Posted on 02/10/2019 12:58:41 PM PST by rktman
In one sense, the impulse driving these preparations is understandable. The prospect of mass murder in a classroom is intolerable, and good-faith proposals for preventing school shootings should be treated with respect. But the current mode of instead preparing kids for such events is likely to be psychologically damaging. See, for instance, the parting letter a 12-year-old boy wrote his parents during a lockdown at a school in Charlotte, North Carolina, following what turned out to be a bogus threat: “I am so sorry for anything I have done, the trouble I have caused,” he scribbled. “Right now I’m scared to death. I need a warm soft hug … I hope that you are going to be okay with me gone.”
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
Herd them into a corner, cut the lights out, and lock the door. Not the response I would like to give but the one I am charged to do. By and large, my high-schoolers don’t seem to be traumatized much...
I work in security - physical, electronic and cyber. I was asked for my opinion on a recent school design that was intended to keep out intruders / shooters.
Me: “Nice defensive fortress you have there.”
School Board Member; “Why thank you!”
Me: “That was not a complement. Because what you have designed here is a place for a gun man to hold up and take a lot of lives while the police are on the outside and cant get in.”
Member: “oh crap”
We would do them every year in the hospital. Every time we were able to make significant improvements in handling mass casualty incidents.
But we are not kids. And the Boston marathon was a little too close for comfort.
Roger that.
Wow. Really? We had to get underneath our desks during air raid drills and in some cases had to go into fallout shelters in our schools basement.
Not sure how many of us came out of it with PTSD.
We had to take bustrips out of town on our ‘nuclear bomb’ drills.
I’m a combat veteran, and recently retired from teaching.
Had someone pulled a stunt like the one described, and had tried to enter my classroom, I would have killed them.
No hesitation, no remorse, no sympathy - I would have killed them.
Dead.
I am responsible for 300 employees as the Emergency Preparedness Officer. We are not permitted to do a drill but during our Annual Mandatory Training I Show a fine video that was produced by the NYS Homeland Security Office. It isn’t perfect but it is excellent nonetheless. I was instructed to say viewing the video was optional but I only had one person leave and he is a manager for a co-located Office. Here is a link to the vid.
https://youtu.be/CVgXH7smBCk
I should add that one of the most horrifying mass killing incidents happened in our Hometown, and instead of reporting to the Department of Labor Office where he had an appointment, he went a few doors down Front Street to the American Civic Association where the incident occurred. The heroine of the day got many people into the Boiler Room and saved their lives. Run, Hide, Fight.
“the parting letter a 12-year-old boy wrote his parents during a lockdown at a school in Charlotte, North Carolina, following what turned out to be a bogus threat: “I am so sorry for anything I have done, the trouble I have caused,” he scribbled. “Right now I’m scared to death. I need a warm soft hug … I hope that you are going to be okay with me gone.”
We are certainly raising a bunch of wimps. We kept the athletic equipment in the classroom closet. I grew up with some pretty tough kids. We were the offspring of WWII vets and understood that evil existed and that bowing to it didn’t work. An intruder would have faced a half dozen of us with ball bats. Not saying that I’m very brave, just that I would have known that was our only chance.
“Duck and Cover”!
I remember them well from the 50s.
I thought it was well done and very helpful.
We were based in Orlando at McCoy AFB. They had mothers organized to carpool kids out of the city during the drill. I got left at the school. I was sitting on the curb when a cop stopped. He was surprised I wasn’t upset. I told him that being a few miles outside 0f town wouldn’t make much difference. I was in the third grade.
Was that the name of a Band from Your Prom ?
I’m in a toss up. On the very rare occasion that I would not have been CCW/CHL I do like the Fire Extinguisher for a quick grab. My next problem would be do I hit the shooter with it or spray the shooter in the face first and then get the Gun or spray, hit, grab the gun or just beat the shooters face inside out and then take the Gun ?
Shadows of Knight (were from my HS, 1967-1971):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdAezc-RX-o
I do the same thing as you: use any weapon I could get, including a woman’s heavy purse. A fire extinguisher would be my next choice, and I’d try to blind, then kill him with it.
Call the cops, but leave the gun alone, with your foot on it until they get there.
There are so many possible scenarios, that I’d have to react as each one comes up. But I like to think about the possibilities ahead of time.
“Duck and Cover” was the grade school/Jr HS drill we did under our classrooms and desks, so we’d be okay after an A-Bomb attack. Heh; little did they/we know...
Sorry I misunderstood your original question.
Yep - I was trained as an anti-terror officer on a base...turns out expediency is rated higher on the priority list than following proven methods to keep people safe...after 6 months I gave up and told them I wouldn’t fill the position any more.
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