AFT offers violence response training

You may have wondered, after watching daily news coverage of yet another mass shooting somewhere in America—among the latest, a spate of Halloween-related murders—what you would do in that situation. No one knows for sure until it happens, but training can help.

That’s why the AFT has begun offering local affiliates a three-hour course in how to respond in an active shooter situation, so our members can learn and practice the elements of situational awareness, how to safeguard themselves and others, how to disarm an attacker, and how to treat wounds.

The AFT’s health and safety team has been providing this training, called AVERT (Active Violence Emergency Response Training), around the country upon request, most recently in Williamstown, N.J.; New York City; and Baltimore. At the request of AFT Vice President Carl Williams, the union’s first AVERT training took place last fall in California for the California Federation of Teachers’ classified members. Locals representing paraprofessionals and school-related personnel have been leaders in offering the course, given their campuswide responsibilities.

And now the first two-day, train-the-trainer course in how to become an AVERT instructor was conducted a few weeks ago in Missouri, where AFT St. Louis lost a member to a school shooting last year. More courses are planned for AFT locals later next year.

Above all, in a dangerous situation, AFT members say they want to minimize harm. This course gives them concrete skills, especially advanced bleeding control techniques and how to defend a room from an armed attacker. Participants learn how to assess a threat, formulate a plan of action, find cover, evade an assailant and even disarm a shooter.

AVERT training also covers the best ways to locate where a person is bleeding, to apply and maintain pressure, pack a wound and use a tourniquet. Participants have many opportunities throughout the class to practice these skills without warning—just like in real life. After the class, they report feeling empowered.

Knowledge is power

When local leaders Kristina Richmond and Sandi Lamond took AVERT training at the AFT PSRP conference this past spring, they knew they had to share it.

“We knew right away this was a course we wanted to bring back to our local,” says Richmond, president of the Monroe Township Federation of Teachers in Williamstown, N.J.

Being proactive, she adds, could save a life at school or anywhere. “More and more violent acts are happening not only in our schools but also at public events and in shopping malls,” Richmond says. “This hit home for me as I lost my grandfather, a factory worker in New York, who was gunned down at work.”

More than 20 members attended the local training last month in New Jersey.

“Maybe we can save one life,” Richmond says, “or at the very least provide information and training that could be useful.” After the training, her members reported back on how they shared the techniques with their families and co-workers. “Knowledge is power,” one of them told her.

The AFT’s health and safety experts train thousands of members every year on some aspect of health and safety, whether it be CPR, excessive heat, indoor air quality, COVID-19 and other infectious diseases, or, as of September 2022, active shooter training. By the end of last year, the AFT had trained about 200 members. This year, more than 400 members have been trained, including six new instructors.

Members are mobilizing

Of course, active shooter training is only one response to the epidemic of gun violence in America. This year alone, there have been more mass shootings in the United States than days of the year, in part because AR-15 rifles are highly lethal, easily obtained weapons that have no place in our communities.

According to a Pew Research Center analysis of data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, gun deaths among U.S. children and teens rose 50 percent between 2019 and 2021—and are up 100 percent over 10 years.

AFT members and an activist group founded by three of them, Teachers Unify to End Gun Violence, are urging Congress to restore the federal assault weapons ban and take other preventive measures that most Americans support.

Until legislators at the state and federal levels pass commonsense gun reform laws, we can only expect these tragedies to persist, AFT President Randi Weingarten said after a mass shooting in Maine Oct. 25 that killed 18 and wounded dozens more. “We simply must do better—we must redouble our efforts to ban assault weapons, strengthen background checks, increase the use of red flag laws, expand safe storage provisions and push for limits on high-capacity magazines,” she said. “People’s lives depend on it.”

And until the scourge of gun violence has abated, real solutions like active shooter training can help. To find out about bringing AVERT training to your local, contact 4healthandsafety@aft.org.

[Annette Licitra]