So last night, at dinner, we're discussing the day's events, and TheBoy starts talking about his day at school. Seems they had a fire drill or something, and he was reminded of the "Code Red" they had a few years ago. This is a "stranger in the building" drill, where the students are directed to huddle together in a far corner of the room.
He recognized instantly how stupid a plan that was. "If someone came in with a gun, they've got everybody in one place to shoot at!"
I told him that if someone comes into the school with a weapon, to ignore whatever the teacher's telling him to do and jump out a window and head for the woods. The school is all one level; there's a pretty densely wooded area not 200 yards from the school in a 180ยบ arc. A shooter might get him, but they would really have to work at it. He knows from his various FPS games that a moving target is harder to hit than a stationary one, and that it's harder to hit things further away than up close.
It struck me, though, that a ten year old boy saw just how stupid the "mass shooter" plan really is. Having all the students congregate in one area of the room does one thing and one thing only: it provides the shooter with a static, close target. The kids would be much better served by having a modified fire drill of sorts where they all exit the building rapidly but orderly and head for the woods.
But as we all know, the drill is not about keeping the kids safe - it's about getting them used to the state "taking care" of them...
That is all.
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17 comments:
If it's simple enough for a ten year old to figure out, then it's not interesting enough to warrant a master's thesis or ph.d work. So what would be the point?
I'm sure the school administrators couldn't even imagine letting the kids just run off.
Tell your kid to point at the class bully and yell "he has a gun" before running off.
Damn shame you have to tell your kid he may have to run like that target practice scene in Apocalypto.
Most school administrators have a zero tolerance policy against rational thought.
Good on The Boy!
BTW I remember my Mom talking about one of the Cali School shootings back when I was in Elementary school.
I mentioned jumping out the window. Mom suggested what is now best known as the "Collin Goddard Method"....see how well that worked!
I always told my entire class "The schools has THEIR plan for you, and we have OURS". I showed them where I would look to join them, several hundred yards from the school building and behind a very large earth mound.
The school administration would be looking for their bodies piled in a classroom with no exits. Idiots.
Oh, and I also told my own children if their school ever had an armed intruder they were to hit the ground running and not look back, and I'd find them. In addition, I told them if school personnel tried to stop them, to drop them like a rock on the way out, and I'd back them up on it.
Man, that plan sounds like it'll be just as effective as the new classroom doors my old high school bought when I was a sophomore. They were steel-cored and could (allegedly, at least) stop a round from an AK-47 fired point-blank... but the window in each door, which ran the height of the door and was located right next to the doorknob, was made of regular wire-reinforced glass that wouldn't stop a fist. And yet these were supposed to protect us from an active shooter.
Serpentine, Shel! Serpentine!
Any teacher advocating 'playing dead' as a survival strategy should be referred to as "Mr/Mrs Human Shield" from now on.
If they just let the kids run-off to safety they might not be able to count the bodies afterwards!
This video is pretty much the plan I would use:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2tIeRUbRHw
The only problem with running for cover is that there have been shootings that where the shooters were outside, used a fire alarm or something similar to get the masses outside and then started picking people off. But sometimes it would be the best option if it has windows. If the door was the only entrance and there was no windows (many classrooms are this way), I would rather be in a defensive position with an improvised impact weapon like a chair, stick, or fire extinguisher just beyond my barricades to overpower the shooter(s).
When there was an active shooter in the middle school in my hometown, they hustled as many kids as they could out the back door, across the parking lot and into the library. The librarians then locked the doors behind them.
But this was back in 1994 - who knows what the policy is now.
I can't agree that it is about teaching the kids to rely on the .gov. If the admin tells the kids to run off into the woods and one of the kids trips and breaks their leg or gets bit by a snake the school becomes liable for the child's injury and can be sued. If they tell the kids to huddle together and be quiet then the dead kids are the thugs fault and the school has no liability.
Yu-Ain Gonnano
@ Yu-Ain Gonnano:
Which is the same reason why many businesses post against lawful concealed carry. Most businesses don't actually care if anyone on their property has a gun, except that they don't want liability.
This is how the government (through the courts) creates an environment where our RKBA can be curtailed. You don't need to pass a law prohibiting CCW. All you have to do is give signs the force of law, and create a legal environment that rewards businesses for putting the signs up.
That is why I ignore signs and carry anyway. My life is worth more than just someone's liability insurance.
Divemedic; Unless the business makes up something and has the police execute you.
http://pjmedia.com/blog/gunned-down-in-vegas-what-really-happened-to-erik-scott/
I was not thrilled to discover that the school where I sub has four exits (one at the end of each wing, plus main doors) and windows that do not open large enough to get out. It stands by itself outside of the city limits, and all I could think of (especially after reading the no-weapons policy) was "Beslan."
LittleRed1
"In the first place, God made idiots. That was for practice. Then he made school boards."
- Mark Twain
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