Run, Hide, Fight: Surviving an active shooter training
2nd August 2024
Shiprock, NM – The Louisiana State University (LSU) National Center for Biomedical Research and Training (NCBRT) recently conducted a comprehensive two-day training program focused on surviving an active shooter event. The training workshop, 'Surviving an Active Threat: Run. Hide. Fight.', was specifically developed to provide situational awareness and practical techniques that can be immediately applied in active threat situations. The training was organized by the Shiprock Community Partnership in Safety, aimed at participants from Diné College, Shiprock Associated Schools, Inc. (SASI), and community entities, including College students, neighboring business professionals, and local first responders to undergo several scenarios of possible active threats that may enter the schools.
"The community of Shiprock continues to experience on-going cases of local crime entering our school grounds in the Shiprock area, which led to bringing this training to the Diné College Shiprock campus," stated Velveena Davis, Executive Director of Institutional Planning and Reporting, Office of the President. "We have faced our fair shares of threats entering and surrounding our facilities. The training was highly beneficial and the turn-out by local entities attending the training was a positive outcome. We had a diverse group of working professionals from K-12th school districts, local first responders and emergency response teams, College students and various security teams participating in the train-the-trainer certificate program. It is a scary thing to acknowledge that this is the world we are living in now. We need to be more prepared because the threat it is not only at our doorsteps, it is entering our place of work. Our schools should be a safe place for our students and employees. We need to do more to prepare our People on dealing with these concerns and how to survive and protect our students and employees."
The LSU NCBRT is renowned for its commitment to providing top-notch training programs tailored to emergency responders and officials around the world, taught by experienced professional with extensive background in public safety and national security. Their mission is to ensure that individuals are fully prepared to respond effectively to and recover from a wide range of emergencies and disasters, safeguarding public safety and enhancing community resilience. "The course provides practical advice and scenario-based training to help participants understand when and how to use Run, Hide, Fight actions. It benefits emergency responders, teachers, office workers, and other civilians and enhances community resilience," said Tom Davis, LSU’s NCBRT Instructor. "Participants learn to incorporate running if safe, hiding if escape is not possible, and fighting as a last resort into their emergency plans. The course highlights the essential strategies for effectively responding to active threats."
The free 8-hour training program was delivered in a model of Train-the-Trainer, which offered the necessary tools for participants to take back to their organizations and businesses in hopes to continue passing the knowledge in-house and bring awareness on effective approaches to recognizing and surviving an active threat. “The goal of the Shiprock Community Partnership in Safety is to localize networking, shared resources, and expand training opportunities to combat the community crime issues entering our front doors at Diné College and SASI,” Executive Director Davis stated. “The on-site training allowed us to evaluate our facility structure against any possible active shooter, networking among college students and working professional to surviving a potential threat. The agreement with SASI has paid off and demonstrated that localizing our efforts carries a greater weight among neighboring schools. Navajo Nation Police Commander Donnie Kee pitched the idea of working together at a community level in conjunction with on-going advisement and guidance from local first responders. We ran with the idea, formed our agreements between Diné College and SASI, and brought to the table the people with the knowledge and authority to re-design internal approaches to address safety. Under the Partnership agreement, we joined resources, combined security response teams, shared communication systems, strengthen internal procedures, and now providing training opportunities to enhance preparedness. We are happy to see our hard work in action paying off and increasing the safety of both entities.”
Diné College has networked with LSU’s NCBRT for 7 years and benefited greatly from the training programs offered to our students and employees. We are now bringing this relationship to the Community in Partnership in hopes to expand our joint efforts to be prepared and provide on-going training opportunities based on data crime rates and performance gaps. The Partnership will continue to involve the voices of local first responders to empower our community’s effort on safety to protect our People.
We would like to recognize and thank the 43 members of first responders who attended from Diné College, Navajo Technical University, Aneth Community School, Navajo Nation Department of Behavioral and Mental Health Service, and Red Mesa Unified School District for completing the certificate training program.
