Run, Hide, Fight | Photo by Soham Parikh | The Wright State Guardian
On Jan. 21, Wright State University (WSU) police kicked off the first session of the Run! Hide! Fight! program which aims to teach students how to react in the event of a public shooter.
Founding the program
“Run! Hide! Fight! was developed by the Miami Valley Crime Prevention Association and it was designed to teach participants how to proactively handle an active threat situation,” said Sgt. Stephen Powers. “Participants learn various stages of response during an active threat and they will also learn how to develop situational awareness.”
WSU is not the only school to adopt the program. St. Mary’s College of Maryland and Penn State have also taken up the program in their own institutions.
“Run, Hide, Fight™ is endorsed by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, FBI and it has been adopted by the majority of Big Ten schools including Maryland, Michigan, Ohio State, Rutgers, Wisconsin and others. It is also routinely implemented at the high school level,” said a representative of Penn State’s Police and Public Safety Department.
Program outcomes
In the introductory meeting this past Thursday, WSU Interim Director of Public Safety Kurt Holden described how many people mistake the sound of a gunshot for something else.
“So at Virginia Tech, some of the students actually thought that the gunshot noises were loud construction sounds. And that's not because they didn't know what a gunshot sounded like,” said Holden.
The main goal of the program is to help students be prepared so they are less likely to fall into the stage of denial and are able to make the best decisions for their safety in the event of a shooting.
“So we ask people to observe what's going on, then we kind of force them to kind of orient what is kind of taking place. We decide and then we act. The goal is to make this a much quicker circle,” said Holden.
Run! Hide! Fight! will be offered every Tuesday at 4:00 p.m by Sgt. Powers and every Thursday at 11:00 a.m by Kurt Holden via WebEx throughout the spring semester. The WebEx link can be found on WINGS.
