http://www.denverpost.com/news/col0728.htm
Columbine massacre alters police training
By Howard Pankratz
Denver Post Legal Affairs Writer
July 28, 2000 - SPOKANE, Wash. - The tragedy of the Columbine High massacre has forever changed the way police will respond to school shootings, the nation's district attorneys were told Thursday.
Instead of waiting for backup, officers are being trained to get into a school as quickly as possible.
"We can"t wait for SWAT teams to arrive," Spokane Sheriff Mark Sterk said at the National District Attorneys Association annual conference. "We are training our patrol officers to push ahead, take ground. Our first move is to get into the school as quickly as we can and take ground."
One of the chief criticisms against the officers who responded to Columbine last year was that they waited outside the school instead of rushing in to halt the shooting or save wounded victims such as teacher Dave Sanders, who died of his injuries.
Retired Army Lt. Col. David Grossman, who trains law enforcement officers, said retraining is in progress.
"Around the world we are training law enforcement personnel to do exactly what (Sterk) is talking about," he said. "You will see your law enforcement personnel be emotionally prepared, with training and equipment, to go in and deal with these situations.
"That is one of the tragic lessons that the law enforcement community has learned from Littleton," said Grossman.
The three-hour session, which came on the last day of the weeklong conference, dealt with myriad topics stemming from school shootings at Columbine; Moses Lake, Wash.; Springfield, Ore.; Jonesboro, Ark.; and Paducah, Ky.
Jamon Kent, Springfield school superintendent, said that as a result of Kip Kinkel's May 1998 rampage, school safety drills have changed.
There are now "duck-and-cover" drills and drills to find safe places and the nearest two or three exits. Each member of the SWAT team has "adopted" a school and knows everything about it, said Kent.
Two psychologists warned that the psychiatric aftermath may never go away.
The shootings shatter assumptions that the world is a safe place, said psychologist Mark Mays. "You never recover from it, but you can go on with life."
Psychologist Dennis Embry said that when school shootings occur, the county medical officer needs to declare a "medical emergency" and should be ready to dispense tranquilizers, which are "very helpful."
Embry, of Tucson's PAXIS Institute, said studies of school shooters show they suffered from serious chronic depression, social rejection and isolation. One reason teenagers are becoming more depressed is that society doesn"t give them "meaningful tasks," he said. Embry said he doesn"t believe court litigation is beneficial. "We have to consider a whole variety of aftermath issues for a community to survive this." What is needed, he said, is a "public autopsy" on how to prevent such shootings, not on who to blame.
Copyright 2000 The Associated Press.
Columbine massacre alters police training
By Howard Pankratz
Denver Post Legal Affairs Writer
July 28, 2000 - SPOKANE, Wash. - The tragedy of the Columbine High massacre has forever changed the way police will respond to school shootings, the nation's district attorneys were told Thursday.
Instead of waiting for backup, officers are being trained to get into a school as quickly as possible.
"We can"t wait for SWAT teams to arrive," Spokane Sheriff Mark Sterk said at the National District Attorneys Association annual conference. "We are training our patrol officers to push ahead, take ground. Our first move is to get into the school as quickly as we can and take ground."
One of the chief criticisms against the officers who responded to Columbine last year was that they waited outside the school instead of rushing in to halt the shooting or save wounded victims such as teacher Dave Sanders, who died of his injuries.
Retired Army Lt. Col. David Grossman, who trains law enforcement officers, said retraining is in progress.
"Around the world we are training law enforcement personnel to do exactly what (Sterk) is talking about," he said. "You will see your law enforcement personnel be emotionally prepared, with training and equipment, to go in and deal with these situations.
"That is one of the tragic lessons that the law enforcement community has learned from Littleton," said Grossman.
The three-hour session, which came on the last day of the weeklong conference, dealt with myriad topics stemming from school shootings at Columbine; Moses Lake, Wash.; Springfield, Ore.; Jonesboro, Ark.; and Paducah, Ky.
Jamon Kent, Springfield school superintendent, said that as a result of Kip Kinkel's May 1998 rampage, school safety drills have changed.
There are now "duck-and-cover" drills and drills to find safe places and the nearest two or three exits. Each member of the SWAT team has "adopted" a school and knows everything about it, said Kent.
Two psychologists warned that the psychiatric aftermath may never go away.
The shootings shatter assumptions that the world is a safe place, said psychologist Mark Mays. "You never recover from it, but you can go on with life."
Psychologist Dennis Embry said that when school shootings occur, the county medical officer needs to declare a "medical emergency" and should be ready to dispense tranquilizers, which are "very helpful."
Embry, of Tucson's PAXIS Institute, said studies of school shooters show they suffered from serious chronic depression, social rejection and isolation. One reason teenagers are becoming more depressed is that society doesn"t give them "meaningful tasks," he said. Embry said he doesn"t believe court litigation is beneficial. "We have to consider a whole variety of aftermath issues for a community to survive this." What is needed, he said, is a "public autopsy" on how to prevent such shootings, not on who to blame.
Copyright 2000 The Associated Press.
(I picked a great week to be out of town!).