livingston
20×102mm Vulcan
If you don’t know who Peter Wang is, let me educate you. Peter Wang was a 15-year-old young MAN who died in the recent Florida school shooting. Peter Wang was a proud member of the Army Junior Reserve Officer Training program at his high school. He dreamed of attending West Point and serving his country in the military. As an ROTC cadet, he received firearms training and was reportedly an accomplished marksman.
He knew how to shoot a rifle and he knew what one can do.
He knew exactly what he was facing when he stood, in his grey and black uniform, in the line of fire and held open the door to his study hall. He herded dozens of his terrified classmates through to safety. He stood there protecting his classmates and saved all that he could till he was shot down.
He died where he stood.
15 years old. A young MAN. A MAN who gave his life to serve others by going in harm’s way to protect those unable to protect themselves.
A MAN. Very politically incorrect in these days of “toxic masculinity” to celebrate Old Skool virtues like courage, service to others, putting oneself at risk to protect those who cannot protect themselves, standing up in the face of evil, and holding the line despite terrible fear so that others may live.
I celebrate those values. And I honor this young MAN who delivered his young life to save others.
Today, in honor of Peter Wang, I’m going to share some insights about school and church security that WORK. How do I know they work? Among other things, I am a researcher. I went to Israel and interviewed and trained with the operators who provide training to the teachers and school security staff (remember, just about every Israeli is a veteran). I studied what others were doing in the US. I studied what worked and didn’t work at events from Colombine and Sandy Hook. I didn’t just recycle the endless Errornet commentary. I worked off actual police reports, autopsy findings, multiple perspectives of the incidents. And I ran all that through the filter of someone who has done high threat protection for over 40 years in some of the most dangerous places in the world.
Then I went and tested these concepts (as I always do and have been documenting and sharing in various forms of media from pre-web gun rags to this little blog since the 1980s) out in the real world. I was asked to consult with a religious school that in the estimate of the FBI and the Joint Terror Task Force has an extremely high threat from terror attack and organized criminal activity. I drafted a plan and launched it and have watched it evolve and survive significant risks over three years. One of the challenges in doing security is how do you document success? With good to great security, nothing bad happens to the target. But quite often there’s a lot of unseen or undiscussed action out at the perimeter.
As I always do, let me say this is not the only way. It is a way. It is a way that was rigorously researched, carefully designed, and then tested continuously. Thus far it has worked well. For OPSEC I’m not going to discuss some specifics.
START WITH THE MINDSET
• Do the school officials understand that there is a risk?
• If so, how much money are they willing to spend to mitigate that risk?
• Do they understand how to do a real threat assessment or do they know how to evaluate one done by an outsider?
• Are all the school officials on board?
• Are all the teachers and staff (including janitors and maintenance people)?
• What about the students? How far is the school administration willing to push them in terms of education and exposure to the reality of danger?
WHERE ARE THE BOUNDARIES? Before you can protect something you must define what it is you want to protect. You want to protect your kids at a school? Okay, then where are the boundaries? During school they’re in a classroom, they are moving between classrooms, or they are outside, or they are leaving or coming to the school.
• Where is the school physically located?
• Where and who are the nearest neighbors within two blocks of the school property line?
• Where is the closest fire station, hospital, police presence?
• Is there a fence around the school?
• Where are the primary entrances to the school?
• Where is the parking lot/bus debus area?
• How are the access points controlled if at all?
WHAT ARE THE EXISTING CONTROLS?
• Is there any sort of access control? Locked doors, ID requirements? What if any measures are there to control or monitor people coming and going into the school?
• What sort of alarm system or public announcement system exists?
More at ....
In Honor Of Peter Wang
He knew how to shoot a rifle and he knew what one can do.
He knew exactly what he was facing when he stood, in his grey and black uniform, in the line of fire and held open the door to his study hall. He herded dozens of his terrified classmates through to safety. He stood there protecting his classmates and saved all that he could till he was shot down.
He died where he stood.
15 years old. A young MAN. A MAN who gave his life to serve others by going in harm’s way to protect those unable to protect themselves.
A MAN. Very politically incorrect in these days of “toxic masculinity” to celebrate Old Skool virtues like courage, service to others, putting oneself at risk to protect those who cannot protect themselves, standing up in the face of evil, and holding the line despite terrible fear so that others may live.
I celebrate those values. And I honor this young MAN who delivered his young life to save others.
Today, in honor of Peter Wang, I’m going to share some insights about school and church security that WORK. How do I know they work? Among other things, I am a researcher. I went to Israel and interviewed and trained with the operators who provide training to the teachers and school security staff (remember, just about every Israeli is a veteran). I studied what others were doing in the US. I studied what worked and didn’t work at events from Colombine and Sandy Hook. I didn’t just recycle the endless Errornet commentary. I worked off actual police reports, autopsy findings, multiple perspectives of the incidents. And I ran all that through the filter of someone who has done high threat protection for over 40 years in some of the most dangerous places in the world.
Then I went and tested these concepts (as I always do and have been documenting and sharing in various forms of media from pre-web gun rags to this little blog since the 1980s) out in the real world. I was asked to consult with a religious school that in the estimate of the FBI and the Joint Terror Task Force has an extremely high threat from terror attack and organized criminal activity. I drafted a plan and launched it and have watched it evolve and survive significant risks over three years. One of the challenges in doing security is how do you document success? With good to great security, nothing bad happens to the target. But quite often there’s a lot of unseen or undiscussed action out at the perimeter.
As I always do, let me say this is not the only way. It is a way. It is a way that was rigorously researched, carefully designed, and then tested continuously. Thus far it has worked well. For OPSEC I’m not going to discuss some specifics.
START WITH THE MINDSET
• Do the school officials understand that there is a risk?
• If so, how much money are they willing to spend to mitigate that risk?
• Do they understand how to do a real threat assessment or do they know how to evaluate one done by an outsider?
• Are all the school officials on board?
• Are all the teachers and staff (including janitors and maintenance people)?
• What about the students? How far is the school administration willing to push them in terms of education and exposure to the reality of danger?
WHERE ARE THE BOUNDARIES? Before you can protect something you must define what it is you want to protect. You want to protect your kids at a school? Okay, then where are the boundaries? During school they’re in a classroom, they are moving between classrooms, or they are outside, or they are leaving or coming to the school.
• Where is the school physically located?
• Where and who are the nearest neighbors within two blocks of the school property line?
• Where is the closest fire station, hospital, police presence?
• Is there a fence around the school?
• Where are the primary entrances to the school?
• Where is the parking lot/bus debus area?
• How are the access points controlled if at all?
WHAT ARE THE EXISTING CONTROLS?
• Is there any sort of access control? Locked doors, ID requirements? What if any measures are there to control or monitor people coming and going into the school?
• What sort of alarm system or public announcement system exists?
More at ....
In Honor Of Peter Wang
