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by Mike Celizic
TODAYshow.com contributor
Updated: 9:05 a.m. PT April 18, 2007
Cowering under a desk and waiting
for help to come is no longer an option. American schools must teach
their students to respond aggressively to attacks by people bent on
mayhem.
"I would hope that the
administrators and folks that are making the decisions would understand
that it’s difficult to negotiate with a bullet," security consultant
Allen Hill told TODAY. "A person that comes into your facility with a
gun intends to kill and do you harm."
The founder of Response Options, a
Texas-based security company, said, "Get past this paralysis of fear
over liability issues. Our country is so litigious and concerned about
doing the wrong thing and about doing the politically correct thing that
we don’t do anything."
That only helps people like Cho
Seung Hui. "The bad guys are counting on Americans to sit still and do
nothing," Hill said.
Students and others need to realize
that they do have options, Hill said.
The "bad guys" plan their attacks.
Schools need to plan and rehearse their defenses and responses just as
aggressively.
"The training should be just as
intense and be taken just as seriously as the bad guy takes their
mission to kill," he said.
At Virginia Tech, Cho Seung Hui
walked into classrooms and simply shot people. There are reports that he
even lined up victims to shoot them one by one. But in one Norris Hall
classroom, student Zach Petkewicz led his classmates in barricading the
door, saving all inside.
Petkewicz’ response was instinctive,
prompted by "adrenaline and fear."
Hill’s company teaches acting from
knowledge and a well-rehearsed plan.
"Once the bad guy’s inside, how hard
is it to hit a non-moving target?" Hill observed.
"Get up and move," he advised. "Do
whatever it takes to create chaos and mayhem. Disrupt them. Make them go
into a protective mode themselves. We feel that we can become actively
aggressive for our own benefit, whether that’s actively running out of
the classroom, having to face the gunman and take him down, breaking out
windows and escaping that way."
You can’t wait for something to
happen and then try to form a response, he said. It’s got to be done in
advance.
Security systems are passive, he
said. But those under attack can be active.
Said Hill: "There are things that
you can do to take the initiative away from the bad guy, to disrupt
their plan and to create a situation that’s winnable for you."
© 2007 MSNBC Interactive
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