Editor’s Note: This week’s PoliceOne First Person essay is from David Togno is a retired Middle School Vice Principal and an NRA-certified firearms instructor. Tongo agrees with PoliceOne Editor in Chief (and many PoliceOne members) that training and arming volunteers in schools can help address the problem of active shooters in schools. In PoliceOne “First Person” essays, our Members and Columnists candidly share their own unique view of the world. This is a platform from which individual officers can share their own personal insights on issues confronting cops today, as well as opinions, observations, and advice on living life behind the thin blue line. If you want to share your own perspective with other P1 Members, simply send us an e-mail with your story.
By David Tongo
Police1 Special Contributor
As a retired school administrator who was required to develop a security program for our school in the event of a shooter intrusion, it was always clear to me that there would be carnage. Therefore the goal was to minimize the extent of killings by going into lockdown.
Our school was fortunate to have an SRO in the building for about five years before budgetary constraints eliminated the uniformed officer. The SRO and I always knew that the first person to go down would be him, since he was uniformed.
Once again, the school would be defenseless at that point.
Standing on Toilets
Lockdown sounds good, makes people feel good, and yet scares others. Lockdown means that wherever you are at the time of the intrusion — usually indicated by some prearranged signal — is where everyone stays put. Complete quiet is required from the students as well as the faculty and staff. Doors to every room must be locked if possible.
Anyone caught in a bathroom goes to a stall and stands on the toilet.
Support staff retreats to a pre-planned command center and contacts authorities.
Hopefully, the crazed gunman will not stumble upon anyone. Hopefully, the locked classroom doors hopefully deter him. Hopefully, he’s never imagined someone standing on a toilet.
Everyone feels at ease knowing that the newly enacted gun laws mean that he does not have a so-called assault rifle or a magazine with more than a small handful of cartridges.
Everyone feels at ease, even knowing that we never taught the students how to defend themselves when there is active shooting — we could traumatize them more than a mass shooting lockdown.
Everyone feels at ease, although we never did a practice run with the local law enforcement authorities (again, we might scare the children).
What we did was send a memo about all the lifesaving procedures which were enacted. Close and lock the doors. Stand on the toilet.
I’m sure every mother and father waiting at home feels so good, knowing what they now know from our memo.
A Hypothetical (or is it?) Scenario
Unfortunately, one gunman did not get the memo. He planned everything to the smallest detail. He was able to buy an assault rifle on the black market along with pistols and magazines with high cartridge capacity.
Incidentally, the SROs pistol has a low cartridge capacity because he must comply with the new laws, too.
Mr. Gunman waits outside the school until through the glass doors he sees the SRO in the lobby. Mr. Gunman has his guns neatly tucked away under his long coat. He approaches the security door and buzzes.
The desk person answers and the gunman responds that he is picking up his brother for a periodontal appointment. The gunman casually walks up to the desk to sign in right where the uniformed SRO is standing.
Without hesitation he pulls a 9mm from his coat pocket and proceeds to shoot the uniformed police office point blank. He recovers the officer’s service pistol so it won’t be used against him by a fast-thinking teacher.
He then proceeds to the office where the unsuspecting secretarial staff is working. Without delay, he dispatches all of them and proceeds to do the same to any administrative staff in the office area.
No one had time to issue the lockdown signal. However, some teachers hearing the shooting took action independently and went into lockdown. Possibly they remembered to contact the police.
Regardless, the gunman can now roam at his leisure shooting at will all those he encounters. Even locked classrooms don’t stop him. He knows children are present in the school and he knows how lockdowns work.
Darkened rooms with the appearance of vacancy do not deter him. He knows people are standing in the blind corner to the door.
Unfortunately, this is all too real.
Here’s Another Scenario
The same deranged gunman enters the building, and seeing no uniformed police presence he immediately enters the main office to keep the signal from going out and begins to shoot secretarial staff.
The person manning the sign-in desk during this period of the day happens to be Mr. Jones who — upon hearing the very first shot — immediately recognizes the situation for what it is.
Without hesitation, he draws a concealed .380 handgun from his ankle holster, cautiously makes his way to the office where the gunman is deliberately executing the staff with impunity and with one well-placed shot puts a halt to the shooting and the gunman.
No children were harmed.
Yes some adults were injured — and yes, maybe even killed — but what could have happened is unthinkable if not for the wisdom of the Board of Education who gave Mr. Jones the ability to volunteer for the training he needed to end that threat.
Mr. Jones was approached during the previous summer because he is known to have an interest in firearms and also happens to be an NRA certified pistol instructor.
He agreed to be one of several in the school who would carry a concealed weapon. Furthermore it was agreed that no one in the school could know his secret status. Mr. Jones was sent to a police academy where he received the exact same training that a police recruit would undergo for use of lethal force.
Cockpits, Yes... Yet Classrooms, No?
It goes without saying, the only reasonable way to protect the student s and faculty is from within by instituting the concealed carry of a weapon for defensive purposes. The only difference between a police officer and a citizen is training regarding the use of Lethal Force.
After 9/11, pilots were armed. What is the difference between a pilot and an educator? Both are responsible for their charges under their care.
Currently, pundits are suggesting retired police officers, military personnel, or security to protect our schools. This is better than nothing, but when you hire additional staff it costs more money.
Money we don’t have.
Ultimately these new staff would soon become known for their job title. It would not be long before they’d be like having uniformed police staff with a large bull’s eye target on their back.
As a former school administrator and teacher, I would have gladly jumped at an opportunity like this without compensation. Firstly, I would feel more protected and secondly so would the children and staff. Assuredly, there are many others who would like to take on this responsibility. We will never know until we try.
Truly, these are difficult times and we must act boldly to counter the audaciousness of these deranged people who would harm our children by whatever means available to them.
Bold Measures for Difficult Times
Armed educators would be people who were knowledgeable in the use of firearms. They should be secretly sought out, and upon agreement be sent to a police academy for training.
It would also be necessary that if the armed teacher’s identity became known, his responsibility to carry would be rescinded. This procedure can only work if the intruders do not know who is armed.
It is quite possibly a deterrent to would-be assassins when it is known that some educators may be armed. It works exactly the same as concealed carry in society.
When bad guys know that the people in a state are allowed to carry and no one knows who they are, the bad guy takes a chance for his life every time he attempts a crime.
It is time to get over the thought that a gun in the school, in the right hands, is more dangerous than the intrusion of a madman. Had any of the violated schools utilized a procedure such as the one previously described, it assuredly could have limited the amount of carnage perpetrated.
How do you think the parents waiting home for news would feel when they find out that their children were probably saved due to the training and arming of that educator in scenario number two?
About the Author
David I. Togno taught at Mendham (New Jersey) High School from 1972 to 1999 as an Industrial Arts teacher. From 1999 to 2010 Togno was a Middle School Vice Principal in the Mount Olive School District. Togno is currently retried but still teaches Driver Education for a local company. Togno is an NRA-certified Basic Pistol Instructor, Range Safety Officer, Home Safety, and Metallic Reloading Instructor.
