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In late September, 2014, a student ran through his Pittsburgh-area high school, stabbing and otherwise harming students and others with two knives.  The assailant student injured 20 of his fellow students and, in addition, directly stabbed the chest of Jay Resetar, the school’s security guard, just inches under his heart. Notwithstanding his injuries, Resetar nonetheless heroically trapped the assailant’s arms and legs, preventing him from enacting further violence.

This security guard, thankfully, recovered fully and returned to school within a week after the stabbing. However, he is suing the school district for negligence. Why? For failing to provide him “any type of equipment, protective vest, weapons training or a weapon.”  Resetar was fired without cause just a few months later, before the start of the new school year, raising eyebrows as to the reason, as well as garnering over 300 signatures in protest requesting to reinstate him as guard.

Details aside, the problem here is that while the guard risked his own life to succeed in helping bring down the assaulter, he was not trained nor equipped to do so. By hiring a guard untrained in weaponry, and preventing him from dressing protectively and arming himself, effectively this means the school hired a watchman. A watchman, it turns out, a security guard is not. Resetar was left to act out of instinct – a kind of pair of eyes and Good Samaritan for an arising emergency.  This is a risk level way beyond that which a trained, armed, protected security guard might expect.

While Resetar may have a case to sue the school district for not allowing him adequate training and protective gear and arms, the fact is that there should be no security guard without these basics.  By not having a security guard who had the right defense weapon, bullet-proof vest, and training, the school took a larger risk on itself as well as the guard. To put it clearly: The school left the guard much more vulnerable to risking his own life as well as the lives of those he was trying to protect.

A stab just under the heart is already a miracle, and recovering a week later from his injuries is a second miracle. If you want security, you don’t rely on miracles – you hire the level of security you need.  If cost is an issue with hiring the suitable level of security guard protection, consider the cost of not doing so, as in the case of lucky Jay Resetar.

ISSM’s teams are of an elite caliber, comprised only of expertly-trained and experienced private security guards. In fact, many ISSM security personnel have worked years in security fields with private or public sectors. The injuries incurred by Jay Resetar likely would not have occurred with an ISSM private security guard. And while we can never be sure,  nor would we ever wish to judge, it begs the question whether a highly trained security guard would have been more effective in preventing the violence that ensued. We’ll never know.

ISSM’s teams are of an elite caliber, comprised only of expertly-trained and experienced private security guards. In fact, many ISSM security personnel have worked years in security fields with private or public sectors. Don’t cut costs when it comes to security and safety. Hire the best, hire ISSM.

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