MPS hosts safety event for families, students
Trending
The Minot community had an opportunity to hear from an expert on active shooter events and learn about how to protect their schools at School Safety and Security Night at Minot High on Wednesday, Sept. 9. Minot Public Schools hosted the event in partnership with the North Dakota Safety Council (NDSC).
The speaker, Don Moseman, an emergency response consultant with the NDSC, was assisted in providing a briefing by Minot Police officers Capt. Justin Sundheim and Sgt. Caisee Sandusky.
Moseman, who is from South Dakota, has traveled across the country to train others for active shooter incidents. He has been a school resource officer (SRO) for four years.
Because he has reviewed more than 100 school attacks, he wants to inform communities about what causes these shootings and what people can do to prevent them so schools can be safe.
One of the main causes of past shootings has been standard bullying. But Moseman said the reasons have grown over time. Now, getting bad grades, a break-up in a relationship or a teacher they didn't like can be factors.
Shootings also happen more often in communities where the budget is constrained and they have to make budget cuts, Moseman said.
One of the first steps he mentioned to address safety is teaching the staff how to handle the situation if such an event occurs. The next course of action is doing a building assessment. Although details on those assessments were limited for safety reasons at the meeting, the important thing is to make sure everyone knows where the entrance and exits are. Threat assessment also is done.
Additional steps include developing unification plans and training staff on new procedures as they come out. Finally, there are comprehensive school emergency plans that become available.
Key ways for the public to help were mentioned, along with things the public should not do. Parents should first check messages from the school and follow the instructions from the school district to the letter. They should reach out to the children via texts only. They should travel to the reunification location when the worst case scenario happens, as it did in Columbine, and follow the reunification procedures. Moseman commented that his heart broke because there were parents who didn't and couldn't find their children at Columbine.
What they do not want people to do when an active shooter event occurs is walk to school and post on social media. Moseman said many shooters have used fake social media accounts. Don't call on the phone, and lastly don't make assumptions about anything going on when school violence happens.
Moseman said there are ways to prevent these events, especially for parents. First, be involved in your child's life and ask questions. This includes going to their games, their clubs, encouraging them, etc. Also, know the school policies on bullying and have a zero-tolerance on violence. Moseman stressed making sure cliques are discouraged and if a child is bullied, the child needs to know that it is not their fault.
He warned parents to be careful of their children’s social media use. While it can be a great tool, he said, it can be dangerous. He said parents should beware of too much screen time by the children, and parents need to know who their children spend their time with.
He also insisted parents speak to what is going on in their children's lives. If the child isn't vocal about it, the parents need to be persistent and not give up. He mentioned discussing school procedures with the children.
He ended with some statistics regarding shooters and school attacks. The age range they usually come from is 13-17. Forty-two percent of shooters have good grades, and 65% have never been in trouble, although 10% were expelled. Sixty percent played violent first-person shooter video games. Ninety-four percent of the attacks were planned, and 88% of shooters displayed concerning behavior before the incident. Statistics show attacks seem to fall in either March or April. And lastly, none of these events lasted longer than 13 minutes.