By Dustin Turner
Aiken Standard, S.C.
AIKEN, S.C. — Aiken High School senior Austin Spann, 17, spent Valentine’s Day – a Saturday, nonetheless – at the school, putting together 110 lock-down kits as part of an Eagle Scout project.
Spann’s father, Aiken Department of Public Safety Sgt. Daymon Spann, said the kits provide items the students and teachers need until Public Safety and EMS can get to them in the event the school is locked down.
“The original idea for this project came from another ADPS officer who suggested that we find a way to get these kits in schools,” Daymon said. “I suggested it to Austin when he was ready to plan an Eagle project, and he began researching it.”
Daymon said that with the escalation of school violence and crime over the past 15 years, all schools, including college campuses, should be outfitted with the kits, “as it is always better to have them and never need them than to have an incident where they may have saved a life but were not available. No one ever wants to think it could happen in their town or their school. However, being prepared for the worst is always better than the unthinkable happening and not having any kind of immediate help or relief.”
Daymon would not say exactly what is in each kit because the contents tell what the students should be doing to protect themselves in the event of an active shooter.
“I don’t believe the bad guys should know everything the good guys have on their side,” Daymon said. “That being said, each kit contains a quantity of first-aid supplies, as well as survival needs, with an easy-to-follow instruction sheet on how to use it all.”
The instructions also recommend other things readily found in any classroom or students’ personal property that could be used to help them.
The earliest use of similar kits that the Spanns could find was at Westside Middle School in Jonesboro, Arkansas, in 1998. The students there had built kits for tornadoes.
Then, in March of 1998, two students began shooting inside the school. Students were able to use the kits to care for the wounded until rescuers arrived.
“We also found that the combined school districts in Los Angeles actually mandate similar store-bought kits in every classroom,” Daymon said. “Store-bought kits can be quite expensive and some even contain things like protein bars and bottled water.”
Austin, however, wanted to focus more on the first-aid and temporary survival needs, because it is more likely to be a police matter than a weather matter that would bring the kits into play locally, Daymon said.
The Spanns estimated that if they purchased all of the necessary items, the project would cost around $3,000 to assemble 110 kits.
So Austin reached out to the community, mostly local business owners and professionals, and was able to raise $300 in cash and most of the needed medical items.
“He then spent countless hours shopping around online,” Daymon said, “to find the best deals and stretch the cash donations to be able to purchase the rest of the items.”
The 110 kits were assembled and placed around the campus in every classroom and most of the offices and common areas in about six hours on Feb. 14. The Aiken High Community Emergency Response Team has agreed to take over maintenance of the kits going forward, performing an annual audit to ensure they are all still sealed and making repairs and replenishments where needed.
The main contributors include: Lowe’s of Aiken, South Star Ambulance Service, Riverside Ambulance Service, Family Pharmacy, Wal-Mart (Whiskey Road), Johnson Johnson Whittle and Lancer Law Firm, Smith Massey Brodie Guynn & Mayes LLC, Attorney Brad Boni, South Aiken Physical Therapy, Frances Williams, Supply Services Co., Dr. Alice Hale DMD, University Medical Associates, Staples, Home Medical Supply and Austin’s parents, Daymon and Alethea Spann.
Austin is a Life Scout with Troop 121 and will attend The Citadel in the fall.
An Aiken native and resident, Dustin Turner has been the Aiken Standard’s news editor since September.
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©2015 the Aiken Standard (Aiken, S.C.)