Active shooter training for teachers comes to Cincinnati

CINCINNATI - For Little Miami School District Superintendent Greg Powers, active shooter training is a valuable tool that he hopes he doesn’t have to put to use.

Powers, like other educators around the country, is working to make sure the school has the right resources to respond to an active shooter situation.

“You never know what you don’t know until you learn it,” Powers said.

Powers is among 65 professional at the "Active Shooter Training for Educators" aimed at educators and law enforcement officers in Cincinnati Thursday.

The free courses, which are being hosted across the state in partnership with the attorney general's Ohio Peace Officer Training Academy (OPOTA) and the Ohio Department of Education, provide educators with insight on how to identify the actions of active shooters before they commit their crimes. The courses also include training on how to respond in a school shooting situation.

Powers said the training helps educators identify potential threats by “focusing on kids not in the maintstream."

The course implements Lt. Dan Marcou’s Five Phases of the Active Shooter and shows how the shooters of Virginia Tech and Columbine all went through each phase providing valuable insight into the minds of the killers and what to look for in future active shooters.

The courses do not include firearm training.

Instructor James Burke said the course lays out options for superintendents and teachers that they can take back to their schools.

“You need to plan for not if something happens, but when something happens,” Burke said.

Between 1992 and 2010, there were 468 violent deaths at schools around the United States. Of those 468 deaths, 348 were caused by shootings and 67 were caused by stabbings. Recent actions have come after shooter Adam Lanza shot and and killed 26 children and adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.

The course is empowering educators like Christina Blair, the assistant superintendent of Kings Local School District.

“We need to take the fear out of taking action,” Blair said.

To register for future courses, go to www.ohioattorneygeneral.gov/Law-Enforcement/Ohio-Peace-Officer-Training-Academy/Course-Catalog/Course-Categories/Patrol-Courses/Active-Shooter-Training-for-Educators .