School Safety: To Plan, or Not to Plan.........

No, it wasn't you, BlazerBob. I've had discussions in several forums, and the gun free zone issue is almost always a hot button that sets people off for some reason. I have my own opinions on it, but that would be a subject for another thread in the Courthouse, eh?

Although I was never an emergency manager, I was on emergency management committees. Our department was tasked with setting up and maintaining decontamination tents, maintaining operations of all facility systems, etc. I was involved in writing policies and procedures of the same, all at a local metro hospital. The only community input and seeking any form of consensus was for monthly emergency generator load testing timing. Our goals were safety and government compliance.
If armed school staff were ever adopted, the personnel must want to be involved, train, qualify and maintain a minimal level of training. This is volunteer, not mandated. Who knows more about the building than maintenance, janitorial and administration? Our nation is not yet ready for openly armed personnel like commonly seen in Israel.
Ignorance is not a slam like stupidity. Fear of guns is a sign of ignorance. Do we fear automobiles which kill far more people than guns? Guns don't go off. The trigger must be pressed to the rear for the gun to fire. There are multiple safeties on a modern handgun. It may, or may not, have a manual safety which is controlled by the shooter, but has more than one internal safety. Accidental, more appropriately called negligent, discharges are from improper gun handling, only. Training is the key to safe gun handling, safe defensive use of firearms.

HEARTLESS, thanks for your offering above. I don't know if it will help, or not, but I've been going back through previous posts in this thread and found this from BadgerKustoms in Post #61 of this thread. I believe it goes to the heart of what you are trying to say, and I agree completely with what BadgerKustoms posted there, and, by extension if you also agree with BadgerKustoms, then I also agree with you on the issue of arming school staff:

BadgerKustoms wrote: Well I was completely unaware that Ronald Reagan was a school teacher somewhere between his film career and that of being a politician.... That pic belongs in the Courtroom, not this thread.

But I welcome you to the discussion Raees, and hope you'll see fit to offer solutions and keep politics within reasonable "check". You did present this possible solution I'd like to offer some thoughts on.

Raees wrote: How about retrofitting all schools with some sort of sleeping gas dismemberment system? Gunman in a classroom? Press a button and put them all to sleep?

Being that LE/SWAT tends to use things like flashbangs, and of course pepper gas, many gunmen already bring gasmasks such as the Aurora theater shooter. (Though that statement is more correct of other situations than schools at this time.)

Your proposal sort of reminds me of the Moscow theater hostage situation that, if memory serves, took place around the early 2000s some time. Some Chechnyans (sp?), basically went into a live performance theater, armed and some strapped with bombs and were demanding Russia put an end to a war with their country. (I'm sure there's more to that, but I'm not Googling right this second.) The Spetsnaz pumped some sort of chemical through the ventilation system which largely incapacitated almost everyone. There was still a bit of a firefight, but the bombs did not discharge. The problem was the chemical's toxic consistency also lead to the death of most of the hostages as well. (Over a 100 if I'm not mistaken).

So the reason I bring this up is not to laugh at your suggestion, far from it actually, but simply to state that if such a "sleeping gas" did successfully exist, I'm sure Russia would have opted for that first instead of the deadly mix they ended up using. The flip side to that coin is what if someone is allergic to it even though to the majority of people its relatively harmless? The liability issue. So while I think its a worthwhile suggestion and I thank you for bringing it up, I don't see the practicality of it at this time. But please keep ideas flowing. (Edit to add, I have honestly pondered a defensive system that incorporates pepper gas so that if a gunman is not around innocents and by camera does not appear to have a gas mask, it can be deployed in certain areas. One problem is the shelf life of said gas, but I'm quite literally working on a blueprint to make it a viable thing as a two part chemical reaction with a far greater shelf life. So your idea isn't far fetched at all.)

On the issue of arming teachers, there seems to be some misconceptions with that theory and yet another reason I've mentioned that it should only be an 'option' for teachers.

1. If its made mandatory to arm all teachers, then its obvious "where" to obtain a firearm for someone wanting to cause harm. But that's the beauty of concealed carry. You don't necessarily know if the teacher is armed or not. Its not locked away, merely out of sight and on his/her person. Someone wanting to cause harm now has to play a guessing game, and it could be 50/50 if the teacher carries or not. This becomes a potential deterrent for many. (I should mention, yet again, that those who have taken a concealed carry class, were instructed in some training, and were more than likely given a bunch of resources for further training. No one is carrying, simply because they 'think' they're qualified, a concealed carry permit is not randomly given, it is a test, one that MUST be passed before the permit is issued and that includes a Federal/State background check.)

2. A teacher that isn't confident or capable is as much a danger to themselves as they are anyone else including the students. This type of person should not carry, even if they want to. They need training first, see above. A school can also weigh the balances, if they wish that because X number of teachers are carrying, they can minimize the SROs they feel is necessary, or vice versa, the school has such options.

3. The teacher's primary purpose is to of course educate the students. Some of the best teachers are perhaps not the most tactical ones and I'm just fine with that. The SROs should have the necessary training for such situations. The teacher should be trained in proceedure of course so that safety is optimized.

And lastly, (I've written another novel here...) students need to be informed. The obvious reason is to reduce potential panic which could make a 'non situation' a 'situation'. If School B goes on lockdown because School A across the state has something go down, School B's students are wondering if the danger is right outside their own door. Even if the students are reasured that they're safe, they need to know the reason for lockdown and what expectations are. In the mean time, the teachers of School B SHOULD continue to educate, that is after all what they're getting paid for, and I'm sure the SROs are getting paid to insure the safety and find reasonable time to end lockdown to keep schedules flowing.

Badger

This is EXACTLY why schools, law enforcement, and community (including parents and students) need to work together on this type of activity. What happened here is a travesty, and only goes to show how little people really know about emergency management for school safety. If they did know, and still did this, shame on them. Surprise drills/exercises are NOT a viable way to help in making our schools safer learning environments.

My rant for the day.

www.washingtonpost.com/news/national/wp/...itter_washingtonpost

A followup to the active shooter drill controversy:

www.wtsp.com/story/news/local/2014/11/19...ct-changes/19288663/

Thoughts?

Always remember:

Something every parent should take the time to be aware of and learn about - texting acronyms:

www.cnn.com/2014/12/08/living/internet-a...ould-know/index.html

Yes, significant hurdles do remain. Part of the problem, as I see it, is that age-old mantra so many hold that it can't happen here. That's about as head in the sand as anyone can get. Another problem is associated with the rush to "hardware" and "software" instead of a more clearly defined effort to push the "warmware" aspect of any program, be it school safety or swimming lessons (don't know quite where I came up with swimming lessons, but it does fit the analogy as do other scenarios). After tragedies like these, contractors pushing hardware and software come out of the woodwork. I think I may have shared a link previously to an e-magazine site that talks about how schools and communities all too often get ripped off by contractors like this, right alongside other contractors that say they are qualified to do what's needed. The schools jump on those bandwagons only to find those contractors come up way too short on virtually everything they've promised. It's frustrating because it doesn't have to be expensive, and it doesn't require re-inventing the wheel. What it DOES require is an investment of willingness, time, and effort to address the issues as a community instead of the schools trying to "go it alone". Enough of my diatribe on this. I'll keep sharing in the hope someday this kind of message will be heard and adopted in action instead of in name only.

There are ways to end the plague of school shootings that don't involve gun control or that infringe on anyone's rights. It's called education mixed with a pretty large dose of common sense on eliminating easy access to guns in homes where children might get ahold of them and do harm to themselves or to others.

Plain and simple.

www.huffingtonpost.com/daniel-gross/pare...ool-s_b_6318364.html