EVANSTON — Staff of Uinta County School District No. 1 spent the week prior to the beginning of the school year preparing for the upcoming year and attending training events, including one that was required for all staff members — a two-hour session on SafeDefend, the school safety program purchased by the district, which is new to all buildings this school year. 

In the session presented by SafeDefend trainer Doug Parisi, staff were not only instructed on how to use the modules, boxes and safety supplies that are part of the SafeDefend system but were given information on safety and violent events at schools around the country in recent years. 

Parisi began by sharing a statement made by Pres. Obama following a school shooting in 2015, in which he said such events had become routine and the populace had “become numb to this.” Parisi said one of the goals of the training was to avoid that sense of numbness that may prevent the recognition of the threat of violence in U.S. schools and the important conversations that must accompany that recognition. 

Parisi spoke about the routine drills held in schools nationwide for events like fires or tornadoes and said these routine drills, along with rules and regulations such as fire codes, had undoubtedly saved lives. Similar to practicing by holding fire drills, he said it was crucial for staff to practice and be prepared for armed intruders. “You must be prepared mentally to deal with this.”

In sharing statistics about shootings at schools throughout the country, Parisi explained that the FBI classifies events as active shooter situations only if three or more people are shot and as mass shootings only if there are four or more victims. This classification system makes it difficult to determine how many events actually occur on an annual basis, but there are websites, such as Everytown for Gun Safety, that track every time a weapon is fired on school grounds. 

“The likelihood of an intruder event happening is very low,” said Parisi, “but any possibility that we don’t prepare for could become a catastrophe.” 

Part of the presentation included a video clip from an interview with teacher Kaitlin Roig, who huddled with her first-grade students in a bathroom during the Sandy Hook tragedy in 2012. Teachers in the audience at Evanston Middle School during the session were obviously emotional while watching the tearful Hoig discuss the events of that day, and some could be seen wiping away tears themselves. 

Parisi said the SafeDefend system is designed to allow teachers and students to “survive until they arrive,” meaning the system improves emergency response times so that help arrives more quickly and provides tools for staff members to use to protect students and assist with injuries. 

While many schools across the country have been practicing “lockdown” drills for years, Parisi said statistics show that just hiding is not the most effective strategy for dealing with an armed intruder. He said the SafeDefend system is designed to address a real threat by doing something different. 

Parisi said it is far better to have alternatives in a crisis situation, which the SafeDefend system allows by sending out information on where an event is taking place. He said the system can be activated by a finger swipe, setting off alarms, and within seconds all staff and emergency personnel will be notified via text message not only that a crisis situation has occurred but it will also pinpoint the exact location. 

According to Parisi, this shaves valuable time off activating law enforcement. While the average 911 call takes at least 75 seconds, said Parisi, a finger swipe takes a mere fraction of that, which is crucial when an active shooter could be taking only seconds to fire at multiple people. 

He also said the information on location allows for options, allowing some staff to choose to evacuate students while others may choose to barricade in their rooms. 

Parisi said most armed attacker safety plans, including ALICE (Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate), Run/Hide/Fight, Avoid/Deny/Defend and more, now aim to provide individual choice as to the best way to handle a situation. He emphasized these programs are not linear and to be done in steps, but rather offer alternatives that staff could choose to use in a situation, employing one or all of the options. 

Parisi also emphasized the SafeDefend system is only to be used in the event of an active shooter/armed intruder situation and is not to be used for fire or any other situation. He told staff there would be no surprise drills with the system either, telling them that drills would always be announced and if the system’s alarms and lights go off, “It’s the real deal.” 

Finally, he stressed that the system is defensive. “We’re not training you to go into a hallway and confront an intruder,” said Parisi. “We’re giving you the tools to protect kids and keep an intruder out of your classroom.” 

The SafeDefend system is designed so that the first finger swipe will send out the emergency alert with location, while subsequent swipes from staff opening their modules to get out supplies will not. Contained within the boxes will be trauma items including a tourniquet, Celox quick-clotting pads, a compression bandage, gauze pads, triangular bandages, Coban wrap and gloves. 

Also included in the boxes will be a high-intensity strobe flashlight that can be used to disorient and blind an attacker, gel pepper spray, a window break/baton impact weapon, handcuffs and more. 

Parisi demonstrated the use of all of the items contained in the boxes, and then staff members were provided with an opportunity to examine them in a hands-on situation, as well as practice with the baton impact weapon and inert gel pepper spray. 

At the end of one session, superintendent Ryan Thomas reiterated the importance of mental preparation for the possibility of an armed attack at any district schools. An obviously emotional Thomas said the thought of anyone attempting to harm district students weighs heavily on his mind, and he hopes the SafeDefend system and other new safety features in place at schools this year will prove a deterrent. “My idea of a success would be having the boxes never opened,” he said.