[blparent] School shooting drills?

[Veronica Smith]

So when Gab started school 5 years ago, she was terrified that there would
be a fire at school and at home.  Reality, there might be and how does one
assure a 5/6 year old that it is safe to go to school or better yet sleep in
your own bed.  Whether a fire drill or a shooting drill, the fear is
instilled into our children.  
I would like to believe that none of the above would ever come to my child's
school, but the reality is we just don't know.  the only drills that I have
ever been apart of was a fire drill, but what would I do if a gunman came
in, I've never been taught, I've  never been drilled.  Gab says they have
fire drills now and then and lock down drills.  The first time I heard that,
a lock down drill, I was terrified and thought to myself, I take my child
there, do we live in a bad neighborhood, WTH
But it happens everywhere, in good neighborhoods and in bad.  If a bad peep
wants to come into my neighborhood, all they have to do is jump in their car
and go.


-----Original Message-----
From: blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Jo Elizabeth Pinto
Sent: Sunday, May 06, 2012 6:15 PM
To: NFBnet Blind Parents Mailing List
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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