Fit To Fight: Fighting Active Shooters
MATTHEWS, N.C. – It was uncomfortable at first, classmates getting physical with each otherΒ in Matthews Thursday. But over two hours, the classΒ learned how to grab a handgun. AΒ rifle. How to tackle. And then instructor Ryan Hoover layered in different stressors: fatigue from burn out punches. The sound of gunfire. Pushing through a crowd. All before engaging an active shooter.
Hoover says, “If the course does nothing other than give permission to do something, then I think we’re making a huge step forward.”
Run, hide, fight is the mantra we’ve all heard.
We know how to run.
We know how to hide.
But fight?
Hoover says, “I know as a teacher, that’s not what you signed up for. That’s where we are. And if you’ve got my kids, I want you fighting for them, whether that’s what you signed up for or not.”
Hoover, a dad of two, created the course after Sandy Hook, after being “disgusted” he says by school safety plans that often include nothing more than hiding in locked rooms. He’s taught the class from here to Las Vegas to Belgium. There were several teachers in Thursday’s class, learning how to fight for their lives and their students.
North Rowan Middle School Band Director Anthony Grier says, “Run and hide, even though that’s good, there’s always the ‘what if.’ What if the shooter gets in and makes his way down the hallway?”
Eastover Elementary School 3rd Grade Teacher Fawn Holmes says, “I think I would attempt to unarm. I feel better equipped now to do that.”
And CMS Exceptional Children Behavior Liason Mendy DeViney says, “When we were hitting and heard the gunshots? That hit me pretty hard.”
Hoover lets teachers take the class for free. He’s offered to teach entire school districts, but so far, none in our area have taken him up on it. He says,
“(At) the end of the day? You’re in that building, the killer is in there with you, you’re the first responder. It’s on you.”
Thursday’s Fit to Fight class was two hours. There’s an eight-hour class coming up on July 16. It costs $150, but it is free for teachers or school staff.
