School safety remains a hot topic, and the Center for Safety and Secure Schools (CSSS) continues to respond to a demand for ongoing training.

Typically, the CSSS offers active shooter training every quarter. Since Uvalde, the Center has seen increased requests for this workshop, both at NPO and on school campuses across our area. Since May, the CSSS has held seven active shooter training sessions, with more planned through the end of the year. 

During a free active shooter training hosted this week, FBI Active Shooter Coordinator Steve Lupo and Security Advisor for Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Security Advisor Jeremy Hansen addressed a group of 20 safety and security professionals from schools and districts like Spring, Alief, and KIPP, and city organizations such as the Harris County Court system.

Lupo and Hansen both acknowledged that they are seeing a cultural demand for a shift in incident response protocols.

“In many of the active shooter situations, we’ve seen the difference between life and death has been what the what the citizen does, not what the law enforcement professional does,” said Lupo. “So right now, the FBI and the federal government are working with school districts to come up with a comprehensive plan to merge lockdown protocols and ‘Run, Hide, Fight’ tactics. For now, the best we can do is teach schools how to incorporate ‘Run, Hide, Fight’ into their existing lockdown procedures. But we’re on the way to getting more resources.”

Both presenters emphasized the importance of not just developing actionable plans, but also rehearsing them. Lupo indicated that most mass incident perpetrators developed plans before their attack.

“They have a plan. Do you?” he asked.

To learn more about the Center for Safe and Secure Schools and view upcoming workshops, visit hcde-texas.org/CSSS.