Considering that [redacted] was banned from the campus, was there ever a lockdown initiated at the school? He couldn’t have activated the alarm from outside unless a sprinkler or something was outdoors.
I believe my school would follow the same procedure of ignoring the alarm during the lockdown to prevent these mass casualties from happening.
From my understanding, it’s unclear if he purposefully pulled it or a detector head went off due to smoke. I read somewhere on Reddit one of the survivors did an AMA and he (? maybe somebody else, I forget) said that the alarm went off about 15 seconds after the shooter started shooting. I can’t find the exact comment right now but here is the link to the post: https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/7xzpac/im_sid_fischer_a_student_who_was_in_the_third/
The most recent article I read mentioned that the fire alarm was activated by smoke from the gunfire.
The best solution is to use 2-stage evacuation and alarm verification as often as possible. The ideal setup would be an addressable mass notification system with 2-stage pull stations, so when one is activated, the alarm system announces that an emergency may exist, and to await further instructions until an authorized person investigates. Smoke detector verification can potentially reduce the false alarms that could be caused by kitchen smoke or firearm smoke, which is only temporary. In addition, there should be purpose-marked “lockdown” activation points tied into the system that initiate a “priority 2” or “auxiliary” alarm and page a “lockdown” message over the speakers.
Obviously this cannot be implemented in many existing schools, since funding is tight enough as it is. That doesn’t mean we cant start practicing more frequent lockdown drills, and teaching kids that once a lockdown is called, nothing, not even a fire alarm activation, should make them leave their classroom until an authorized person sounds the all-clear.
I’m not one for big government and excessive legislation, but it would be nice for the federal government to adopt a baseline of NFPA and ADA standards so that there is one national standard that everyone is expected to follow. Because it’s left to the local AHJs to make and enforce the rules, it’s very hard to establish national or international emergency signaling standards. Even though most jurisdictions simply adopt NFPA guidelines, many impose additional requirements, re-phrase the rules their own ways, or exclude certain rules in their own legislation.
There is a Reddit AMA from another survivor who claims he activated a pull station while escaping the school. I don’t have the link to it, but that’s another possible cause of activation, which would be in line with what has happened in several other shootings.
In any of those scenarios, he still managed to get into the school somehow. I haven’t read anywhere that he broke in…
Doors should have been locked.
Exactly. Schools should always have their outer doors locked except arrival and dismissal. If they had properly locked doors this may have not happened.
This video recommends that all schools install police alarms in addition to the fire alarms that they already have. People are responding “well, this will lead to prank lockdowns. You know how kids do fire alarm pranks? They’ll be pulling the police pull as a prank.” and “well, what’s next? paramedic alarms?”
Now I don’t know exactly how these systems are put in, but if there were shot detectors as an automatic zone instead of a pull station, that would be pretty cool. However it could be a bit finnicky if not calibrated correctly. Maybe somebody clapping or yelling could set a shot detector off. But if somebody could make shot detection more reliable, then I think that they could become the smoke detector of a lockdown system. Also, I seriously doubt that somebody would pull the alarm. If the students are made aware of the fines and disciplinary consequences that would come with pulling a lockdown alarm, they would probably shy away from it. Personally I’ve never had a person pull a fire alarm on purpose at my school, so I may be a bit biased.
BluePoint also has a medic alarm.
I read an article a few months ago concerning a device that is capable of detecting the muzzle flash from a firearm in these situations, and I believe it was being used to create system that could allow law enforcement to track a perpetrator throughout the building.
The current goal with this tracking is to allow for faster location and neutralization of the threat, but if this technology could be refined to serve a more proactive purpose like you describe above, I think it could be a real benefit in these events.
I just looked it up - that stuff in insane. The people who made it managed to use low-cost image sensors to detect infrared signatures coming off the muzzle. You can’t really repeat that with a clap or a yell. I think a combination of both the image based and sound based would probably be best (two-stage system?) like how some residential smoke alarms are photo and ionization.
I think in a school the most likely thing to set off the muzzle flash detectors by accident would be, ironically, the fire alarm strobes.
Never thought of that. I really wish I could make a demo system with this sort of thing to play with it and see how it all works, but a) I don’t have the time and b) I don’t have the money.
Sorry for the doublepost, but here’s the abstract from the paper on the muzzle flash detection. Re-reading it, I doubt that strobes would set it off.
[quote] This study focuses on the detection of muzzle flash detection of small arms using low cost silicon CMOS-based sensors and imagers. Two types of sensors are utilized: CMOS Image Sensors and CMOS-SPADs (Single Photon Avalanche Diodes). The detection approach is based on Near-Infrared (NIR) spectral features of muzzle flash originating from alkali metal flash suppressing additives in the gun powder. The spectral signature around wavelength of 760nm allows achieving adequate signal to noise ratio even in day light.[/quote]
I saw on the youtube comments where someone said that calling the device a police alarm is too generic and could lead to people pulling it during fights or other situations that don’t require a lockdown.
My sentiments exactly.
Someone said that maybe they should also have paramedic alarms, tornado alarms, flood alarms, bully alarms, and fight alarms.
Like jelimoorr said, they also make medical alarms. I’m just imagining having the row of three pull stations on the wall with FIRE, POLICE and MEDICAL. This also raises another question: Should you pull any combination of pull stations depending on the emergency? Say you see someone get shot, should you pull POLICE and MEDICAL? If someone is accidentally engulfed in flames, should you pull FIRE and MEDICAL? If someone throws a molotov cocktail at the school, should you pull FIRE and POLICE? etc.
There are already paramedic and tornado alarm systems. Many of those hook into an existing fire panel.
You bring up an interesting point. I’m honestly not sure.
I mean, we had all of the school halls had to be evacuated to the cafeteria due to a threat of a fight breaking out (which happened the day before and I hear lasted about 20 minutes before getting physical for another two)… It really depends but I would think it would be more appropriate in a life or death situation.
Abstractly, that could happen. But honestly, those are some cases where situations could be dealt without the need to have an alarm to be activated. For example, if someone gets engulfed in flames, either stop-drop-and-roll, or get a fire blanket to put them out. If there’s a molotov cocktail thrown, use a fire extinguisher unless the fire becomes uncontrollable to the point where it causes a life or death situation. After that, just ring the emergency services.
[quote=MayerFire post_id=79181 time=1519429110 user_id=3566]
Like jelimoorr said, they also make medical alarms. I’m just imagining having the row of three pull stations on the wall with FIRE, POLICE and MEDICAL. This also raises another question: Should you pull any combination of pull stations depending on the emergency? Say you see someone get shot, should you pull POLICE and MEDICAL? If someone is accidentally engulfed in flames, should you pull FIRE and MEDICAL? If someone throws a molotov cocktail at the school, should you pull FIRE and POLICE? etc.
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If I remember right the Medical alarms are more for hospitals and outpatient surgery facilities in which a potential notification to staff of a Code is required. A Code or Code Blue is basically just medical terminology for cardiac or respiratory arrest or cardiopulmonary arrest in which a Code team and crash cart and resuscitation equipment is required. It is typically standard procedure for them to have a cart with a defibrillator nearby in every wing near the nurses station as well as to have a bagging device which acts as a manual ventilator (bag valve mask) and intubation tube near every bed in the wing. Obviously one could just come on the PA and scream “Code Blue Room xyz!” but it would be a little more discreet if an alarm was triggered instead.
I apologize for the bump as well. Sorry about that.