School Teaches Kids to Protect Themselves

SOTG 163 – New Mexico School Teaches Kids to Protect Themselves, Do You?

A teacher in Washington did the absolute right thing and stopped a would-be school shooter before he could harm anyone. We salute this man’s quick thinking and bold action.

We discovered a private school in New Mexico that teaches young people to fight, not cower in the face of aggression and violence. Protect your kids, but teach your kids to protect themselves. You will not always be there.

SOURCES:

Baltimore Update
http://louderwithcrowder.com/baltimore-mayor-also-gave-wished-destroy-space-well/

From m.kirotv.com:

A student at North Thurston High School in Lacey was tackled by a teacher after firing gunshots into the air, according to the school district. No one was hurt.

Quick Facts:
Shooter fired one shot into the ground, one shot into the air before he was tackled. No one hit.
Teacher Brady Olson credited with taking down gunman.
Shooting happened at North Thurston High School in Lacey.
Lacey is about 60 miles southwest of Seattle.
Here is a quick rundown of additional facts about the school shooting.
Emergency dispatchers confirmed reports of an active shooter on campus about 7:45 a.m. Monday.

Lacey police said the 16-year-old student, who had just transferred to the school from Mount Rainier High School, about a month ago, was arrested. Police said he fired one shot into the ground and one shot into the air before he was tackled. His gun was fully loaded before he started shooting, police said. They also searched his apartment after the incident on Monday.

Police said the shooter had taken the gun from his parents, who owned it legally. He allegedly told police he shot into the ground and air because he didn’t want to hurt anyone.

Parents said they received an automated message that shots were fired into the air before the shooter was taken down.

Students were released to their parents at the football field, South Sound Stadium, the North Thurston School District said.

The district confirmed the teacher who tackled the shooter was Brady Olson. According to his biography, Olson teaches AP government and politics, and civics. He has been with the school for about nine years and has a daughter at the school. He released the follow statement:

“No one, including myself, can prepare for a situation like this, so I’m very thankful that we’re all okay. As always, students come first, and today was no different,” he wrote in part. Click here to read the full statement.

“We will all group together as a staff and community, like we always do, and continue to put kids first! North Thurston High School’s staff handled this like every other staff in every city, in every state, across this country would. I’m incredibly proud to be a member of the bigger community of educators who teach and take care of our kids every day. ”

Olson said three other staff members reacted the same way when shots were fired.

Students said the shots were fired in an upper hallway near the gym. Some students fled out the back door of the gym, running to a Safeway or Lowe’s store for safety.

Students recall hearing shots in school. Anthony Rybalkin, 16, said he and a group of friends were hanging out near the lunch tables when he heard a loud boom. He looked up and saw a classmate from his sixth-period class walking down the stairs from the gym into the common area with a cigarette in his mouth and a gun in his hand.

“We thought it was fake for a second. Then he shot off another round,” said Rybalkin, who said he was about 20 feet away from the shooter. “Everyone just started running out the back door.”

Rybalkin tripped and fell as he ran away and turned his head to see if the shooter was coming his way. That’s when he saw Olson come up behind the shooter and tackle him. Two other teachers or administrators jumped on the teen and held him down, Rybalkin said in a phone interview to the Associated Press.

“When Mr. Olson tackled him, he still had it (the gun) in his hand. I don’t know if one of the other teachers took it or not,” Rybalkin said.

He said the shooter was a new student and had joined his class within the past week or so.

“He said he has military parents. We don’t know if that’s true or not,” Rybalkin said.

Junior Kyle Hemphill was another one of the students who heard gunshots. He followed his friends out of the gym to the nearby Lowes, where the store locked students inside.

“I still thought my friends were just messing with me. Then I saw people sprinting out the back and front and it was pretty scary,” said Hemphill.

Senior Daniel Lemoine said he saw Brady holding down the shooter.

“I respect him [Brady], and this makes me have a little more respect for him now that he’s risked his life for everybody,” said Lemoine.

Middle school student Cameron Brandt said he was on the way to take a test when he heard about the shooting.

“I heard about the shooting and my heart just dropped,” said Brandt.

Brandt didn’t feel safe after the incident and asked his father to pick him up.

School district spokeswoman Courtney Schrieve confirmed that the shooter was enrolled at the school, but she didn’t know how long he had been a student.

Schrieve said the school was swept for a bomb as a precaution and was not sure if students would return Tuesday.

“The dangerous thing is it was right before school starts. The kids would have all been in the commons,” Schrieve said.

The district had just been practicing active shooter drills, and “it obviously paid off,” she said, touting Olson as a good person.

“He’s a very large guy, he’s a very popular teacher, and I can see him doing that,” Schrieve said.

The community says “thank you”

From www.koat.com:

An Albuquerque pastor and undersheriff is teaching something to children that he knows is controversial, and he’s making no apologies for it.

For more than a decade, Larry Allen has been instructing kids how to take down a gunman if one ever comes to his school. His unusual teaching methods have received both criticism and praise.

“There’s a time to pray, and there’s a time to fight. And I say we pray and fight,” Allen said.

Allen is an educator, pastor and cop. He’s also the new Bernalillo County undersheriff. For years, he’s been teaching his students to read, write and fight.

He began his career in 1967 as a state police officer. A decade later, he joined the seminary and worked a security job in 1988. Allen then started the New Life Baptist Church and Academy on Albuquerque’s west side. Part of the curriculum is devoted to teaching students how to take down an active shooter.

The little ones are taught to seek shelter and hide. Some handpicked upperclassmen are trained as “warriors.” Those children are not trained to shoot a gun, but they learn how to get a gunman down until help arrives. They hone their skills every few weeks in drills.

The unusual curriculum has received a lot of national attention. For three years the show HBO Vice has featured students and faculty from New Life, including Allen’s wife, Lillie, who happens to be the school’s principal.

Pastor Allen affectionately calls his wife “Honey.” Some of the faculty, including Allen, carry a gun. All of them go through regular training to protect themselves and students.

“Who would think that I would have a gun? I’m dressed up. Pearls on. Right? Minding my business, and you come to get me. ‘Oh here, take my purse please. Take everything that’s in it.’ And then they’re dead meat,” she said.

New Life is a private school. The students said the training makes them feel safe, especially after what happened at a Roswell Middle School last year.

From www.maxim.com:

Ronda Rousey, the UFC women’s champion, former Maxim cover model, and actress in Furious 7 and the upcoming Entourage movie, is publishing her first book soon. My Fight/Your Fight, out on May 12th, has already sold thousands of pre-order copies – but Walmart is refusing to stock it on their shelves, deeming Rousey “too violent.”

The New York Post reported the news on Friday, while TMZ confirmed today that the book’s available for pre-order on Walmart’s website. We’ve reached out to the retail giant and noted ammunition seller for confirmation as to why Rousey’s been singled out for violence. Walmart spokeperson Danit Marquardt insisted that “there are a variety of factors that we look at when determining what items to offer our customers” and that the “average Walmart supercenter sells 150,000 items whereas Walmart.com offers 7 million items.”

In the meantime, check out Rousey’s ace fighting tips in “How to Punch Like a Girl.”

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Founder & CEO at Student of the Gun

Paul G. Markel has worn many hats during his lifetime. He has been a U.S. Marine, Police Officer, Professional Bodyguard, and Small Arms and Tactics Instructor. Mr. Markel has been writing professionally for law enforcement and firearms periodicals for nearly twenty years with hundreds and hundreds of articles in print. Paul is a regular guest on nationally syndicated radio talk shows and subject matter expert in firearms training and use of force. Mr. Markel has been teaching safe and effective firearms handling to students young and old for decades and has worked actively with the 4-H Shooting Sports program. Paul holds numerous instructor certifications in multiple disciplines and a Bachelor’s degree in conflict resolution; nonetheless, he is and will remain a dedicated Student of the Gun.