The Avoid Deny Defend presentation was hosted by retired policeman Scott Blundell and Sergeant Mike Easterday at Linganore High School on May 15. The presentation was motivated by the school shooting at Parkland, Florida and other recent school violence all around the country. Parents, teachers, students, and even bus drivers, went to the presentation to learn about school violence and what Frederick County Public School (FCPS) and Frederick County Police Department (FCPD) do to prevent school shootings and how they stop the violence.

Avoid Deny Defend is more than just a slogan. During an act of violence, someone should

• Avoid: Pay attention to their surroundings, always have an exit plan anywhere you go, and always prepared to take cover from the violence.
• Deny when the situation is getting more intense: Create barriers to slow down the threat. Keep distance between you and the perpetrator, and turn off the lights.
• Defend is the last resort because it involves the most contact between you and the perpetrator: Be aggressive, don’t hesitate, and don’t forget you’re fighting for your life.

We also learned about a training program teachers and other works employees do in case of the event of a workplace shooting. Civilian Response to Active Shooter Events (CRASE), is a 4 hour class every day for 5 days that law enforcement officers strongly recommend.

In the training course, employees learn verbally and with simulations on what to do during the event of a workplace shooting and how to save as many people as possible. It includes verbal and physical training. CRASE was built around Avoid Deny Defend and developed by ALERRT in 2004.

ALERRT is a device installed in the wall of all FCPS schools. It is an alert system and a way for schools to receive alerts about active school shootings; a weather alert, or another event that could affect any schools. When a message comes in, the system flashes lights and makes a loud noise so many people can hear.

“We are trying to connect a system that calls a first responder directly, so emergency services can get to the school faster,” said Easterday.

At the end of the presentation, Blundell and Easterday answered questions.

“I feel like buses have no protection,” stated a Linganore High School bus driver. She told Blundell how being a bus driver is hard because you don’t really know who is getting on your bus and what dangers they could bring. Blundell agreed with her, he said there should be more measures being taken to make sure no situation occurs on a bus.

The main point of this presentation was to reassure parents who may have felt schools aren’t acknowledging this problem. Everyone who was there learned what our community does during a school shooting and what everyone who isn’t in the school should do.

Currently as a high school student I felt more worried walking into school when I heard about Parkland and the many other shooting that were occurring in school all around the country, but after going to this presentation and learning what will happen if anything bad does happen in our school, I feel more safe and happier walking into my school.