Hammer Attack on a Student in School

School Hammer Attack

A woman who was well known at Lafayette Elementary School in Oakland, California lured a 9-year old student off of the school playground and into a restroom.  There she used a hammer to assault the girl.  A security guard and a teacher entered the restroom and stopped the assault.  The woman was arrested and is being charged with assault with a deadly weapon.  The child was taken to a nearby children's hospital, where she was reportedly doing well.

Analysis

Hammer attacks are actually very common, unfortunately.  They are easily obtained, easily concealed, and make fearsome weapons.  Yet too often, educators who are given scenarios involving hammers do not utilize the proper life-saving steps in the first thirty seconds.

Schools, more and more, are focusing primarily on Active Shooter protocols, even though there were only 22 Active Shooter Incidents in K-12 schools from 1998 to 2012.  Over 5,000 scenario-based assessments all across the country shows educators, some of whom were trained in Active Shooter training like A.L.I.C.E or Run, Hide, Fight, are not utilizing the proper life-saving steps for weapons incidents not involving an Active Shooter.

Knives can be deadly.  Hammers can be deadly.  Educators need to be trained to view all weapons as the same in regards to response protocols.  Research by Dr. Gary Klein shows the best way to train is to use realistic, scenario-based training.

In the book Staying Alive: How to Act Fast and Survive Deadly Encounters a couple, Erin and Abe Singh, were brutally attacked in their home by an assailant armed with a hatchet and a hammer.  Safe Havens International has an excellent video detailing their story.

Staying Alive: Abe & Erin's Story