READING, Pa. — Penn State Berks will hold two informational events about active shooters in schools on Wednesday, March 14. The first will be an Active Shooter Survival Strategies presentation by FBI Special Agent Jin Kim from 12:15 to 1:30 p.m. in the Perkins Student Center Auditorium. Later in the day, from 4 to 5:30 p.m., there will be a question-and-answer session with Kim, also in the Perkins Student Center Auditorium. Both events are free and open to school administrators, educators, police personnel and related professionals, as well as the general public.
The Active Shooter Survival Strategies presentation will provide an overview on active shooter attacks in the U.S. with a focus on individual survival techniques and strategies. Topics will include historical case reviews, FBI active shooter reports and profile facts, strategic concepts, barricade techniques and alternative methods, truth and myths about firearms, structure hardening and site preparation, and dynamic threat considerations. The 4 p.m. question-and-answer session will offer insight on related topics in a town hall forum.
A 23-year veteran of the FBI’s New York field office, Kim is widely known as a subject matter expert in active shooter and mass attack survival. He serves as the active shooter coordinator on the Crisis Management Unit and is the leading active-shooter authority, directing preparedness, resiliency and training, for the FBI’s New York office. Kim also serves as the office's Tactical Training Program manager, ensuring the tactical readiness of more than 1,000 special agents.
As part of the FBI’s Police Training and Liaison Program, Kim serves as the director and principal instructor of three specialized programs: the Special Weapons and Tactics School, the Executive Protection/PSD Counter Assault Team School, and the Observer/Sniper School. He regularly presents and speaks at international conferences and seminars, as well as to corporations and businesses, financial institutions, schools and universities, hospitals and health care facilities, and public-safety departments, about active-shooter situations.
The March 14 presentations are sponsored by the Response to School Violence Plan Project, a research project initiated to address school violence by Jayne Leh, associate professor of special education at Penn State Berks, and housed in the college’s elementary and early childhood education baccalaureate degree program. The presentations are presented in conjunction with the college’s criminal justice and applied psychology degree programs.
Prior to the public presentations, Kim will meet with Penn State Berks students majoring in elementary and early childhood education to discuss issues of school violence and active shootings and the roles and responsibilities of educators.
For more information, contact Leh, the event organizer, at JML53@psu.edu.