FASTER Colorado, previously a project of Denver-based free-market think tank Independence Institute, announces the launch of its new independent 501(c)(3).
For the past seven years, FASTER Colorado has served Colorado school districts by providing world-class training for armed school security teams.
“Our work has grown and become so much more complex over the past seven years that it became difficult to operate under any other organization’s umbrella,” said Laura Carno, Executive Director of FASTER Colorado. “We will continue the same great work we do every day, simply under our own separate, tax-exempt corporate entity.”
“Our schools need to be protected by well-trained armed school employees who can stop these shootings at the point of attack,” said John Castillo, father of STEM School hero Kendrick Castillo, and a FASTER Colorado board member. “I have been through the FASTER Level-1 training personally and can confirm that this is very high-quality training.”
FASTER Colorado provides annual training to educators and faculty who are authorized to be armed on a K-12 campus. In Colorado, school boards and charter school boards are able to authorize armed security teams under Colorado Revised Statute 18-12-214, section (3)(b). Under that statute, most school boards establish additional training requirements to supplement annual training.
Editors’ Back Ground:
FASTER Colorado was founded in 2013 by a group of parents and law enforcement officials who were concerned about the safety of schools in Colorado. The organization has trained over 1,000 educators and faculty since its inception.
The FASTER Colorado training is a two-day course that covers a variety of topics, including:
- Firearms safety and handling
- Active shooter response tactics
- Legal and ethical considerations of armed educators
- First aid and medical response
The training is taught by experienced law enforcement and military personnel. Participants are required to pass a written test and a live-fire shooting test in order to complete the course.
FASTER Colorado has faced controversy. Arming educators is the best way to protect students from active shooters. Yet the uniformed still believe that arming educators is a dangerous and incorrectly assume that it somehow could lead to more gun violence in schools.
Whether or not you agree with the mission of FASTER Colorado, there is no doubt that the organization is providing a valuable service to schools in Colorado. The FASTER Colorado training is designed to help educators protect their students in the event of an active shooter situation.
FASTER Colorado History:
In 2016, Laura Carno attended a FASTER Saves Lives class in Ohio, and came back with the idea to start a similar program in Colorado. The Ohio-based program began training armed educators days after the massacre of children and staff at Sandy Hook Elementary. Given the history of violent attacks in Colorado schools, Carno vowed to help Colorado’s school children be the safest in the nation. Carno brought the idea to Independence Institute and conducted the first class in 2017, with the additional support of FASTER Saves Lives in Ohio.
FASTER Colorado will have trained over 350 school employees by the end of 2023. The program’s graduates are armed every day on K-12 campuses to protect school children. Those employees are in 45 school districts in Colorado. And just since the shooting at Coventry Christian in Nashville, the team at FASTER is working with 29 additional school districts that are in various stages of the process to authorize armed educators on campus.
For more information, visit FASTERColorado.org. For questions about FASTER Colorado or to schedule an interview, please send an email to [email protected] or call 719-492-0211.
This needs to be put in place in all States esp. with all the Criminal Aliens being let in by the Democrats and their cohorts, mexican cartels.