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MAM to feature policeman’s instruction on active-shooter events

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Of the presentations scheduled for the Missouri Association of Manufacturers’ second-annual Mid-America Safety Health & Environmental Conference & Expo, organizers say none is likely to be more popular than Springfield police officer Eric Schroeder’s “Run, Hide, Fight: Surviving an Active Shooter or Violent Intruder.”

Schroeder plans to unpack the safe options when people are in a business or public space that has become the target of a perpetrator with a deadly agenda.

For a few years now, Schroeder has been delivering his presentation at businesses, conferences, churches and schools. Among them are the Missouri Center for Education Safety, Republic schools and Husqvarna Construction Products North America in Olathe, Kan. In July, he plans to bring the presentation to Phoenix to speak at an international conference for Springfield-based Assemblies of God.

Schroeder’s four-hour, preregistration safety presentation is part of MAM’s April 27-29 meeting at Lodge of Four Seasons in Lake Ozark.

He started researching the subject while working as an officer at Drury University’s campus and studying for his master’s degree. He also picked up formal training through Texas State University’s Civilian Response to Active Shooter Events program and the private ALICE Training Institute as he looked to better serve the Drury campus.

“Every time an attack happens, people start questioning what they’re doing to safeguard their employment places,” he said.

From Columbine to Sandy Hook, Schroeder said he’s sifted through thousands of pages of documents to learn why some people die and others don’t when a shooter with malicious intent is on the scene.

“No matter how much training you have, you can’t get past the fact that when something like that happens, you are going to be frozen with fear for a moment,” he said. “You are completely shocked, and you can’t do anything for about three to five seconds.”

His presentation centers on what people should do after their “thinking” brain returns. Too often, he said, people never consider how they would respond to an active shooter situation.

“They’re the ones who dive underneath tables or were in the rows in Aurora, Colo., where they lay down and duck their heads because they just don’t have anything else in their tool box,” Schroeder said. “One of the biggest things I tell people is to practice ‘what if?’”

For example, most people at a restaurant or cinema know how they entered, but they often don’t locate an alternate exit. Schroeder suggests to routinely look for those exits because running often is the clearest path of escape and knowing the quickest way out is key.

Not everyone gets a chance to run. Hiding also should be in one’s mental storehouse, he said.

For an employee in an office, Schroeder suggests barricading the door with whatever is around to delay an intrusion.

“We teach people that you’ve got to survive for five minutes,” he said, referring to how long it generally takes for police to show up on the scene.

If the bad guy is already in the room, Schroeder said fighting might be necessary but that might not mean throwing punches.

“For instance, what if you’re in a restaurant when a guy starts shooting? I don’t teach people to fight by going and tackling the guy or using Chuck Norris moves. But if you throw a chair at a guy’s face or can get objects in the air toward somebody, they have to react to it, and you can get a tactical advantage,” he said. “If you don’t have any other options, you have to have the mental capacity to know it’s OK to fight.”

Kim Inman, CEO of the Springfield-based manufacturers’ association, said the “Run, Hide, Fight” lecture was one of the most popular at MAM’s inaugural Mid-America Safety, Health, & Environmental Conference & Expo.

In all, 26 sessions are planned over two days. Schroeder’s presentation this year, scheduled April 27, costs $50 per person.

“Everyone seemed to learn so much from that,” Inman said, “so, we made it a full four hours.”

Two-day tickets cost $435 for non-MAM members or $325 for MAM members, while one-day tickets are $335 or $225 apiece. Inman said roughly 300 are expected to attend.

Bill Hewitt, environmental and safety manager for Springfield-based stainless steel manufacturer Paul Mueller Co. (OTC: MUEL), helped select the speakers as a member of the conference’s advisory board.

At his job, Hewitt keeps up with the latest rules and regulations created by organizations including the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and Environmental Protection Agency. With keynote speeches coming from OSHA and Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) representatives and multiple breakout sessions on human resources, emerging drugs and trends, and a panel on safety compliance, Hewitt said the topics should appeal to manufacturers statewide.

“There are a lot of things that we deal with – changes that take place in the area of safety and environmental compliance – and that’s really the purpose of this,” Hewitt said.

Prior to 2015, the Mid-America conference was presented by the Safety Council of the Ozarks, which is now defunct. Inman said she put together last year’s conference in Branson on the fly – over five weeks.

As for the need for an active-shooter presentation, Schroeder said it may be a bit sad to consider that his kind of talk is needed, but he feels it’s a reality in today’s world.

“If you think about fire drills or tornado drills – all of those drills that we’ve had to adapt our society to, I think this is just one of those things,” he said. “It’s not going to go away in five years.”

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