Are you kids good at running and screaming?
February 25, 2018 5:36 AM   Subscribe

This is America: 9 out of 10 public schools now hold mass shooting drills for students. "Are you kids good at running and screaming?" a police officer asks a class of elementary school kids in Akron, Ohio. His friendly tone then turns serious. “What I don’t want you to do is hide in the corner if a bad guy comes in the room,” he says. "You gotta get moving."

Welcome to ALICE Training. Since Columbine, 33 states have passed statutes that specifically require every school or school district to have a comprehensive school safety or emergency plan.

ALICE stands for Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate and is the number 1 active shooter civilian response training in the United States. When we talk about active shooter drills, we're talking about a program like ALICE.

This student-made video from Waltham High School in Waltham, MA demonstrates high school students under a simulated attack from a gunman (warning; important but disturbing). After alerting people, locking down a school and informing authorities, students and teachers need to make a plan.

Countering is not counterattacking but instead creating a dynamic environment (which) decreases the shooter’s chance of hitting a target and can provide the precious seconds needed in order to evacuate. Evacuation is the last step.

The ALICE website and YouTube channels offer dozens of examples of training videos used from Kindergarten through high school. In these videos, students are led through simulations where they shut blinds, lock and barricade doors, hide in corners, throw objects at intruders and more.

But aren't these drills going to scare kids? Not if they're done right. According to a 2014 study published by National Association of School Psychologists and the National Association of School Resource Officers, "While one of the primary goals of crisis preparedness is to develop a sense of empowerment and control,armed assailant drills not conducted appropriately may cause physical and psychological harm to students, staff, and the overall learning environment."

What to do when the perpetrator knows the active shooter drill and foils it by pulling a fire alarm? You have the Stoneman Douglas High School massacre.
posted by yes I said yes I will Yes (82 comments total) 32 users marked this as a favorite
 
That last link raises the question that really needs to be addressed: is there any evidence this training does any good? My personal belief is that it allows people to feel like they are doing something about the problem while avoiding having to deal with the real problem which is, of course, guns.
posted by TedW at 6:03 AM on February 25, 2018 [85 favorites]


My personal belief is that it allows people to feel like they are doing something about the problem while avoiding having to deal with the real problem which is, of course, guns.

It's the new duck-and-cover.
posted by ryanshepard at 6:12 AM on February 25, 2018 [46 favorites]


But aren't these drills going to scare kids? Not if they're done right.

1963 - aren't duck and cover drills going to scare kids? not if they're done right

congratulations - you're going to create another generation of nihilists just like the baby boomers - unless, of course, the mass rebellion they start first actually works for them better than it did my generation
posted by pyramid termite at 6:13 AM on February 25, 2018 [25 favorites]


I've been in schools during lockdown drills and it's disturbing as hell, even when they're just the standard "lock the door, and hide in a corner out of the line of sight" variety. I wrote in the Parkland thread that my office (I work on a college campus) had an active shooter training that included things like hand-to-hand combat and a simulated shooting event, and I refused to participate because NO. This is normalizing something that should never ever be normal. I'm a civilian, I work in an office, I shouldn't need combat training. My little five year old baby shouldn't need to practice not getting shot while at school.

I reject this entire premise. We are a sick, broken culture.
posted by soren_lorensen at 6:16 AM on February 25, 2018 [176 favorites]


The district where I work implemented ALICE. We had one staff training over two years ago and it was terrifying. Teachers were put into classrooms and given Nerf balls to throw at the intruder. There was a PA announcement that the ALICE drill was about to begin, but that all subsequent announcements would not state it was a drill and for us to respond accordingly.

Sitting in the classroom, we heard, "Attention. There is an active shooter on campus," and we would have locked the door but nobody had a key (I still don't have a key to any of my three classrooms), so we started barricading the door with chairs and desks.

Then we heard (fake) gunshots in the hallway and the PA announced, "The shooter is in the English wing. Do not evacuate from the English wing." We could hear the gunshots and doors being pounded as we all hid in a corner.

The ALICE training officer jiggled the handle of the classroom, threw open the door and began taking aim at us as we threw our Nerf balls at them. Two laughing PE teachers pretended to overtake the intruder, grabbed his gun and threw it on the floor, where someone else covered it with a garbage can (that was the most important thing to do, as I recall), and we all ran out of the room, shaking.

It was terrible and terrifying and we never practiced it with the kids because it was deemed to be too unsettling.
posted by yes I said yes I will Yes at 6:27 AM on February 25, 2018 [65 favorites]


you're going to create another generation of nihilists just like the baby boomers.

I wouldn't underestimate the role the fear of atomic war played in helping to create the cultural shifts of the mid-late 1960s. I'd hardly tar all baby boomers as being nihilistic, and I hope these gun drills may be unwittingly sowing the seeds of a new generation changing our insane gun laws.
posted by ryanshepard at 6:40 AM on February 25, 2018 [10 favorites]


I know that we are living in unsettling times and I know that it does no good to pretend that there are not real dangers but I am sitting here with tears in my eyes reading all this and I am so angry that this is what sending kids and teachers off to school involves. I am so thankful that I left the teaching field and I am furious and heartsick that this is the new normal.
posted by bookmammal at 6:42 AM on February 25, 2018 [26 favorites]


We talk about protecting our institutions as a safeguard against fascism, but we’ve been failing our public education institutions for decades. We’ve allowed things to degrade to the point that now not only are teachers severely overworked and underpaid, but they’re expected to go toe to toe with ICE trying to remove students from school, or armed assholes trying to shoot kids. This is fucking bonkers. We have utterly failed our schools, our teachers, and our children.
posted by supercrayon at 7:00 AM on February 25, 2018 [66 favorites]


My personal belief is that it allows people to feel like they are doing something about the problem while avoiding having to deal with the real problem which is, of course, guns.

It's the new duck-and-cover.


We did this in Texas with our tornado drills. Even as a young child I realized how this was more about controlling panic and less about actual protection. It felt so stupid. I don't think that crouching in a hallway with my hands over my head will do much when a tornado hits a school.

It's how I feel about a lot of the security in airports. It's there to make you feel safer, to give you a sense of ease, that something is being done. It pacifies some of those baser instincts that would otherwise cause you to panic or lose control in a terrifying situation.
posted by Fizz at 7:07 AM on February 25, 2018 [7 favorites]


I'm guessing that Wayne LaPierre envisions an era when schools, their perimeters "hardened," will see an end to mass shootings and the need for these drills.

Such schools--assuming their districts can find money in the budget--will be outfitted with fences, razor wire, machine-gun turrets personneled by glaring, military-trained guards with reflector glasses, and metal detectors at their entrances. In other words, they will resemble World War II concentration camps or Japanese-American internment facilities.

They'll look like fortresses. But they'll be impervious, and gun-violence free.

This begs the question, which I don't think you can answer, Mr. LaPierre, you terrorist bitch in the employ of a terrorist organization: How do you intend to "harden" the rest of the world beyond the borders of schools?

Is it possible to harden outdoor concert venues, like that outside of the Mandalay Bay? Can you fence in and turret Burning Man, or any of the other concert spaces that extend for hundreds of acres?

What about malls, like the one near my house that experienced a mass shooting years ago? Will these be hardened with razor wire and turrets? Will mall cops be issued assault weapons and grenades in place of their Glocks?

What about the streets, parks, sidewalks, houses, and apartment buildings that are subject to gun violence every day? Will these be hardened as well?
posted by Gordion Knott at 7:11 AM on February 25, 2018 [22 favorites]


The NRA’s Plan to “Harden” Schools Is Terrifying. Remove all trees, put in a prison fence around the school, turn the reception desk into an "entrapment area" with bulletproof glass and steel plating.
posted by Nelson at 7:33 AM on February 25, 2018 [21 favorites]


It scares parents. And angers them.

When my daughter was six, she told us how she was trained to run serpentine, to make it harder to get shot. This is something I didn't read about until a pre-teen, when a bunch of us found Army training manuals in the library and thought it was cool (typical boy stuff).

She went to a Montesori school through the sixth grade. First, second, and third grades were in class together, and kids would work with each other--older kids helping the younger. When she was eight or nine, in the third grade, she explained that the younger kids would hide in cabinets during a lockdown drill. There wasn't room for the bigger kids, so they stood outside the cabinets, and were told to throw heavy stuff from around the room--books, chairs, canned goods if there happened to be a drive at the time--at an attacker.

Let me repeat: My nine-year-old daughter was expected to defend her class from an attacker with nothing but books.

She's thirteen now, in the joint high school/junior high. Two weeks ago, after the shooting in Floridia, she was told that, if the fire alarm went off, they were to wait until the teacher confirmed it was a legit fire/fire drill before evacuating. Precious seconds were being lost to this.

We expect our children to work the front lines of the issue. All the work arounds and defensive measures are put on children as young as six. But the people with gun fetishes can close their ears, shout "Second Amendment," and not confront the reality their "right" means in practice. They have no skin in this game, and have to make no sacrifice. The only solutions they offer is to blame the victem for not being armed, suggest more guns, and enable their hero fantisies--in spite of the fact that "good guy with a gun" has been debunked.
posted by MrGuilt at 7:45 AM on February 25, 2018 [77 favorites]


The NRA’s Plan to “Harden” Schools Is Terrifying. Remove all trees, put in a prison fence around the school, turn the reception desk into an "entrapment area" with bulletproof glass and steel plating.

As w/the TSA, it all feels a like a plan to inure us to the abuse and prison-like conditions for average people that are the squealing wet dream of wealthy fascists like Wayne LaPierre. We have to push back unrelentingly.
posted by ryanshepard at 7:47 AM on February 25, 2018 [36 favorites]


Of course if guns were removed from the community then none of this theatre would be neccessary but that is a much too simple solution. As soren_lorensen so rightly states
I reject this entire premise. We are a sick, broken culture.
posted by adamvasco at 7:57 AM on February 25, 2018 [6 favorites]


But aren't these drills going to scare kids?
Yes, it will scare them. They have good reason to be scared. If they are are old enough to see any news or hear people talk about it, they are scared out of their minds already. The older kids are talking about it, you can bet there are wild rumors and urban legends circulating among parents, teachers, kids. Just being in school is traumatizing for American kids now.

I grew up in the Duck & Cover age. One difference is that the the enemy to fear was from outside, and even though it was arguable, we believed in our country and our government as good guys. Now the enemy is a classmate, a neighbor, some random member of the community. How twisted to have to fear that. I have never had much use for home schooling, but I'll bet a lot of parents are seeing the appeal now.
posted by theora55 at 8:12 AM on February 25, 2018 [10 favorites]


The enemy is the gun nuts.
posted by Nelson at 8:15 AM on February 25, 2018 [15 favorites]


My nine-year-old daughter was expected to defend her class from an attacker with nothing but books.

Wayne LaPierre has an answer for that. It will most likely involve a licensing deal with the Theodore Geisel estate for “Gat in the Hat”-themed firearms for first graders, along with compulsory firearms and marksmanship training.

All hail Moloch!
posted by Big Al 8000 at 8:17 AM on February 25, 2018 [6 favorites]


Dumb security theater, any way you look at it. If you want to save lives, enact gun regulation. If you’re not able to do that, spend the money on swim lessons and traffic/fire safety; drowning and accidents being the leading causes of death for school-age kids.
posted by The Toad at 8:19 AM on February 25, 2018 [6 favorites]


is there any evidence this training does any good?

I've been through a workplace training on this and it seems like yeah, it's at least evidence-based in that the consultants who work on these things drew their recommendations from analyzing past events and noting the actions that were factors in individual survival. The recommendations are extrapolated from those real-life situations.

Thing is when you get to that point you're talking about some extremely marginal victories. Yes, every life matters. But by the time you're a kid standing in front of a cabinet with a littler kid in it throwing books at an attacker (WTF) the battle has really already been lost. All of it is a distraction from the discussion that we're now accepting that it's normal to expect an entire society to learn military-style tactical survival skills for asymmetric attacks, just because we can't reign in our sick fascination with firearms.

Let's get back to that higher-level issue. I am sickened by what kids are being taught in these drills. I am sickened by the thoughts that must float through their heads in quiet moments.
posted by Miko at 8:27 AM on February 25, 2018 [49 favorites]


Buying back and destroying all 300 million guns on the loose in this country and outlawing gun ownership in totality is the only way forward but that’s not gonna happen so fucking hell. I don’t know. Kids are gonna die and I guess that what “being an American” means. This is dire, sad, maddening and desperate. But this is the fact of this fucking nation.

And any dumb asshole who says “guns protect me from government tyranny” need to watch YouTube videos of C-130 gunships and a-10 thunderbolts, you aren’t defending yourself from shit, man.
posted by Annika Cicada at 8:30 AM on February 25, 2018 [19 favorites]


You say Moloch, but this is why the Vulcan episode of American Gods (S1E6 “A Murder of Gods”) was so terrifying. It's not in the book but it really got to the heart of somethings about American culture. I am not the only one to think this (spoilers).
posted by Wretch729 at 8:31 AM on February 25, 2018 [9 favorites]


look, you're all overthinking this, just hand out a firearm to every child that walks through the door in the morning
posted by indubitable at 8:36 AM on February 25, 2018 [5 favorites]


Buying back and destroying all 300 million guns on the loose in this country and outlawing gun ownership in totality is the only way forward

I don't agree - I mean that would be sort of nice in some ways, but that's an all-or-nothing argument that's nearly the same thing as "they want to take all our guns." Neither position is really accurate. And personally, neither do I actually want (I occasionally have fun doing recreational skeet, black powder and rifle, for instance. A lot of my relatives are hunters - who eat their kill - and I have no interest in taking their deer rifles away)

A harm reduction/public health approach can make a big difference immediately and incrementally. Over time, incremental change begins to shift the culture until larger change is possible. I say we push for whatever changes we can gain. It is a longer game but once we start making moves we change the expectation. Australia-style sudden sweeping reforms are not American style, fortunately or unfortunately, but over time the formerly unimaginable becomes acceptable. cf gay marriage.
posted by Miko at 8:44 AM on February 25, 2018 [8 favorites]


As a child going to a Jewish school many years ago, we had active shooter drills well before they were a thing in the wider world (and bomb drills, and an armed ex-IDF guard - ironically one of the nicest people I’ve ever met - who manned the door to the building). A certain level of heightened security (we also had security who checked bags going in to synagogue on holidays) was just part and parcel of growing up Jewish in a country that hated us. It sucked on every level; being constantly reminded as a kid that people out there want to kill you for no good reason is never fun, and even then it didn’t feel like the active shooter drills would do all that much (though we all had great faith in our security, at least).
posted by Itaxpica at 9:05 AM on February 25, 2018 [10 favorites]


Black Lives Matter, here in Phoenix, is organizing a march, but they have also gone all-in on demanding metal detectors at public schools. It makes me very sad.
posted by meese at 9:08 AM on February 25, 2018


> is there any evidence this training does any good?

To who? I assume the people who provide the training are making a pretty decent living out of it.
posted by qntm at 9:11 AM on February 25, 2018 [12 favorites]


In the self defense classes I took, they told us about studies that found that in a crisis or disaster, that the people who had imagined it happening and thought about what they would do in advance were much less likely to freeze up during the real thing. So these drills aren't useless, although they might be overblown since just thinking it through apparently is almost as effective as acting it through.
posted by Jacqueline at 9:14 AM on February 25, 2018 [5 favorites]


Not useless, maybe, but have you read Amanda Ripley's The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes — and Why? She talked a little bit about this on Marketplace the other day: "Well, it's certainly comforting to imagine that armed teachers or guards will reduce the risk of school shootings. We all want that. In reality, people who have engaged shooters in real life will tell you that it is extremely different than we expect it to be. In real life, we lose basic motor skills that we take for granted every day. You need to have extensive realistic training in order to pull this off without hurting anyone else."
posted by MonkeyToes at 9:19 AM on February 25, 2018 [7 favorites]


Japan has the second-lowest murder rate in the world, so you'd think it prohibits guns. Is that true? Is it impossible to own and use a gun in Japan? Many people think that's the case, but the fact is, private gun ownership is allowed in Japan, albeit under very specific conditions, according to this archived article from the Atlantic (2012):
To get a gun in Japan, first, you have to attend an all-day class and pass a written test, which are held only once per month. You also must take and pass a shooting range class. Then, head over to a hospital for a mental test and drug test (Japan is unusual in that potential gun owners must affirmatively prove their mental fitness), which you’ll file with the police. Finally, pass a rigorous background check for any criminal record or association with criminal or extremist groups, and you will be the proud new owner of your shotgun or air rifle. Just don’t forget to provide police with documentation on the specific location of the gun in your home, as well as the ammo, both of which must be locked and stored separately. And remember to have the police inspect the gun once per year and to re-take the class and exam every three years.
Okay, from an American perspective, these rules might seem onerous. But think about the laws and regulations associated with owning and driving a car: The registration and insurance; the paper test; the road test (which most people fail on the first try); the eye exams for registration renewal; the classes that are required for certain violations, like DWIs; and on and on and on. These exist because cars--like guns--kill people (although, unlike guns, that's not their intended function).

In spite of the restrictions, in Japan, many, many enthusiasts and hunters register to obtain permits for guns, and use them on firing ranges or on backwoods hunting trips. Like all people committed to their hobby, they're willing to put up with a little inconvenience every so often (and, in fact, believe that the laws and inconveniences improve firearm safety).
posted by Gordion Knott at 9:27 AM on February 25, 2018 [37 favorites]


Just don’t forget to provide police with documentation on the specific location of the gun in your home, as well as the ammo, both of which must be locked and stored separately. And remember to have the police inspect the gun once per year

I’m totally fine with that myself. Guns are fun as hell to shoot, I grew up shooting pistols, shotguns and AR-15’s.

I’ve only had to point a shotgun at one person in my entire life as form of “him or me” and it was traumatic and I don’t know if I was any better off havin a gun pointed at him as a form of self defense over say, a cricket bat. Fortunately I didn’t have to pull the trigger to find out the consequences, so maybe in that instance a gun was a form of deterrence, but really, I could have not had the shotgun pointed at him. I could have not had the shotgun at all. In that moment (which I have thought about many many many times) I didn’t need the gun. I literally pulled a gun on a man with a knife and I just can’t reconcile that moment for myself. I can’t say with 💯 certainty the gun protected me, or anyone. It’s complicated.

But Jesus Christ my son is in middle school and has to do these drills and my joy at shooting the shit out of something with an AR-15 any damn time I want is not worth any kids life ever.

Like I say I don’t know the answer. What I do is other countries have the answer and Jesus h Christ let’s at least learn a thing or two from them.
posted by Annika Cicada at 9:38 AM on February 25, 2018 [8 favorites]


The NRA’s Plan to “Harden” Schools Is Terrifying. Remove all trees, put in a prison fence around the school, turn the reception desk into an "entrapment area" with bulletproof glass and steel plating.

They'd denude the public landscape of all color, space, and joy until it mirrors the bleak desolation of their blackened little hearts.
posted by leotrotsky at 9:39 AM on February 25, 2018 [22 favorites]


Good GodDAMN! I remember when I was growing up all I had to worry about was earthquake drills (I grew up most of my life in California) and fire drills. As I emote sadly too often nowadays, [rubbing my temples so vigorously smoke starts to rise]
posted by Samizdata at 9:42 AM on February 25, 2018


I remember civil defense drills at school in the 1980's. One row of kids facing the wall of the corridor in the basement, leaning forward on their folded arms, while a second layer folded their arms and leaned on the first group. I was always a tall kid and usually ended up sheltering the kid in front of me. I still dream about it every now and again, being crowded down in the dark with the boiler and furnace noises.

In high school, we had a bomb threat once a year. They had us line up, walk to the gym, and sit on the floor until the county sheriff said it was OK. There was never any fear that this time, it was going to be real.

There are times when I regret that my plans for a teaching career didn't work out, but this ain't one of them.

At one of the schools where I interned, the big security issue was non-custodial parents trying to take their kids from school without permission. It had happened a couple of times in the previous year. So, all the classroom doors were locked all the time, you had to have a school ID to get in the building (they gave us temporary ID's), there were monitors in any hall near an outside exit whenever possible, etc. It was kind of unnerving; I can't even imagine trying to function under current conditions.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 9:47 AM on February 25, 2018 [4 favorites]


Okay, from an American perspective, these rules might seem onerous.

No they seem totally reasonable.

In the Revolutionary era, men belonging to a "well regulated militia" had to register their weapons and were required to turn out for mandatory training, too.
posted by Miko at 9:51 AM on February 25, 2018 [14 favorites]


I know someone who works in a school who just had this training and they weren’t thrilled with it. The most distressing part of the whole experience, according to them, was emulating going to the school’s “weapons cabinet,” a thing which they hope never becomes a reality.
posted by xyzzy at 9:59 AM on February 25, 2018 [1 favorite]


In the self defense classes I took, they told us about studies that found that in a crisis or disaster, that the people who had imagined it happening and thought about what they would do in advance were much less likely to freeze up during the real thing. So these drills aren't useless, although they might be overblown since just thinking it through apparently is almost as effective as acting it through

I know someone who does Krav Maga; the training involves regular "stress drills", designed to get rid of the tendency to freeze when under sudden and overwhelming attack.

Still, that is not the sort of thing one would expect to be mandatory for schoolchildren in a civilised society during peacetime.
posted by acb at 10:08 AM on February 25, 2018 [10 favorites]


My son's teacher has black theatre tape on her desk. It's to cover the shoes of little kids with light-up sneakers if there's a school shooting.

This country is broken.
posted by hapaxes.legomenon at 10:18 AM on February 25, 2018 [42 favorites]


Okay, from an American perspective, these rules might seem onerous.

No they seem totally reasonable.

In the Revolutionary era, men belonging to a "well regulated militia" had to register their weapons and were required to turn out for mandatory training, too.


My proposal. You want a gun? Sure, but you have to join the National Guard and/or Reserves.

Which includes meeting the fitness requirements.
posted by leotrotsky at 10:20 AM on February 25, 2018 [15 favorites]


I know someone who works in a school who just had this training and they weren’t thrilled with it. The most distressing part of the whole experience, according to them, was emulating going to the school’s "weapons cabinet"...

...what exactly would *be* in the weapons cabinet?

I read these accounts of drills and interventions -- things that they don't (yet) have us practicing as teachers at the college/university level -- and I shake my head. I've fired semi-automatic weapons. I've seen what they do. I know there is no way in hell I or my colleagues would be able to meaningfully defend against an armed and active shooter. Not by carrying concealed weapons, and not with anything you could fit in a damned "weapons cabinet." Provided you could even access said cabinet quickly enough to intervene. Maybe if we also taught in body armour, but probably not even then, realistically speaking. It's all so absurd.

I also know -- again, from having played with them -- there are almost no situations where anybody needs a semi-automatic weapon. For anything. Seriously. Hunting wild boar is possibly the only application I can think of, and even then, it's not necessary, and it's certainly not worth 'hardening' our schools and running these drills and, inevitably, still having kids die. We can require people to store them at a range, if we find it absolutely impossible to ban them outright, but there is absolutely no amount of training that will allow us to defend against people armed with semi-automatic weapons, and it's stupid as hell to allow them to continue to circulate in society.
posted by halation at 10:31 AM on February 25, 2018 [6 favorites]


Derail but

Amanda Ripley's The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes — and Why?

Most eponysterical thing ever?
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 10:40 AM on February 25, 2018 [1 favorite]


The same right-wing extremists who don't believe in gun control also don't believe in public education. It wouldn't bother them a bit if the public school system collapsed from increased violence or the fear there of.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 10:48 AM on February 25, 2018 [18 favorites]


In the Revolutionary era, men belonging to a "well regulated militia" had to register their weapons and were required to turn out for mandatory training, too.

well yeah, putting down a slave revolt or native resistance to encroaching settlers was no joke
posted by indubitable at 10:52 AM on February 25, 2018 [14 favorites]


things that they don't (yet) have us practicing as teachers at the college/university level
I'm staff at a university, and I've had to do active shooter training twice. (I didn't go the second time, because fuck that. I asked if I could get out of it, and my boss said no, so I scheduled a doctor's appointment for that time.) Faculty can't be compelled to do things the way staff can, but I wouldn't be surprised if they eventually get around to making you guys do it, too.

The main message at the university level is that your first line of defense is to run away if you can. People tend to wait for instructions before they leave, and you shouldn't do that. If you think you can safely get out of the building, do, and then keep going until you're really far away. (They can't say that to K-12 students, because false alarms are more common than active shooter situations, and you can't have kids roaming the streets alone.) And that seems like helpful and good advice. All the other stuff was both upsetting and not very useful. Basically, if you can't run away, you're screwed, but there are a couple of things you can try because you might as well try them if you're going to die anyway. And that's when you get to barricading yourself in a room and throwing stuff at the shooter and all that other stuff. I think they make you practice throwing the foam balls because it's a two-hour training, and it doesn't take two hours to say "use your best judgement and run away if you think it's safe to do so."
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 11:06 AM on February 25, 2018 [9 favorites]


Seymour Zamboni, thanks for your comment I'm happy to be corrected in this way. I've never thought about that particular aspect. Apologies for glossing over that. Good share and I'll politely reflect a bit more.
posted by Fizz at 11:06 AM on February 25, 2018 [9 favorites]


The more "freedoms" you give to adults, the more you take away from the children.

I grew up walking distance to the elementary school I went to. When I attended about 30 years ago, it was a completely open but small campus on a leafy green hillside area. Anyone can walk in or out to any building. As the years went by, it seemed like every five years so they would add a fence or gate for "safety." Now when I visit my parents in the house I grew up in, I pass the elementary school and it looks completely different from when I went. It's transformed into a prison.
posted by xtine at 11:17 AM on February 25, 2018 [11 favorites]


And a very serious concern asked by my fellow teachers is do you really think we’re going to believe any future fire drills are real? Not fucking likely we will ever leave our classrooms again.
posted by yes I said yes I will Yes at 11:50 AM on February 25, 2018 [7 favorites]


I'm staff at a university, and I've had to do active shooter training twice. (I didn't go the second time, because fuck that. I asked if I could get out of it, and my boss said no, so I scheduled a doctor's appointment for that time.) Faculty can't be compelled to do things the way staff can, but I wouldn't be surprised if they eventually get around to making you guys do it, too.

I'm a grad student, and I regularly lead classrooms. We have zero mandatory training, and the non-mandatory trainings I have seen are ignored by everyone I know because we already have too much work to do with our teaching and our own research--I have spent every long semester since fall 2012 on TA--to bother with things like that and the potential censure from our PIs unless they are mandatories.

After the stabbings last summer on UT campus--thank god he didn't have a gun, thank god he didn't have a gun, we only lost one kid and thank god he didn't have a gun--I talked to my students in the sections held the next day openly about the training we do have and how confused the staff probably were throughout the event, too. My students were horrified, particularly about how strongly many faculty members were trying to pretend everything was business as usual, but also at how little I had been given when I had had to teach their classmates while the incident was actually happening.

We get a little plaque in all the classrooms. It shares half its space with instructions in case of fire. That's fucking it. Everything else I had was basically "can you keep a cool head in a crisis? You have fifteen to twenty eighteen and nineteen year olds, and you're responsible for them and for keeping them safe for the hour you spend together each week. You're twenty six, by the way. Keep a cool head, walk the line between taking a threat seriously and inciting panic for no reason, and try to get them through their classwork because otherwise they will miss vital learning for finals and we will not get an extension. All you have to work with is rumors, hearsay, and Twitter feeds reported by some of your students. Figure out how to get everyone safe."

I tell you, it was a formative experience. At least now I know for a fact how I behave under fire. (So does my wife, who was held up at gunpoint perhaps a week later at the pawn shop where she worked. The thieves actually wanted to steal more guns, but the shop didn't have any. This policy was slated to change this fall, but my wife's since quit in part because of that policy change.

Fuck. Just.... fuck.)
posted by sciatrix at 12:05 PM on February 25, 2018 [18 favorites]


If the kid planning to shoot people in the school goes to that school every day, isn't he going to know the whole routine and all the actors? It would be a rehearsal for him as well. "Tuesday morning. Everyone will be here and here. I will casually walk in, say hi, and shoot everyone here, including Mrs Brown with her little pistol. Then they will start their emergency routine, but it will take me just 30 seconds to run down to..."

In another era, we used to duck down in the solitary hallway that ran down the middle of our little elementary school. We were supposed to cover the backs of our necks with our hands to protect ourselves from flying glass if the Russians dropped a hydrogen bomb on our school.

Arms control was the best answer then and is the best answer now. The enemies remain the same: arms dealers, arms enthusiasts, politicians who are owned by those arms people, and even the people who run Russia.
posted by pracowity at 12:17 PM on February 25, 2018 [20 favorites]


Fire drills, bomb drills, lockdown drills, shelter in place drills... OMG the amount of time lost every month to drills is crazy. And some of them aren't drills, although inside the school building has so far been the safer place to be.
posted by subdee at 1:58 PM on February 25, 2018


My proposal. You want a gun? Sure, but you have to join the National Guard and/or Reserves.
I love this idea but it’s truly impressive how many different ways purported “strict constructionists” will try to claim that the first clause of the second amendment is just the 18th century equivalent of a decorative flourish with no meaning whatsoever. It’s similar to how they often praise Switzerland but treat proposals to copy Swiss laws as outright treason.
posted by adamsc at 2:12 PM on February 25, 2018 [1 favorite]


There was a PA announcement that the ALICE drill was about to begin, but that all subsequent announcements would not state it was a drill and for us to respond accordingly.

What poor sucker gets stuck playing the shooter and risks getting straight up murdered when people are "responding accordingly" to a threat to their lives. JFC
posted by juv3nal at 2:35 PM on February 25, 2018 [2 favorites]


I love this idea but it’s truly impressive how many different ways purported “strict constructionists” will try to claim that the first clause of the second amendment is just the 18th century equivalent of a decorative flourish with no meaning whatsoever.

Hold the phone there! A common gun control arguement is that the weapons available at the time of the writing of the constitution are absolutely primative compared to the firepower available today "for hunting and/or self-defense." George Washington never had an Uzi!

And the folks with a gun fetish will argue it's irrelevent: the founding fathers didn't specify. If you want to limit guns to the 18th century fine: hop off that computer and grab a quill.

How would the reconcile this arguement with the notion that "well regulated militia" is just how they talked back then?

They can't.

They want their guns. They don't care how twisted their...let's be charitable and call it "logic"...becomes.
posted by MrGuilt at 2:38 PM on February 25, 2018 [4 favorites]


you're going to create another generation of nihilists just like the baby boomers.

As a Gen-X'er: I've seen nihilism you people wouldn't believe.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 2:46 PM on February 25, 2018 [13 favorites]


My aunt recently retired from teaching preschool and described the active shooter drills they had to do. Imagine crowding into a school bathroom with the door locked and the lights out with a dozen terrified preschoolers.
posted by bendy at 2:49 PM on February 25, 2018 [2 favorites]


When are the Americans going to learn that they need to solve the problem, not minimise the effects of it
posted by Burn_IT at 2:53 PM on February 25, 2018 [8 favorites]


When are the Americans going to learn that they need to solve the problem, not minimise the effects of it

Most of us want to do just that. Unfortunately, there is a relatively small group who have convinced themselves that any limitation on their buying a gun--be it in type, speed of purchase, or limitations based on things like mental health or domestic abuse--is the first step that inevitably leads to The Government going door to door and taking their guns. They must be able to buy any weapon, near instantly, in order to keep this distopian scenario coming to light.

Sure, at times like this, you may hear talk of limiting acces for mental health. Then someone will say "a veteran with PTSD wouldn't be able to buy a gun--WHY WON'T YOU SUPPORT THE TROUPS?!?" And that goes away.

Most Americans favor some gun control. 63% would ban guns like the AR-15. 76% would prevent those treated for mental health issues from owning. But as long as the NRA exists, the majority will not rule.

Substitute "group with money acting in their own interest" for NRA, and you understand "democracy" in the US.
posted by MrGuilt at 3:03 PM on February 25, 2018 [9 favorites]


Oh America, what a fucked up dystopia you have become.
posted by ouke at 3:14 PM on February 25, 2018 [5 favorites]


If an intruder enters and begins shooting, any and all actions to stop the shooter are justified. This includes moving about the room to lessen accuracy, throwing items (books, computers, phones, book bags) to create confusion, exiting out windows, and confronting (assault, subdue, choke) to stop the intruder. Tell students to get out anyway possible and move to another location.

A friend of mine shared a post on FB with a mom commenting on this part of the ALICE training. She added something along the lines of: “at first I was thinking, really? A shooter is going to see Samantha holding a textbook and decide not to kill her? Then it punched me in the gut. If these kids are face-to-face with a shooter, they’re going to die regardless. The goal is to make their deaths take 20 seconds instead of ten. The extra ten seconds could be enough for some kids to run, for LEO to arrive, for someone to subdue the shooter. A lot of lives could be saved in ten seconds...”
posted by bendy at 3:18 PM on February 25, 2018 [3 favorites]


A school board member in my district is polling parents about whether they want metal detectors. So far, it's 100 percent for detectors, even though I can't think of a single school shooting where detectors would have helped.

Columbine--I think those 2 would have just shot their way into the school, as the Sandy Hook killer did. (Or maybe he just smashed the glass doors, I don't recall.) Getting rid of the guns, putting a flag on people who may not technically be mentally ill but is certainly too angry to own a gun, would be the place to start.
posted by etaoin at 4:20 PM on February 25, 2018 [1 favorite]


As an Australian I find the idea of active shooter drills about as normal as Martian invader drills.
posted by the duck by the oboe at 5:30 PM on February 25, 2018 [14 favorites]


it's shaping up to be a real bonanza not only for gun manufacturers but for the weapons-adjacent "security" companies that hawk security theater gear like metal detectors or whatever other shit $400,000 buys. there's a lot of money to be made off of continuing to have mass shootings and easy ways to buy guns, very little to be made by restricting access to guns. this is the profit motive not addressing human needs.
posted by indubitable at 5:35 PM on February 25, 2018 [7 favorites]


I'm glad you said that, indubitable. Sad as it is to say, the more there are school attacks, the more fuel it gives to the consulting companies and weapons/security companies that specialize in serving the response to a need they themselves initially created. Side by side with our prison-industrial complex, they are actively creating social problems in order to cash in on them. Yes, they'll be only too happy to fortify your school, for the price they name. Who doesn't want to protect their children? How many metal detectors shall we put you down for?
posted by Miko at 5:43 PM on February 25, 2018 [1 favorite]


Trust Republicans to weaponize misfortune into a money-making opportunity. Fuckers.
posted by supercrayon at 5:56 PM on February 25, 2018 [3 favorites]


Yet Remington just filed for bankruptcy.

The Trump administration has been no bonanza for small arms manufacturers and sales have slumped dramatically.

But the Obama administration was.

And that's because these guns are not for hunting, recreation, or self defense; they are the guns of the revolution against the rule of women, PoC, and immigrants -- and in the minds of his supporters, the threat of such rule has diminished under Trump.
posted by jamjam at 6:25 PM on February 25, 2018 [8 favorites]


My aunt recently retired from teaching preschool and described the active shooter drills they had to do. Imagine crowding into a school bathroom with the door locked and the lights out with a dozen terrified preschoolers.

The drills are driving some teachers out, like this one from yesterday.
posted by klausman at 6:39 PM on February 25, 2018 [1 favorite]


The drills are driving some teachers out

Well then it's a good thing that there are so many other new teachers out there willing to work such a stressful underappreciated job for teensy salaries!
posted by bendy at 7:48 PM on February 25, 2018 [2 favorites]


I teach college. My middle sister teaches middle school. My youngest is a kindergarten TA. My wife is staff in a department across campus from me. I'm kind of ... white knuckling, these days, every day. I know the odds of anything happening to any of the four of us on an given day are vanishingly small (I teach research methods and data analysis and talk to students about the other 'CSI effect' and how our fears of crime are exaggerated) and yet, it's getting harder and harder to not freak out every day that we all go to work.
posted by joycehealy at 8:22 PM on February 25, 2018 [4 favorites]


"The NRA’s Plan to “Harden” Schools Is Terrifying. Remove all trees, put in a prison fence around the school, turn the reception desk into an "entrapment area" with bulletproof glass and steel plating."

My school is going to be rebuilt in the next 3 to 5 years. They are already planning on something like this.

"My aunt recently retired from teaching preschool and described the active shooter drills they had to do. Imagine crowding into a school bathroom with the door locked and the lights out with a dozen terrified preschoolers."

I can't imagine that but then I can't imagine where I'd hide 30 students in my classroom.

Last semester, we had a lock down drill. It was announced as a drill and everyone understood that except my student from Cameroon who only speaks French. Another student, who understood it was a drill, decided to act like an asshole and keep laughing and talking despite my threats to call his mom. A bit after, Michelle had had enough: she punched the asshole student in the face and wrapped her arm around his mouth to make him be quiet.

My school had threats before Parkland. I've already decided how I will defend myself and my students and it doesn't involve a gun.
posted by blessedlyndie at 11:05 PM on February 25, 2018 [3 favorites]


I've worked on a college campus where we had ALICE training. I was working at a college about 1.5 hours away from Virginia Tech when their incident happened and we had to wonder if we should lock down (we all paid a lot more attention to people in our buildings at the very least). I've also worked in psychiatric hospitals (before working on a campus) and I have always looked for my exits.

While I don't think that having active drills (complete with scary announcements and fake guns/gunfire) is all that helpful, definitely thinking through "What would I do if....?" is absolutely necessary. We all know that rehearsing/visualizing in our heads helps us succeed in sports, so it stands to reason that it helps us avoid freezing up in a situation. Anytime I am at a new place for a meeting I orient myself to the exits, how the building sits on the street, and honestly think about two different directions I could run if I needed to. There was also a room at one place that I avoided reserving for meetings because it was too easy to get trapped in. I'm glad my office did the ALICE training because even though it felt a bit silly, it did make us talk through how to manage a student union that actually would have looked like a desirable target for a shooter on a college campus. That was a very sobering thought. I also know (and told my family after Virginia Tech) that if I went down, know that I went down fighting for my students and myself.

That being said, I DON'T work with elementary age kids, and I cannot imagine how I would even approach trying to explain all of this to them. I have no idea. Blows my mind.
posted by MultiFaceted at 11:57 PM on February 25, 2018 [2 favorites]


The Trump administration has been no bonanza for small arms manufacturers and sales have slumped dramatically.

Analysts of these companies were modeling even before the election the sales impact of a Trump presidency on firearms manufacturers. Indeed, when Republicans are elected, the company shares are sold off because there is no urgency to buy guns anymore and sales slump. With Obama, it was always "he's going to take away our guns!" among gun buyers, leading them to stockpile guns and ammunition. The same effect after Parkland and other shootings, where stocks were sold off 4+% on fears of gun control.
posted by hexaflexagon at 5:49 AM on February 26, 2018


I'm a civilian, I work in an office, I shouldn't need combat training.

Yeah, but... guess what, the world changed. Everyone now needs combat training, even your four year olds. It helps nothing to say, "I shouldn't have to." There are a lot of things I shouldn't have to that I have to in this world and that's another one.

I've been through the active shooter training and I've accepted that well, if I get killed at work, that's what's gonna happen. We don't live in a sane world and we have to adjust to the crazy and nobody or nothing is going to save us unless we get lucky. Getting angry and upset just isn't working for me at work any more. I have zero power to change anything that bothers me and angry and upset makes no difference to anyone else in power here. The only power I have is over myself and learning to accept what I don't want to because there isn't any other option. If you can't stop bad things from happening, then... that happens if someone really wants it to. I remember reading some Spenser novel ("Looking For Rachel Wallace," I believe) and him saying if someone really wants to get you at the cost to themselves, then they'll get you.

I work in a high risk field. My old building was designed to deal with crises like this and we had a way to get out easily if we had to, but this one, not so much, because I guess they weren't expecting this kind of thing to spread in the way it has. Thanks to active shooter I know what the tentative plan is, but there's a lot of construction aspects of this building that will make it difficult to escape. My office is at the front, right where a shooter would come, and I'm on the top floor and would have to run literally around the entire building (assuming I haven't been shot and it'd be very easy to pick anyone off in that hall, which is right in the line of shooter) to get to the stairs in the back. Of course the windows are so blocked off we can't jump out. I can only hope that I hear shooting coming from the first floor to warn me, but otherwise I am probably about third in line to die here if/when anyone shoots through the wall. We weren't deemed essential enough to get bulletproof glass like the first floor has. There's nothing I can do to make it better except hope I go to the bathroom closer to the stairs at the right time when the day comes.
posted by jenfullmoon at 7:36 AM on February 26, 2018 [2 favorites]


"When the day comes" is an unacceptable way to live. We have to reduce guns. We have to.
posted by agregoli at 8:03 AM on February 26, 2018 [5 favorites]


what exactly would *be* in the weapons cabinet?

Nerf balls, duh.

Did you not pay attention during the training session?
posted by flabdablet at 8:15 AM on February 26, 2018 [3 favorites]


And a very serious concern asked by my fellow teachers is do you really think we’re going to believe any future fire drills are real? Not fucking likely we will ever leave our classrooms again.

My daughter wasn't at school on Friday (college theatre audition) but they had a fire alarm (turns out some contractors got dust in the sensor in the gym and tripped the system). A LOT of the kids had full on panic attacks. Some of them wouldn't leave their classrooms. The teachers stayed with those who wouldn't leave.
posted by cooker girl at 8:58 AM on February 26, 2018 [7 favorites]


No, I do not agree to accept this as the new normal. I will fight it to my dying breath, even if that comes tomorrow at the hands of some rando with an AK-47 at the grocery store. I will hound my legislators to support every piece of proposed gun control legislation and to not support measures to the contrary. I will look for ways to increase my own efficiency as an activist. But I will never allow it to become just business as usual. If that's what the right-wing nutjobs want - all of us to roll over and play Mad Max - they've got another think coming.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 9:24 AM on February 26, 2018 [12 favorites]


Both my parents are teachers, so I worry about this every day.

What I don't understand and I know it's been touched on above, but I haven't seen anyone really tear into it: The shooters are almost always students. All having these drills does is teach that shooter exactly how the rest of the students and faculty are going to react, where to find them, how to subvert the warning (like pulling the fire alarm).

Is this just more security theater, since we don't know what else to do?
posted by fiercecupcake at 9:30 AM on February 26, 2018 [8 favorites]


My son is a 4th grader at Akron Public. I don't think he has had this active shooter training yet. I'm pretty sure it starts in 5th grade or middle school. His elementary school is moving into a new building next school year. Despite having seen the plans, I'm not sure what elements are in place to "harden" the facility.

My daughter goes to T-K at our area JCC. That place has been hardened for a while now -- planters-cum-barracades in front of every entrance, entrapment areas with bullet proof glass, high security doors in the school areas, even bullet proof glass on the infant nursery window that looks outside.
posted by slogger at 10:23 AM on February 26, 2018


I remember when I was growing up all I had to worry about was earthquake drills (I grew up most of my life in California) and fire drills.

Yeah, I only did earthquake and fire drills too. My elementary school had a lockdown once, but didn't do drills. My high school had a shooting, but didn't do drills for lockdowns or active shooters. We were incredibly lucky to have no fatalities, because only some of the classrooms went into lockdown and many of us just left the school with no awareness of where the shooter was. (Many of the teachers didn't know to do a lockdown, because there wasn't a PA system.)

I'm glad my daughter's elementary school has lockdown drills. I wish we didn't need them or active shooter drills. If we keep lobbying for better gun regulation and a ban on assault weapons, maybe someday we won't need the drills.
posted by Margalo Epps at 2:33 PM on February 27, 2018


I think active shooter drills in elementary schools are a bad idea for reasons other than ineffectiveness.

I think some little boys especially will tend to identify with the most powerful actor in any given scenario whether that person is presented as good or evil, and active shooter drills could consequently leave just the people we want to least fantasizing about shooting up schools.
posted by jamjam at 7:34 PM on February 27, 2018 [6 favorites]


So, drills work. This has been empirically shown many, many times--you have to practice something to be good at it, and kids no longer die in fires because we now do fire drills. Firefighters and pilots practice. People who do boxing and compete in MMA practice. If you don't practice, you turn into a zombie staring helplessly, or crying uncontrollably, and that will not help you survive.

But we totally need gun control also. These things aren't incompatible. We can give people the skills to be able to think instead of panic and also work on the massive systemic issues that got us here.
posted by epanalepsis at 1:20 PM on February 28, 2018


kids no longer die in fires because we now do fire drills

Well... that and the massive reduction in the use of flammable materials in construction; a vastly minimized number of people smoking; building codes that require more and more clearly labelled egresses; building codes and inspections that require adequate working fire extinguishers; the development of automated sprinkler systems; safety protocols for the handling and storage of combustibles; better regulation of electrical appliances; better firefighter training; legislation, legislation, and more legislation; fire forensics and research, and I'm sure much else I'm not expert enough to know about. (Fire drills in schools started only in 1958, part of a wave of regulation that followed the deaths of 87 kids and 3 teachers in a Chicago school fire

The downward trend in the US and international fire death rate is one of the great public health stories of the past century, and one not enough people are aware of. It provides the perfect example of what a comprehensive and sustained public health approach looks like. Sure, drills might help someone do better when in danger if everything else has already failed. But in the case of fire, we sure put a lot of safeguards in place in addition to drills.

We should do the same thing with guns. People used to think of fire as just sort of one of life's risks. What were you going to do, require old buildings to come up to code? Ridiculous! It'll never happen. After the Triangle Shirtwaist fire, businesses were still arguing they could manage their own safety regulation without involving the government. Fortunately, people did not buy it.

Yes, have an appropriate number and tenor of drills, but let's not pretend it's the solution. It's maybe a fraction of a solution. Any of these trainings that don't point this out are pretty cynical exercises.
posted by Miko at 5:00 PM on February 28, 2018 [12 favorites]


Earlier in this thread, or perhaps it was the politics thread, I mentioned that some number of Texas school districts had announced that if their kids took part in the planned March 14 Parkland Remembrance walkout, the kids would be suspended for three days, effectively killing the GPA of any student who participated.

I went to the school board meeting here, and a surprising number of other parents were there, all of us arguing that we should teach kids what other rights they had besides just the second amendment. Our school board is allowing the walkout, as long as kids don't leave campus.

The Parkland kids are inspirational, but inspiration isn't enough. We, as community members have to stand up too.
posted by SecretAgentSockpuppet at 5:57 AM on March 3, 2018 [1 favorite]


« Older The man who painted Totoro's forest   |   A deep ocean of secrets Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments