Posted on 11/16/2014 8:33:28 AM PST by Whenifhow
Students, teachers and parents were taken by surprise after an “active shooter drill” brought the Winter Haven middle school into lockdown as armed police officers burst into classrooms with their weapons drawn.
Students at Jewett Middle Academy said they were terrified when police officers burst in the doors for a planned active shooter drill – but students and teachers are irked they were not told ahead of time.
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“We actually thought that someone was going to come in there and kill us,” the station quoted her as saying. But police say they conduct these drills for the absolute safety of the students.
“These types of drills are vital in order to evaluate not only law enforcement response, but more importantly to educate the students and school officials in case an actual event were to occur,” Chief ...Bird said in an email to media.
.... many parents, however, received panicked texts from their children as the drill was going on.
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Stacy Ray told WTVT that she received a text from her seventh-grade daughter Lauren Marionneaux after two armed officers burst into her classroom. ... police told The Post that one of the officers had his duty firearm – a handgun – drawn.
The gun was loaded, as is required. The other officer was carrying an unloaded AR-15. According to Ray, one of her children texted: “I thought he was going to shoot me.”
In a statement...spokesperson Jamie Brown for the .... police department said they were only aware of one student who texted a parent during the exercise.
“Unfortunately, no one gets an advanced notice of real life emergencies,” Polk County Public Schools spokesman Jason Gearey said in an e-mailed statement to The Washington Post. “We don’t want students to be scared, but we need them to be safe.”
(Excerpt) Read more at tampa.cbslocal.com ...
It’s NOT cops vs. civilians. COPS ARE CIVILIANS (unless they are veterans). It could accurately be cops vs NON-cops, perhaps, but that still sets up an “us vs them” mindset, which is HIGHLY undesirable no matter how you look at it...
That’s what I thought.
I was a pilot (IDF), so my small arms skills are limited, but even I cringed.
At an elementary school? Public Schools are increasingly resembling prisons.
Libertarian ping
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