The Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting Attack:Lessons to Learn for Yeshivas

As details emerge about the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting attack, it becomes painfully clear that law enforcement personnel may not be able to respond quickly enough to prevent a massacre once a heavily armed gunman, intent on dying, has initiated an attack. According to published reports, Newtown police and state troopers had already entered the school to begin an active shooter search within about five minutes of the start of the rampage.

The Sandy Hook attack is the nation’s second deadliest school shooting following the 2007 Virginia Tech attack. Like the Sandy Hook assault, the police response at Virginia Tech was quick. The Virginia Tech massacre was actually comprised of two separate shooting attacks on the campus which occurred that morning. In the first attack, a Virginia Tech student shot and killed two students in a dorm room. Consequently, a heavy police presence was already on campus investigating the dorm room murders before the onset of the attack on the classrooms. Soon after the initial attack, the same gunman headed to a classroom building armed with two semi-automatic handguns and about 400 rounds of ammunition. Nevertheless, despite the large police presence already on campus, he shot another 47 people, killing 25 students and five faculty members. A statement made by the lead member of the Virginia Tech Shooting Review Panel emphasizes this point. He was quoted as saying that despite the swift response by the police “it was game over by that time.”

These attacks demonstrate how important it is for yeshivas to be able to effectively delay the actions of an active shooter until police can respond. One effective measure is for faculty members to have the ability to lock the door against an attacker. This is not merely necessary for the classrooms, but also for such multi-purpose rooms as the lunchroom, auditorium and gym, where large groups of students are often gathered.

In the Sandy Hook attack, a faculty member was reportedly shot through the door as she used her body to barricade it. In the Virginia Tech attack, faculty members and students, holed up in different classrooms, valiantly attempted to barricade themselves from inside. According to the Virginia Tech Shooting Review Panel, the shooter forced his way into one classroom where students attempted in vain to barricade the door. In another instance, Professor Liviu Librescu, a Holocaust survivor, was fatally shot through the door as he braced his body against it in an effort to protect his students. Professor Librescu’s heroic actions gave ten students precious time to jump to safety from the second floor classroom. In another instance, about twenty students survived unharmed after they were ushered by a professor into an office where the door was then locked.

These attacks underscore the need to fit classroom doors with locks on the inside. One simple recommendation is to have interior locks that require the use of a key which faculty members possess or have quick access to. It was only after the 9/11 terrorist attacks occurred that the cockpits of domestic airlines were fitted with doors and locks that prevent cockpit intrusion. Let’s not wait for another school massacre to implement the necessary security measures.

Neil Cohen is president of the Mogen Safety Council, a non-profit organization specializing in improving the safety and security of schools and houses of worship. Mr. Cohen is a federal law enforcement officer, a Certified Protection Professional (CPP), and a designated emergency responder. Mr. Cohen can be reached at MogenSafetyCouncil@Yahoo.Com. For more information about the Mogen Safety Council, please go to WWW.MogenSafetyCouncil.Org.