Fed. guide: Running best option in school shooting situation

(MyFoxBoston.com) -- A recently released school emergency operations guideline put forth by the federal government suggests the first course of action for staff and students in a school shooting should be to run out of the building if it is safe to do so.

The "Guide for Developing High-Quality School Emergency Operations Plans," which was released in June 2013, was created to help school systems design emergency response plans. The guide notes that there is no one size fits all response for active shooter situations, but they do suggest the three basic options are to run, hide, or fight.

"You can run away from the shooter, seek a secure place where you can hide and/or deny the shooter access, or incapacitate the shooter to survive and protect others from harm," the guide explains.

While the guide suggests running should be the first response, hiding in as safe a place as possible should be the next option.

The final option, which the guide calls a last resort, is for staff members in immediate danger to consider trying to "disrupt or incapacitate the shooter by using aggressive force and items in their environment, such as fire extinguishers, and chairs."

The guide notes, however, confronting an active shooter should never be a requirement in a staff member's job description and that it is up to the staff member to decide how to respond if directly confronted.

The guide, which also addresses climate emergencies, was released in the wake of the recent shootings in Newtown, Conn. and Oak Creek, W.I., as well as the tornadoes in Oklahoma.

To read the official guide, click here.

Cox Media Group