By Amanda Hudson, News Editor
ALGONQUIN—On Jan. 5, St. Margaret Mary School here hosted a teacher inservice training day for their teachers and those of four other
area schools.
The goal was to empower administrators and teachers with knowledge and options for school safety.
An owner of the Frankfort-based Beacon Training Group is a member of St. Margaret Mary Parish and serves on the school’s safety commission, says St. Margaret Mary principal, Brenna O’Hearn. Four years ago, the company — established in 2017 by Marine Corps combat veterans and SWAT officers — came to St. Margaret Mary School to train its teachers. Those teachers provided
enthusiastic feedback.
With last year’s school shooting in Minnesota, “the timing was just right” to offer the training again this year, expanding it to welcome administrators and teachers from other area schools,
O’Hearn says. Some 120 teachers and administrators came, including St. Margaret Mary staff who attended for the second time. Other schools that participated were SS. Peter and Paul-Cary; Montini-McHenry; St. John the Baptist-Johnsburg; and St. Mary-Woodstock.
Like four years ago, this year’s participants “felt so good and so empowered at the end,” O’Hearn says, adding that “now those teachers can go back and have further discussions of how it applies in their buildings.”
The training was intense and “as real as you can be,” O’Hearn says, describing “survive” breakout sessions where participants practiced applying tourniquets, bandaging, stopping a bleed and packing a wound.
Additionally, they learned about and practiced possible options to round out the ERBS (Escape, Resist, Barricade, Survive) training structure.
“For a long time in schools, it was always: Lock your doors and close the blinds,” O’Hearn says. Here they learned that “when you can escape, you should,” she says, including opening windows, helping students get outside, and what to do then.
Participants practiced various ways to barricade a classroom and what it would be like if someone breached the classroom. Teachers resisted “armed” padded instructors, and even the naturally-quiet teachers were grabbing the “gun,” yelling and screaming and kicking.
They talked through choices and learned about weapons — with real guns loaded with blanks to teach what guns look like, smell like and sound like — even what a jammed gun sounds like. After a day of running through several scenarios, there was time to debrief and answer questions.
“It was really neat at the end,” O’Hearn says. “This was the first time (Beacon) saw a team of schools come together for one training. … There were a lot of instructors.”
Beacon said that they were “impressed with how dedicated the teachers were — giving 100% to the training,” she adds. “It was intense, but it was so good … teachers overwhelmingly said it was a positive experience for them.
“I’m so proud of all the teachers. It’s definitely outside our comfort zone.”
O’Hearn notes that beyond her St. Margaret Mary staff, others gave comments like, “I really feel I can do this.” “I know what to do, and I feel like I don’t have to wait for directions and can keep my
kids safe.”
Needless to say, it was a training day everyone hopes they never have to use.
