Posted on 05/23/2012 5:34:24 AM PDT by marktwain
WAUKESHA Waukesha West High School was put on lockdown Tuesday morning, May 22nd after Waukesha police got a report of a man with a gun.
As it turned out, there was a man with a .22 rifle in the area who was apparently hunting a coyote.
The school was on lockdown for just under a half-hour.
Officials say no one was hurt.
The statists want any non-government person with a weapon seen as a dangerous lunatic.
“... Life is risk”.
I’m going to have to disagree with you, Mark. The school officials had no idea initially if this man was truly a hunter or a nut job. A lock down of the high school makes absolute sense. The school officials simply lock the doors to make sure no one enters or exits the building. Perhaps it is where I live (close to D.C.) but after 9/11 and the sniper attacks, I would be furious as a parent if I knew the school ignored a possible issue and put my children at risk. What better way to put terror into a country than to start killing kids? Life is risk but life experience has taught me that sometimes to react to what possibly is a bad situation is far better than to ignore it and wish I didn’t later. IMHO.
At a mostly rural school in the neighboring county, some one reported a person entered the building carrying a gun. The sheriff was called, the person found, no arrest. He had a gun stock and was working on it in wood shop.
Was the man hunting coyotes on school grounds or adjacent to school grounds? A lockdown would be reasonable in that case. But, if someone saw a man with a gun somewhere in town and they locked down the schools because of it, then that is too much.
The message to the children (and the town and, thanks to national news, the country) in this is that we (the government) protect you from anyone with a gun because people with guns (who don’t have badges) are bad.
Now I am just asking because I do not have kids in school any more so don’t flame. Doesn’t lock down mean they cannot leave and more importantly parents can’t get them?
Isn’t lock down taking away your rights as a parent?
I want the kids “safe” too, but I certainly do not want the statists to decide some of these things. They usurp power sometimes and I cringe when I hear of it. Telling me or my kid that I am a virtual prisoner just rubs me wrong somehow.
The article seemed unclear as to the location of the hunter. I assumed his location was close enough to the school to make the administration/staff worry. If you would have asked me twenty years ago if I thought this was “over kill”, I probably would have said yes. However, I remember the sniper killings. I was one of the countless parent volunteers that made a “tunnel” of sorts so the children could run through to get to school. I wore a white sweatshirt and I made a bright red circle on the back (in hopes that if the sniper was there... he would target on me rather than my first grader at the time). Other parents put neon duct tape on their shirts for the same reason.
A half hour lock down does mean that no one enters or exits the building. The kids stay away from any widow. Unfortunately, we no longer live in a country where it is automatically assumed that someone with a gun is just a hunter. I wish we did, but we don’t. I disagree with the statement that the “government protects you from anyone with a gun because people with guns (and no badges) are bad”. This lock down was a safety precaution only IN CASE the man with the gun wasn’t just a hunter.
Wisconsin isn’t Maryland, D.C. , Virginia or New York. (I have the feeling that parents in those locations are just a bit more nervous about school safety with respect to terrorists or nut jobs). However, let me play devil’s advocate. Let’s say the school officials knew there was a man with a gun near the school and did nothing. They assumed it was just a hunter. The man then picked off students at their lunch break or the end of the day (when everyone exits at once). Or, the man entered the school and started mass killing of kids. A parent would then ask, “Why did you assume it was simply a hunter and not take precautions before verifying this information?” If you would simply had locked the doors then one, four, twenty kids... wouldn’t be dead.
Again, it is probably where I live (and my life experience) that has me disagreeing with Mark. Wearing a white sweatshirt with a hand drawn target on it will do that to you. Watching little kids run through a tunnel of adults to get to school may have a lasting impression on me that I will never kick.
I need more coffee..............
I'd like to know what the authorities definition of "area" is...
"A man was spotted leaving a gun store with a rifle in his possesion. All schools in the city were put on lock-down until the individual could be detained and questioned. Additional accomplices were observed entering the store."
Wisconsin Open Carry locks down high school ping
FReep Mail me if you want on, or off, this Wisconsin interest ping list.
For those who don’t know, Waukesha High School is in the city. There are many parts of Waukesha County that are quite rural, but the HS is in the city. There are large suburban lots but it is really rather congested. I would not want an unidentified man with a rifle roaming around the HS. I’m sure that hunting is not allowed there.
For instance, I live in a semi-rural area. There would be no hunting allowed around our HS. However, my home is on 12 acres in an Ag Overlay district, and I can hunt with a shotgun on my own land, or with a .22 for varmints. Otherwise, it is bow and arrow, only. During deer season, there is a hunter who gets several adjoining landowners to sign a paper giving him permission to hunt on our land. He puts several parcels together for about 40 acres of range. He can use a rifle, or a bow, depending on which season it is. He’s taken some big bucks out of here.
But he can’t wander around the HS. LOL.
Wisconsin Open Carry locks down high school ping
FReep Mail me if you want on, or off, this Wisconsin interest ping list.
For those who don’t know, Waukesha High School is in the city. There are many parts of Waukesha County that are quite rural, but the HS is in the city. There are large suburban lots but it is really rather congested. I would not want an unidentified man with a rifle roaming around the HS. I’m sure that hunting is not allowed there.
For instance, I live in a semi-rural area. There would be no hunting allowed around our HS. However, my home is on 12 acres in an Ag Overlay district, and I can hunt with a shotgun on my own land, or with a .22 for varmints. Otherwise, it is bow and arrow, only. During deer season, there is a hunter who gets several adjoining landowners to sign a paper giving him permission to hunt on our land. He puts several parcels together for about 40 acres of range. He can use a rifle, or a bow, depending on which season it is. He’s taken some big bucks out of here.
But he can’t wander around the HS. LOL.
Wisconsin Open Carry locks down high school ping
FReep Mail me if you want on, or off, this Wisconsin interest ping list.
For those who don’t know, Waukesha High School is in the city. There are many parts of Waukesha County that are quite rural, but the HS is in the city. There are large suburban lots but it is really rather congested. I would not want an unidentified man with a rifle roaming around the HS. I’m sure that hunting is not allowed there.
For instance, I live in a semi-rural area. There would be no hunting allowed around our HS. However, my home is on 12 acres in an Ag Overlay district, and I can hunt with a shotgun on my own land, or with a .22 for varmints. Otherwise, it is bow and arrow, only. During deer season, there is a hunter who gets several adjoining landowners to sign a paper giving him permission to hunt on our land. He puts several parcels together for about 40 acres of range. He can use a rifle, or a bow, depending on which season it is. He’s taken some big bucks out of here.
But he can’t wander around the HS. LOL.
Wisconsin Open Carry locks down high school ping
FReep Mail me if you want on, or off, this Wisconsin interest ping list.
For those who don’t know, Waukesha High School is in the city. There are many parts of Waukesha County that are quite rural, but the HS is in the city. There are large suburban lots but it is really rather congested. I would not want an unidentified man with a rifle roaming around the HS. I’m sure that hunting is not allowed there.
For instance, I live in a semi-rural area. There would be no hunting allowed around our HS. However, my home is on 12 acres in an Ag Overlay district, and I can hunt with a shotgun on my own land, or with a .22 for varmints. Otherwise, it is bow and arrow, only. During deer season, there is a hunter who gets several adjoining landowners to sign a paper giving him permission to hunt on our land. He puts several parcels together for about 40 acres of range. He can use a rifle, or a bow, depending on which season it is. He’s taken some big bucks out of here.
But he can’t wander around the HS. LOL.
“... so don’t flame. Isn’t lock down taking away your rights as a parent?”
I would never flame you (okay... some other FR’s I would but not you. LOL). A Code Red does lock down the school and does not permit entry or exit. It is only called when there is a situation that could endanger the children or staff. So, yes... the parents cannot enter during a Code Red. The mindset is if a parent can enter and get into the building then a “bad person” can do so as well. Code Reds last a short time and to be honest.. they are rarely used. In fact, the last time a Code Red was used at one of my kid’s school was when an armed bank robber was seen near a the school. The concept was if the armed robber got desperate, they (there were several together) could enter a school and take the children as hostage. I believe the Code Red lasted about fifteen minutes. Fortunately, it has not been used willy nilly. It is practiced several times during the school year like a fire drill. (the hope that they will never truly need it but know how to do it just in case).
Speaking of school lockdowns...
I’ve had several occasions over the years, to visit a local high school during school hours. From what I experienced I’d say that school is ALWAYS on lockdown. You don’t get in unless you’re identified and buzzed in. You sign in, get tagged. You sign out. You’re watched on monitors, you’re watched BY monitors standing by the exit. All exterior doors are locked to the outside and if not for the fire regs they’d be permanently locked on the inside. Someone is watching every door, either physically present or via video surveillance.
Never tested it, but it wouldn’t surprise me one bit if I walked into a broom closet and shut it behind me, and a security grunt would see it on vid and sound an alarm.
You also need to announce your cell phone and camera possessions, but so far you are not required to surrender them at the door. So far!
And it’s all just slightly more strict and secure than your typical senior/elderly apartment building.
I have been asked for photo ID at schools, too. Next they will have wanding, and then full patdowns.
To the 21st century politician and bureaucrat, a safe place is where you forfeit your rights. The more you forfeit, the safer the place. Message: rights are dangerous.
But what is anyone doing about this? Anything? Anyone?
I was once on the campus of Southern Utah University and got sort of a culture shock when a student carrying a rifle walked past me. He was chatting with his friends—apparently, openly carrying a firearm in southwestern Utah is nothing unusual. I assumed he was going to target practice.
Had the student done the same thing just six hours away on a campus in California, the SWAT team would have been called, the school evacuated, and the student would be arrested, held without bail, and face years and years in prison.
Oh my God. We have become perpetual victims.
Was the man in the school?
Was the man on the school grounds?
Had any threats been made to the school?
If not why a lock down?
Because we have allowed the liberal spineless, cry baby, whiners, to dictate how we live over the past 40 some years.
When I went to school it was common to see several rifles/shotguns in racks in vehicles on the school parking lot.
Teachers and students. We NEVER had school shootings. Had we, someone could have put stop to it, very quickly.
We have lost the ability to be Americans. Thank you so much progressives, liberals, socialist, communists.........
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.