88 Tactical’s School Safe active shooter training course was featured in a 26-minute episode of Fault Lines, which examined the impact of mass shootings in the US and how communities are preparing.
“As parents send their kids to school, they are now thinking of ways to keep them safe there.
And there’s a growing industry to help them.
This is a class for kids as young as 8 years old called “School Safe.” It is run by 88 Tactical, a private company in Omaha, Nebraska. It is meant to supplement the lockdown drills which are now conducted in nine out of ten public schools across the country.
Over the course of 2 1/2 hours, the kids learn different self-defense strategies based on the run-hide-fight model. The instructor is a retired police sergeant and believes that kids need more preparation to evade and even fight off an attacker than what they are getting in most schools.”
“We’re not trying to scare them, we’re not trying to turn them into SWAT commanders or anything like that. It’s just to give them some information and give them some strategies, so if something does happen in their little part of the world… they would have an idea of what to do.” – Kurt Sorys, 88 Tactical Training Manager & Senior Instructor
“John Cox is a reporter for the Washington Post who has investigated the impact of gun violence on children, including the psychological toll of lockdown drills at schools.
School shootings are no more common now than they were in the 1990s, and the likelihood of a child dying in one remains low. But after each mass shooting, the demand for schools and kids to be prepared goes up.”
“We know that lockdowns can be incredibly frightening. But should we not have the kid do the drill and the day comes and they have no idea what to do? That’s probably not a trade that parents or teachers would make. That is the reality until we as a country make some really significant changes to prevent the shootings from occurring.” – John Cox, Washington Post Reporter
When asked about some of the content in the presentation, Sorys said:
“I believe our kids know about this kind of stuff. I don’t believe in a lot of respects that we give our kids credit enough for being able to handle what it is that needs to be talked about. Because of that, we’re very blunt. We’re just very straightforward with them.”
One of the students – a young girl – was also asked about the subject matter and content of the class.
Q: Was anything in the presentation scary?
A: I mean, I was shaking. Because I was scared if it happened in real life.”
Q: Now that you’ve done the training, how do you feel?
A: I feel more confident about it.
88 Tactical School Safe – Active Shooter Training
School Safe is a 2.5-hour safety course designed to prepare today’s youth for today’s problems, specifically involving violence in schools. Unfortunately, schools cannot guarantee the children’s safety. Click here to learn more about 88 Tactical’s School Safe class.
