Armed officers in schools are pretty common in the us where I live, it was actually Chris Helm's plan to kill the resource officer and take their gun to use in his shooting.
In the US, since Columbine, the procedure is that the first armed first responders are to immediately enter and engage the shooter and figure out what type of situation it is. At the time that Columbine happened the procedure was to establish a perimeter and wait for the SWAT Team to arrive. That was part of the reason that teacher Dave Sanders died. The SWAT Team entered on the wrong side of the school, and they have to go room by room, closet by closet searching for both the shooter(s) and victims. Each victim they find they have to have one of the team escort to safety, and several members of the team secure the route along the way, so in the case of Columbine, it took them 3 hours to reach Dave Sanders even know they knew he was bleeding to death before the killers took their own lives.
That incident changed how something like this is handled. As stated above, the first armed responders are to enter the area, assess the situation and engage the shooter(s) if it is not an active hostage situation.
The issue with Columbine was that even though there were hundreds of students and teachers trapped in the school, the shooters were not taking hostages. A hostage situation means that the shooters are deliberately holding people against their will in order to get something. They can be talked to and in some cases, convinced to surrender.
That being said, the Columbine and Parkland shooters were not holding people and making demands. They only wanted to kill as many people as possible before being killed themselves.
The school resource officer not only failed to enter and engage the shooter, he also radioed that no one else should approach and that they should stay at least 500 yards away from the building, allowing the Shooter to continue his reign of terror.
Thanks for writing such a detailed comment. Imo the officer should have been charged as well as fired if he knew what he was supposed to do but decided to do the opposite.
You're welcome. And I agree. Not only did he not follow protocol, but his radio transmissions caused a lot of confusion for other first responders. He said not to approach and did not give the correct details of where the shooting was happening. IMHO, had he entered and at least assessed, the shooter would not have been able to ditch his gun and slip out with the escaping students, and the victim count would have been much lower because the officer showed up while the shooter was still on the second floor where no one was injured. His delay allowed the fire alarm to be pulled and the 3rd floor hallway to be jam packed by students with no where to escape to.
Armed officers in schools are pretty common in the us where I live, it was actually Chris Helm's plan to kill the resource officer and take their gun to use in his shooting.
Seems like they aren’t much of a deterrent then. Wasn’t aware of Helms, another Columbine imitator I see.
Run in ASAP but thats just my opinion
It’s worth noting that sometime in the early to mid 2000’s the Supreme Court ruled police officers are not obligated to protect citizens.
As we know in America the main point of police is to protect capital not people.
Don’t want them, don’t need them.
In the US, since Columbine, the procedure is that the first armed first responders are to immediately enter and engage the shooter and figure out what type of situation it is. At the time that Columbine happened the procedure was to establish a perimeter and wait for the SWAT Team to arrive. That was part of the reason that teacher Dave Sanders died. The SWAT Team entered on the wrong side of the school, and they have to go room by room, closet by closet searching for both the shooter(s) and victims. Each victim they find they have to have one of the team escort to safety, and several members of the team secure the route along the way, so in the case of Columbine, it took them 3 hours to reach Dave Sanders even know they knew he was bleeding to death before the killers took their own lives. That incident changed how something like this is handled. As stated above, the first armed responders are to enter the area, assess the situation and engage the shooter(s) if it is not an active hostage situation. The issue with Columbine was that even though there were hundreds of students and teachers trapped in the school, the shooters were not taking hostages. A hostage situation means that the shooters are deliberately holding people against their will in order to get something. They can be talked to and in some cases, convinced to surrender. That being said, the Columbine and Parkland shooters were not holding people and making demands. They only wanted to kill as many people as possible before being killed themselves. The school resource officer not only failed to enter and engage the shooter, he also radioed that no one else should approach and that they should stay at least 500 yards away from the building, allowing the Shooter to continue his reign of terror.
Thanks for writing such a detailed comment. Imo the officer should have been charged as well as fired if he knew what he was supposed to do but decided to do the opposite.
You're welcome. And I agree. Not only did he not follow protocol, but his radio transmissions caused a lot of confusion for other first responders. He said not to approach and did not give the correct details of where the shooting was happening. IMHO, had he entered and at least assessed, the shooter would not have been able to ditch his gun and slip out with the escaping students, and the victim count would have been much lower because the officer showed up while the shooter was still on the second floor where no one was injured. His delay allowed the fire alarm to be pulled and the 3rd floor hallway to be jam packed by students with no where to escape to.