CORONA — Alexandria Bay came to St. Leo Catholic Academy on Jan. 20 to learn a lesson she said she hopes will never get used in real life.
Bay, a fourth-grade teacher at Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Academy in Jackson Heights, was one of nearly 100 teachers from five Catholic schools in Queens who spent the morning at St. Leo taking part in a training on how to protect themselves and their students in the event of a school shooting.
The training, conducted by Synergy 911, a Massachusetts-based risk assessment firm, offered teachers tips on staying safe if a shooter were on campus.
“It’s very important and something that is obviously in the news today,” Bay said, explaining her reason for wanting to be there. “I’m hoping to learn to keep my class safe if it ever were to happen, even though I hope that it doesn’t.”
Synergy 911 will conduct training for schools across the diocese.
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The Jan. 20 session was for teachers from five Queens schools — St. Leo, Our Lady Fatima, Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Academy in Corona, St. Bartholomew Catholic Academy in Elmhurst, and St. Joan of Arc Catholic School in Jackson Heights.
First, Brian Rojee, lead instructor for Synergy 911, detailed a list of actions the teachers should take in an active shooter situation. Then, trainer Matt Mello led small groups of teachers into a classroom and taught them how to properly barricade a door to prevent a shooter from barging in, which one teacher did in three minutes.
Rojee offered three main tips for the teachers to remember.
“First of all, access control is super important. Nobody should be roaming around your school who doesn’t belong there,” he told The Tablet after the session. “Second, when in doubt, leave. Get out of Dodge and get out of sight of the school. And third, redundancy is key. Get into your classroom or office, close and lock the door, and add layers of redundancy to that by throwing furniture in front of it.”
A teacher should always wait for law enforcement and never take matters into their own hands and confront the shooter unless it’s a last resort, he added.
The training took place at a time of heightened concern over mass shootings.
In 2025, there were 75 school and school-related shootings, including at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis on Aug. 27, where a gunman attacked during a Mass, killing two young children and injuring 30 other people. He later took his own life.
In 2022, the nation’s attention was drawn to a tragedy in Texas when a gunman entered Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24 and killed 19 students and two teachers before being killed by border patrol agents.
“It’s better to be prepared and hopefully never, ever need it again,” said John Maldonado, a fourth-grade teacher at St. Bartholomew Catholic Academy. “That’s the world we live in.”
The goal of the training session, Rojee told the teachers, was “to empower you, rather than make you afraid” — a lesson the teachers seemed to take to heart.
At St. Leo’s, Rojee assured the teachers that school shootings are rare.
“You’re more likely to be struck by lightning,” he said. However, he quickly added, “It does not relieve us of our responsibility.”
Mass Shootings 1966-2025
** There were 510 mass shootings in the U.S. between 1966 and 2025 with a total of 1,728 fatalities.
** In 2025, there were 75 reported school shootings in the U.S., with 31 people killed and more than 100 injured.
** The most common places for mass shootings are workplaces and schools
** In 73% of the incidents, the shooter used a handgun.