Workshop launched to teach US educators martial arts

A martial arts workshop aiming to equip school employees with martial arts and tactical skills for dangerous situations has been launched in Gaston County, North Carolina.

This workshop, called “Safer Campus Now”, is free for all educators to attend as long as they bring their school ID, reported the Gaston Gazette.  Participants will learn both tactical responses as well as methods of physically addressing an attack, the report said.

The creator of the programme, Ryan Hoover of Ryan Hoover’s Extreme Karate, hopes to give school employees training and alternative ways on how to handle a shooter on campus, should the worst case scenario happen. He created the programme after the horrific incident at Sandy Hook Elementary on December 14, where 20 children and six staff members were shot. Having children himself in the local school system, he wants to make school a safer place for all, the report said.

 “We only want to give them some options, should the unthinkable happen. The physical response options are only a small part of our programme,” Hoover was quoted as saying in the Gaston Gazette.

A shooting incident at a school is typically over in 10 to 15 minutes, according to an active shooter report created by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. That means those on the ground have to be prepared mentally and physically to deal with an active shooter situation, the Gaston Gazette further reported.