What do you think of this? Teachers subjected to surprise 'mass shooting' drill (US)

My name is URL

Two masked men wearing hoodies and wielding handguns burst into the Pine Eagle Charter School in this tiny rural community on Friday. Students were at home for an in-service day, so the gunmen headed into a meeting room full of teachers and opened fire.

Someone figured out in a few seconds that the bullets were not drawing blood because they were blanks and the exercise was a drill, designed to test Pine Eagle's preparation for an assault by "active shooters" who were, in reality, members of the school staff. But those few seconds left everybody plenty scared.

http://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/index.ssf/2013/04/gunfire_and_moments_of_fear_as.html

Is this how they're going to deal with the issue of school shootings... by causing teachers and staff to work under constant fear and be prepared for random acts of violence at all times? Fcukin hell... it seems like something you'd hear happening in a war-torn third world shithole.

Imagine the ways in which such an exercise could go wrong. Or the stress it might cause to people.

Jester252

What the luck is wrong with people. Who though this was a good idea. How did they know that one of the teachers didn't had a gun now or in future?

Yakult

America, nuff said!

Jonny7

Well if you actually read the story, the school was prepared for the drill and no one complained, quite the contrary they thought it was very positive.

Thrill

My name is URL wrote: »

Imagine the ways in which such an exercise could go wrong.

If one of the teachers was "packing heat" then things could have gotten real bad indeed.

My name is URL

Jonny7 wrote: »

Well if you actually read the story, the school was prepared for the drill and no one complained, quite the contrary they thought it was very positive.

I did read it. I'm asking people what they think about it. And only a couple of teachers were asked how they felt about it, or at least only the opinions of a few teachers were published.

There's discussion online elsewhere with many teachers and faculty staff very much shocked by the event.

And the school wasn't prepared for the drill. None of the teachers in the meeting knew it was going to happen.. so unless you've a vastly different definition of 'prepared'...

Antar Bolaeisk

That's an incredibly bad idea, all it would take is for one teacher to be carrying a gun for things to go terribly wrong. It could also make said teacher think twice about taking out a real attacker.

Drill them in some form of lockdown procedure yes but don't have people bursting in with guns. It's also pretty terrible that they even need to consider something like that in a school.

belcampprisoner

I can see lawsuits

Remmy

I hope they get taken to the cleaners. Whatever about having contingency plans in place should such an event happening the same way they prep for fire alarms but not this. What if one of the teachers had an undiagnosed heart condition/ served in the military and had ptsd. If these scenarios should go ahead everyone should be brought into the loop.

Overheal

If the teachers were advised beforehand there was going to be an upcoming drill, I wouldn't see the problem, but if it was just thrown on them then **** that.

We have to drill at work for things like child abductions for instance, and I can see a good reason to have schools prepared to respond to acts of violence, which are common enough to warrant it - probably at this point about as likely as a fire. So you might as well drill for it in the same manner.

I was volunteering at an elementary school this weekend, babysitting a bunch of grade schoolers in the art room. They were all just basically napping and watching a movie, but I couldn't help but find myself sitting at the doorway and looking down the hallways wondering what would I do if it was me and those kids in such a situation. I understand where the mentality is coming from. Parents and Teachers are reasonably attached to these children and they want these classrooms to feel like a safe environment. IMO, I'm cool with whatever measures they take as long as, as far as the children are concerned, its still a school, where kids just learn and post their finger paintings up on the hallway walls etc. and not turn them into prisons with armed guards and metal scanners everywhere.

crazy cabbage

de ****?

godwin

Go Murica!

Tom_Cruise

Why not fit every school with sprinklers in case of a fire, but they sprinkle not only water but also sleeping gas so everyone in the school including the attacker would fall asleep?

kowloon

Chance of being shot is still so far down the scale of risk it would have been better to spend the time giving the staff advanced driving courses, more first aid training, how to do any number of other things that are more likely to save a life.

Killer Wench

Jonny7 wrote: »

Well if you actually read the story, the school was prepared for the drill and no one complained, quite the contrary they thought it was very positive.

I grew up during the Cold War attending schools on or near military bases. I also lived in the Midwest. Drills are intended to help establish a plan in case of the situation. Sandy hook had evacuation plans-remember the images if the children walking out holding each other. I remember tornado, fire, and bomb drills.

My name is URL

Killer Wench wrote: »

[..]I remember tornado, fire, and bomb drills.

And did they need to set actual fires or plant fake bombs for those drills?

Nobody is saying that there should be no drills for such eventualities. The problem is with having actors actually storm the building and shoot blank rounds at people when nobody knows that they are in fact only blank rounds.

You see no problem with that?

BattleCorp

Drills of this kind are dumb. How would a teacher know if it is a drill or a real event. They wouldn't. So the guys shooting the blanks can thank their lucky stars that no teacher blew their fcuking brains out.

This kind of drill is totally different to a fire drill. You evacuate during a fire drill. Nobody dies.

And yes, I can see lawsuits.

orestes

So, in an exercise to see how prepared the school is for a potential shooter attack, the school got all their staff in one place,frightened the sh1t out of them, demonstrated how easily they can all be wiped out, and then made the details and results of the exercise public.

Am I the only one who sees this as a bit stupid and counter-productive?

My name is URL

orestes wrote: »

So, in an exercise to see how prepared the school is for a potential shooter attack, the school staged an attack, frightened the sh1t out of their own staff, found them to be very badly prepared for such an attack, and then made the details and results of the exercise public.

Am I the only one who sees this as a bit stupid and counter-productive?

Totally worth it apparently. One teacher put it pretty succinctly -

"I'll tell you, the whole situation was horrible," she said. "I got a couple in the front and a couple in the back."

That'll learn 'em for not being prepared. It's no wonder home-schooling is so prevalent in the US.. who in their right mind would send their kids to be educated by these people?

orestes

My name is URL wrote: »

Totally worth it apparently. One teacher put it pretty succinctly -

That'll learn 'em for not being prepared. It's no wonder home-schooling is so prevalent in the US.. who in their right mind would send their kids to be educated by these people?

I was thinking more along the lines of it being pretty stupid to publicise a tactical 101 on how to go about wiping out their school.

Killer Wench

My name is URL wrote: »

And did they need to set actual fires or plant fake bombs for those drills?

Nobody is saying that there should be no drills for such eventualities. The problem is with having actors actually storm the building and shoot blank rounds at people when nobody knows that they are in fact only blank rounds.

You see no problem with that?

No problem with it, especially when one of the teacher admits:

"Surprisingly, the drill made Beck aware that she would not have recognized the sounds of gunfire. "I would have blown it off as kids' sounds in the hall," she said.

The drill has since prompted her to keep her classroom door locked and to think of windows as escape routes, she said. But the biggest insight for her was the reminder that she is in charge of the youngsters in her classroom, and would have to remain calm in an emergency.

"Emotion begets emotion," she said."

AskMyChocolate

Killer Wench wrote: »

No problem with it, especially when one of the teacher admits:

"Surprisingly, the drill made Beck aware that she would not have recognized the sounds of gunfire. "I would have blown it off as kids' sounds in the hall," she said.

The drill has since prompted her to keep her classroom door locked and to think of windows as escape routes, she said. But the biggest insight for her was the reminder that she is in charge of the youngsters in her classroom, and would have to remain calm in an emergency.

"Emotion begets emotion," she said."

Genius. so if the gunman enters through the window it's a complete turkey shoot. FFS!

Lithium93_

I can see the lawsuits a mile away

Full.Duck

Well something is seriously messed up that you have to have a drill for a mass shooting in the first place. Unexpected events, fire, earthquake, tornado yes. Mass shooting? Getting to the root cause of the problem would be where to start. Not a the end. Prevention is the solution.

stefan idiot jones

They are even making white boards that double up as a bullet proof shield. God bless them all.

Dravokivich

That is a bit nuts. Surely there should have been Police/Swat involved to put together a process for dealing with a school under threat? There is very little I see a teacher can do under such circumstances without being armed themselves.

BattleCorp

Killer Wench wrote: »

The drill has since prompted her to keep her classroom door locked and to think of windows as escape routes, she said. But the biggest insight for her was the reminder that she is in charge of the youngsters in her classroom, and would have to remain calm in an emergency.

"Emotion begets emotion," she said."

Chance of being shot in school - probably one in a million.

Chance of being trapped in a burning classroom because of a locked door - a whole lot more than the chances of being shot in school.

Son Of A Vidic

My name is URL wrote: »

the school wasn't prepared for the drill.

Which probably would make it the best time to do it. Errors and mistakes can then be easily identified and eradicated from future practice.

geeky

The surprised staff had received training from the Union County Sheriff's Office on active shooter scenarios. They had been told they had some options, such as not rushing out of their classrooms when gunfire erupted, and locking and barricading their doors.

They weren't expecting a drill like this, and they were caught by surprise when the two men entered and began firing.

Seems to indicate that there wasn't any advance warning that this was a drill, and not to panic. Could have gone so spectacularly, awfully wrong, as previous posters have said.

On a lighter note, can anyone imagine the 'shooter' being a real-life version of Dwight Schrute?

Dravokivich

Corvus Maximus wrote: »

Which probably would make it the best time to do it. Errors and mistakes can then be easily identified and eradicated from future practice.

What more could there be to "Try to avoid confronting the shooter." Anything after that should be the Police.