An ISIS terror is coming to America, folks.

Frankly, ISIS is probably already lying in wait for the right time or the right command to strike.  Just last week, a Muslim in Chicago drove like a crazed driver in Iraq with an ISIS flag hanging out his window.  When cops finally stopped him after a pursuit, he claimed the car was a car bomb that he would detonate if they didn’t let him go.  There was no bomb, but there surely could have been.

There’s the mosque in Boston that’s been tied to ISIS and other terrorist organizations.

Yes, they are here.

The targets?

Cops and terror experts suggest the short list of targets will include:  schools, shopping malls and hospitals.

Anywhere that’s a soft target with lots of innocent people unable to fight back.

The School Attack

This article is largely about school attacks, seen by many experts as the opportune target for terrorists, and we’ll tell you why:   elementary and junior high schools, are filled with kids too young to meaningfully resist.  A terrorist attack on one of our nation’s schools would terrorize the entire nation.

What’s more, America’s laws have set those locations up as “disarmed victim” zones, with card-carrying good guys prohibited from carrying on school grounds.  Terrorists are pretty much guaranteed that at most, a school resource officer is all that stands between them and success.  Amazingly enough, some Americans still advocate for schools to be disarmed victim zones.

There hasn’t been a child killed in a school fire in decades, in part because each and every school has been designed to minimize the risk of school fires to students.  Schools also conduct regular fire drills, have plentiful fire extinguishers and detailed plans ready to execute in case of fire.

At the same time, there are dozens of violence deaths in schools each and every year, and many schools have not been designed or modified to minimize the risk of violence to students, don’t practice regular drills, don’t have the tools necessary (good guys with guns) to stop active shooters, nor substantive plans on what to do if it does happen.

In short, America’s schools and the innocents inside the remain, by and large, quite vulnerable to attack.

How will the terror attack likely unfold?

A team of four or more trained terrorists, armed with rifles and lots of ammunition will storm the school at one or more entrances or weak points (glass windows, for instance).

A school resource officer (SRO) with a sidearm, if present, will be no match against trained terrorists with rifles.  Soft body armor doesn’t stop rifle rounds.  The police officer will be, in all likelihood, nothing more than the canary in the coal mine.  He or she will notify dispatch of the attack and from there will have the projected life expectancy of a GI at the Fulda Gap after a Warsaw Pact invasion during the Cold War.

The good news?  Not every school has an SRO and the terrorists may specifically seek out schools without an on-site police officer to launch their attack.

If your school has a resource officer that’s not Paul Blart, and who has had some solid firearms and tactical training beyond what he or she got at the police academy, and if you’re really lucky, spent some time as a infantry soldier in the sandbox, your kid’s school is probably a second tier choice for the trained terrorist bad guys.

The bad news?  If your kid’s school doesn’t have a resource officer, that school is at higher risk.

The terror team won’t be high school boys whole stole grand-dad’s shotgun and pistol, either, with zero formal training in how to use guns effectively.

These terrorists will be highly trained and utterly ruthless.  They will have probably already killed women and children by shooting them at bad-breath distances and/or slitting their throats.  They will be merciless bastards whose only mission will be to die a martyr and along the way kill as many infidels as possible.  These Muslims won’t be there to take prisoners or hostages.  Any bargaining will only be a delaying tactic so they can horrify a nation with even more barbaric acts.  They will rape the girls and some of the boys before slitting their throats.  It will be horrific beyond description.

If one or two untrained social misfits/reprobates can kill a dozen or more school kids in Columbine or Newtown and wound more, imagine the carnage four or six trained terrorists seeking martyrdom could commit in a Beslan-type attack at an American school.

Multiply the effect on the national psyche if ISIS had teams ready to launch these attacks at four, six or ten schools throughout America at the same day and time?  Our nation’s telephone services would be shut down from the sheer volume of panicked calls and our local streets would be clogged with desperate parents trying to reach their kid’s school – even if that school wasn’t involved.  It would be pandemonium.

What happens after the initial shots?

Bad guys will probably try to secure the exits, with cables, chains or similar devices to stop those inside from exiting conventionally.  They may also plant imitation IEDs – improvised explosive devices – on the doors to cause folks to think twice about trying to exit through the door.  They may also hang these on the exteriors to delay the initial responders entry, giving the terrorists additional time to shepherd those in the school to a gymnasium or cafeteria where the tangos can fortify their location and settle in for the long haul.

The thugs will likely seem ready to negotiate, but it will be nothing more than a ruse to delay good guys from storming the facility.

The terrorists, if they follow the highly successful Beslan event, will use the adults to help fortify their location, then they will be dispatched via gunshot or a cut throat.

The girls, especially pubescent girls, will be raped then have their throats slit.  Many of the little boys can look forward to the same fate.

All of this will happen as authorities stage outside and try to figure out how to storm the school and save as many lives as possible.

Every second that passes increases the body count.

What to do as a parent

1.  Communicate with your kids on a plan if an active shooter or terrorist attack happens at his or her school.

2.  Communicate with school officials.  Ask to see a copy of their working plan in case of an active shooter or terror attack.  If they don’t have one, put them in touch with people who can help them create one.  Failure to have a plan may be actionable in court, and it’s certainly grossly negligent and unprofessional.

3.  You may wish to consider falsifying parental information in school records if true information would make your child a more desirable hostage in event of a takeover.  Are you a cop, prosecutor, judge, religious or political leader, or similar?  Don’t let school records make your kid an extra-special target.  You’re now a shoe salesman as far as the records go.

4.  Establish a family plan in case of an event.  This should include identifying safe harbors for your kids in event of an emergency at the school.  Family friend or relative live or work close to the school, for example?

5.  Assist school officials in identifying security deficiencies at the school.  Does a back door get propped open when it should be secured?  Are there maintenance issues needing attention (as in doors that don’t lock properly)?  Can they install shatter-resistant plastic over windows near doors to slow down someone willing to break a window to open a door?  This plastic can be as affordable as a $1-$2 per square foot but it’ll be priceless if it delays an attacker long enough for armed good guys to respond.

What to communicate to your kids

1. Tell your kids to pay attention to their surroundings.  Notice suspicious people who don’t belong and avoid them and/or report them to trusted adults.  Of course, they are just kids, but if you teach them to pay attention, it might save them down the road.

2. Let your kids know that if they are out on a playground, athletic field or elsewhere outside the school and something terrible happens, that they should be very reluctant to return into the school.  A better alternative would be to run to the nearest safe harbor location you’ve identified with them where they can contact you or wait for you to arrive if there is no telephone service.  Of note:  text messages will sometimes go through when voice calls will not.

3.  Tell them that unplanned fire alarms and bomb threat evacuations may be pretext for an attack.  Your kids should be in Condition Orange (“Alert”) when they exit the building, watching for potential threats and being prepared to run for cover, or possibly concealment away from the school if gunfire should break out.  Tell them to ignore their teacher if the adult appears to be dithering under a real, credible threat.  Have your child lead their classmates to safety.

When they evacuate out into a playground or parking lot, for drills or real fires or bomb threats, tell them to look around for anything that doesn’t belong or is out of place.  Look for boxes, bags, pipes, strange cars or trucks – anything that might contain bombs.   Make sure your kids point suspicious object out to those in authority and stay as far away from those potential threats as possible.

4.  If it is a real emergency event, tell your kids not to linger in a school parking lot or open field.  Flee the area into nearby trees or nearby buildings and don’t stand around for a sniper or gunman to shoot them down.  Don’t hang around parking lots where a 400-pound fertilizer bomb in someone’s trunk or a thousand-pounder in a box van can wipe out a whole school that has evacuated.

Secondary attacks, via explosives, are expected in future attacks.  While ISIS terrorists in America might shy away from securing real explosives, they may be able to build a crude ammonium nitrate / fuel oil bomb similar to the one that devastated the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.  The goal with the secondary attack is to destroy first responders or evacuees at a likely staging location to add to the confusion and casualty count.

5.  Lockdowns.  If the “Lockdown” alarm sounds, the classroom door should immediately be closed and locked.  Follow standard protocol from there.  If there is gunfire after a lockdown, which might sound like firecrackers, urge your son or daughter to go out a window and run for cover or concealment away from the school campus.  If that involves breaking a window to escape a classroom during an active shooter incident, do so if at all possible using a chair or a desk.

If escape from a classroom is not possible (or even if it is), barricade the door with desks, tables or anything else at hand.  The idea is to delay entry for bad guys.

If escaping through a window is not possible because it’s not a ground floor classroom, search for improvised weapons.  Fire extinguishers can be used to temporarily blind attackers or obscure escaping kids from view.  Chemicals (potent acids, for instance) in chemistry labs may be useful, just as some musical instruments in band rooms.  Flagpoles may be able to be used as improvised spears or clubs.  Golf clubs and baseball bats beat empty-handed fighting.  Utilize whatever improvised weapons are available to fight an attacker or attackers.

If the classroom is on a second floor and death seems imminent, a jump from a second floor may be the best course of action or use a rope or extension cord to minimize the fall.