Should schools conduct more lockdown drills than fire drills?

[ezkl2230]

That was the question being asked on Mlive today Should Michigan students have fewer fire drills and more lockdowns? Some safety advocates say yes | MLive.com. The superintendent of one our W. MI school districts credited the "code red" drills for saving "hundreds of lives" at Sandy Hook. Here was my reply to the article:

OK. A little counterpoint here.

"'Really, what saved people in Sandy Hook in my opinion is the ‘code red’ drills that kids followed,' Shibler said. 'Hundreds of lives were saved by following the procedures...'"

I dispute that.

We are talking about a situation at Newtown in which the aggressor shot his way into the building in the first place. Kids were hunkered down in their classrooms, which was like shooting fish in a barrel for Lanza. OK, so assume the doors to the classroom were locked; Lanza had already shot his way into the school, there was nothing to keep him from shooting his was into each room as well. He was free to continue going from room to room shooting kids and teachers who were sheltering in place for as long as it took for someone to stop him. Unless you can find the money to retrofit each and every window in a school building with bullet proof glass, and each door with kevlar or other bullet resistant cores, and hardware that will resist a breaching round, keeping kids sheltered in place during an active shooter scenario is a psycho's dream come true. When are we finally going to wrap our heads around that fact?

Let's get real about this: we can't afford to undertake such expensive renovations. The cost is prohibitive. And while improving mental health is an absolute necessity, we will never be able to stop 100% of these situations; someone will always slip through the cracks. That is the problem inherent in dealing with humans - we are incredibly resourceful when we set our minds on a course of action.

In the final analysis, there is only one way to reliably reduce the number of casualties in an active shooter situation - you have to stop the shooter in his tracks as soon after the situation begins as is possible. Can we prevent these situations from happening entirely? No. Norway, a country in which it is nearly impossible to obtain a firearm, proved that. The bad guy will always have the initiative, and the good guys will always begin with a disadvantage. As long as that individual maintains the ability to continue his rampage, people will continue to die - and no plan that includes sheltering in place and hoping for the best is going to change that.

 

[Pir8fan]

Lockdown drills wouldn't be a bad idea. I remember doing nuke attack drills in the 60s where we all dove under our desks. Of course, today, the weenies in charge would say that training for a lockdown would traumatize these kids or hurt their self-esteem.

 

[wcd]

No it is high time we start looking at real solutions. We need to quit playing games with our childrens safety. We need to have people in the buildings that can deal with a threat right quick and in a hurry period. Enough with the catering to namby pamby liberals who are afraid what might happen if school children were to learn first hand that a fire arm is a tool for defense of ones safety and liberty. I mean after all we are sanctioning children for making guns out of pop tarts for goodness sake. Since when did we stop teaching children the great history or nation? I mean look at that woman on fox news who was interviewed about defending herself against a rapist or murderor she simply said then i guess they will have to kill me because I would not defind my self with a fire arm. Well good for her in her little fantasy world where atrocities do not happen. Mean while back in the real world we need to quit worrying about how others might be ofended by our God given rights and start acting like citizens not dependents on the welfare state! Stepping down from the soap box now.

 

[dogshawred]

Right isn't always Puurrrty

eckl2230, I have for a long time concluded that as a society we are reactive not proactive. When did the game change, when did we as a nation become willing for someone to get the first punch and the second, third, and fourth before we say enough. That is not how I was raised nor was our generation, the best defense is a quick strong offence. We need to give our children the best education possible, inculding the history of how our nation was once the greatest nation on Earth and how that came to pass, it was not because we were all sweet and nice to everyone!
Many years ago I gave a boss of mine a 4 foot 2x4 as a Christmas present without any indication as to why it was given so he would have to ask about it purpose, when he did he wasn't pleased with the reply. :biggrin: I let him know that it was for him to strap on his back until he was able to develop a backbone to keep his employees for walking all over him. Maybe we need to send these kinds of reminders to our legislators so they too can get the point. :shout: PS I worked there for 24 more years until I had to retire for medical reasons and was promoted 9 times during my time with the company. :smile:

 

[nca_mm]

Simple answer, at least one of each should be conducted each quarter.

 

[gunnerbob]

Practicing to sit still, waiting to die... is stupid. When are we going to pull our heads out of our asses and arm more good people to kill the bad people?