[blparent] School shooting drills?

[Kate McEachern]

We have a smaller verssion of these in elamentrhy school.  They have drills 
for lockdowns so there not too bad.  But, it is a bit sad that kids now have 
to be preppared for everything.
Kate
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jo Elizabeth Pinto" <jopinto at msn.com>
To: "NFBnet Blind Parents Mailing List" <blparent at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Sunday, May 06, 2012 8:15 PM
Subject: [blparent] School shooting drills?


> Students Participating in Fake 'School Shootings' May End Up More Anxious 
> Than Prepared
>
> Posted by Jeanne Sager on May 2, 2012
> How's this for unsettling? I hit the website of my local paper to see 
> pictures of a school up the road from me filled with cops brandishing big 
> guns. The good news? It was all a drill. The bad news? High school 
> shootings have now become so commonplace that teachers and students are 
> now practicing for them!
>
> The photos from the local school are an example of a national trend. Mock 
> shooting drills are now lined up on the school calendar right along with 
> the fire drills of our youth. This is our reality.
>
> Schools here in New York. Schools in Florida. Schools in Michigan. They've 
> all let men with guns into the building so teachers, and in some schools, 
> the teenagers too can practice -- in a safe manner -- what to do if a 
> child turns into a killer. They're hoping to save lives by being 
> proactive.
>
> I trust the members of law enforcement who led the shooting scenario in my 
> area. I understand their reasoning for trying it out. I want my kid to be 
> properly prepped for an emergency. I went through fire drills and mock DWI 
> accident drills and God knows what else drills back in my day, and I admit 
> they helped. When I hear a fire alarm, I know what to do.
>
> But that doesn't mean I like it.
>
> Yes; a shooting may happen. But actually, thankfully, the statistics say 
> it probably won't. Just this February, in the wake of the horrific 
> shooting in Chardon, Ohio, Justice Department's Bureau of Justice 
> Statistics released a study showing school-related violent deaths are at 
> an all-time low since it began tracking such deaths in 1992. And these are 
> the statistics we need to focus on.
>
> We send our kids off to school each day thinking that they are going to a 
> safe place. We aren't naive. We're aware there are shootings. But we have 
> to focus on the positive in order to get through the day, in order to 
> entrust teachers with our most precious "belongings" so to speak. The 
> reasoning is two-pronged. It's to make us feel better, but it's also to 
> comfort our kids. This is a place where they spend much of their lives; 
> they need to feel safe there.
>
> A school shooting drill takes the careful fantasy we have built and rips 
> it in two. And for what? For the possibility that there may be a shooting 
> at our kids' school?
>
> I understand why law enforcement is suggesting these drills. But if they 
> are the new normal, I'm afraid of what we're accepting as "normal."
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