the school. Be sure that the school has updated information about how to reach parents and responsible caregivers to arrange for pickup. And, ask what type of authorization the school may require to release a child to someone you designate, if you are not able to pick up your child. During times of emergency the school telephones may be overwhelmed with calls.
Designate A “Point” person
Next, establish a plan for picking up your child in the event of an actual attack. Who is the closest “point of contact” authorized to pick up your child? It needs to be someone who is prepared to drop everything at a moments notice and proceed to the school immediately when notified.
If you work some distance from the school, find someone closer. The moment an alert goes out or you hear that a school somewhere has been seized or is under attack, activate your plan and above all, remain calm.
What To Do If An Attack Takes Place
If it’s your child’s school…
This will go against every instinct that you have as a parent but if it’s your child’s school that has been attacked, DO NOT GO TO THE SCHOOL. Terrorist’s plans that have been uncovered show they are counting on you showing up along with the news media. When you arrive it’s very likely that you’ll be greeted by car bombs strategically placed within the school parking lot, sniper fire, or worse.
This is not a normal crime scene and law enforcement will most likely need to take immediate tactical action. That action may include live fire and engagement with the terrorists. Your presence will only slow down deployment during a very critical time.
In a Beslan type attack, law enforcement knows the terrorists have no exit strategy. They have come with a single intent. Stay away and let law enforcement do what they are trained to do.
If it’s NOT your child’s school that has been attacked
Immediately after being alerted, contact your child using a pre-determined code on a cell phone or pager. Don’t tell your child that this is related to a terrorist attack. Your child should be taught in advance that whenever they receive a call from you using this code, they should politely excuse themselves from the classroom and go to a designated location to be picked up. Be calm, keep your child calm.
Next, contact the school and ask to speak to the person in charge of releasing students. (You should already have the number programmed into you phone) Inform the school that an unexpected situation has come up and you will need to pick up your child immediately. Let the administrator know that you have already paged your child to let them know you or the person you have authorized is on their way.
Have your child picked up and leave the area without delay. When picking your child up, observe what is going on in around the school. If you see suspicious behavior, do not confront the individuals involved.
Take note of the details:
S – Size (Jot down the number of people, gender, ages, and physical descriptions)
A – Activity (Describe exactly what they are doing)
L – Location (Provide exact location)
U – Uniform (Describe what they are wearing, including shoes)
T – Time (Provide date, time, and duration of activity)
E – Equipment (Describe vehicle, make, color etc., license plate, camera, guns, etc)
Suspicious activity is often recalled after an event. We must train ourselves to be on the lookout for things that are out of the ordinary and arouse suspicions.
Report details To Law Enforcement Immediately
You will also need to make some decisions based upon your own circumstances and the situation.
What will you do if school has already been informed of the event and is in lock-down, or in the process of being locked down? Find out your schools plans for such an event and make sure that other families are informed through PTA, etc.
Should you alert the school to the potential threat? Chances are your child’s school will not come under attack and pulling them out would only be out of an abundance of caution. This determination can only be made as the situation presents itself.
Since Columbine, most, if not schools, have contingency plans in case of a school shooting situation, which includes lockdown procedures, alerting law enforcement, etc. After the Columbine shootings, Columbus (Ohio) Police SWAT developed what is known as QUick Action Deployment, or QUAD. It was developed as a tactical response method for patrol officers in the event of an active shooter scenario. Early in my career I was privileged to be personally trained by Columbus SWAT in this. All of this is not enough, though. There are additional steps that need to be taken by school administrators to help deter any kind of attack.
Dave Grossman wrote an excellent article about what school administrators can do to shore up school security. You can read that article
here.Remember, vigilence and planning are the key in detering a terror attack on our schools. You are the front line in this part of the war on terror. It is a war we
must win.
