School Principal suspended over Saftey Drill

[Koharuchan]

You can read the article here;

https://www.yahoo.com/parenting/principal-suspended-over-terrifying-school-safety-drill-103129486827.html

This is the first I'd heard of this, for the most part. I've seen a bit about it in passing on the news, but I hadn't read the story on it.

I honestly can't even remember lockdown or even actual school lockdown procedure (which we went through a LOT in high school, long story) ever really being anything like that; officers would search the school, sure, but most of the time we just evacuated the building so the officers could perform their full search. (We had a lot of prank-call in bomb threats)We'd just sit in the grass and listen to music or talk for about 3-4 hours if it was real. If it was a drill, like someone was in the school or something, we'd just lock up the place and sit in the back of the class. Never took long.

I definitely agree it was overboard to bring in armed officers with weapons drawn, especially since those kids had no idea what was going on. So I agree with something being done here. What about you guys? How do you feel about the whole situation, and what were (or are) your lockdown drills at your schools like?

[Ennui.]

My lockdown drills were always basically just turn off the lights and hide in the back. Even then a lot of the teachers didn't take it seriously and kept on teaching.

Doing what this principal did is overboard and more of a scare than anything! :/

[dr2005]

I guess the key question in all of this is: was what the principal signed off an accurate depiction of what a "lockdown" situation would be like? I'm in no position to comment about such things as we don't tend to have or need them over here (thank goodness), but I'd say that's the key thing in this scenario. If it is very unlikely that officers with firearms would enter the school in such circumstances, then yes this was overboard and yes there should be some action taken to correct it (although whether it warrants a disciplinary I'm not so sure about - the road to hell being paved with good intentions and all that). If, on the other hand, officers with firearms would enter the school in such circumstances, then to be honest I don't see the problem. Yes, it may have scared the children - but if the risk they face is that serious, then isn't it better that they take it seriously? Treating such things too casually is likely to make people complacent if a real incident occurs, and that's when things can go very wrong indeed. I'm not suggesting scaring the living daylights out of kids on a regular basis is the way forward, but nor is shielding them completely from the reality of what might happen in a lockdown.

Again, I speak from a position of relative ignorance here but that to me seems the defining point.

[Koharuchan]

Originally Posted by dr2005

I guess the key question in all of this is: was what the principal signed off an accurate depiction of what a "lockdown" situation would be like? I'm in no position to comment about such things as we don't tend to have or need them over here (thank goodness), but I'd say that's the key thing in this scenario. If it is very unlikely that officers with firearms would enter the school in such circumstances, then yes this was overboard and yes there should be some action taken to correct it (although whether it warrants a disciplinary I'm not so sure about - the road to hell being paved with good intentions and all that). If, on the other hand, officers with firearms would enter the school in such circumstances, then to be honest I don't see the problem. Yes, it may have scared the children - but if the risk they face is that serious, then isn't it better that they take it seriously? Treating such things too casually is likely to make people complacent if a real incident occurs, and that's when things can go very wrong indeed. I'm not suggesting scaring the living daylights out of kids on a regular basis is the way forward, but nor is shielding them completely from the reality of what might happen in a lockdown.

Again, I speak from a position of relative ignorance here but that to me seems the defining point.

I highly doubt ANY of this would ever happen in a school lockdown here. My entire life, when we had lockdowns, we never even saw one officer; and if it was a real lockdown and there were officers in the school, they were in the halls, we were locked in classrooms. We never encountered them. But the big thing here is the simple fact that when a school goes into lockdown, people in the school understand they are in lockdown and know what to do. These kids had not been made aware of anything, they had no clue it was some kind of lockdown. So yes, I'd say it was a pretty damn stupid move to do what that principal did, because not only did she break lockdown protocol, she had the students of the school believing their lives were in danger. That's not what lockdown drills are supposed to do.

[dr2005]

Originally Posted by Koharuchan

I highly doubt ANY of this would ever happen in a school lockdown here. My entire life, when we had lockdowns, we never even saw one officer; and if it was a real lockdown and there were officers in the school, they were in the halls, we were locked in classrooms. We never encountered them. But the big thing here is the simple fact that when a school goes into lockdown, people in the school understand they are in lockdown and know what to do. These kids had not been made aware of anything, they had no clue it was some kind of lockdown. So yes, I'd say it was a pretty damn stupid move to do what that principal did, because not only did she break lockdown protocol, she had the students of the school believing their lives were in danger. That's not what lockdown drills are supposed to do.

If that is the case, then I agree the principal was foolhardy in her approach. However, I understand that the drill was brought about in collaboration with the police, who presumably were operating according to guidelines issued by the school district (and which were amended after this drill, according to the reports). There does, therefore, seem to have been authorisation for such drills to take place, and the response from the district seems more to have been triggered by the fact it didn't end well in this instance. This article would seem to corroborate that. As such, I'd say solely blaming the principal for this is, as that article suggests, an exercise in scapegoating.

[livingdeadboy]

When i was in school, we just turned off the lights and that's it.

[Adam the Fish]

Originally Posted by dr2005

we don't tend to have or need them over here (thank goodness)

Well, in terms of realism, the drills (ie. fire) we do need are sometimes deliberately changed to replicate specific situations - at my school, for instance, a handful of pupils are sometimes instructed to hide in the school buildings somewhere.
Use of guns with a load of children is a bit different though.

I would have to say - maybe if there were similar gun controls to ours (these incidents here are decades apart, not so likely a problem that we require drills), there wouldn't be a problem in the first place. *ducks*

[Writer]

Originally Posted by Adam the Fish

I would have to say - maybe if there were similar gun controls to ours (these incidents here are decades apart, not so likely a problem that we require drills), there wouldn't be a problem in the first place. *ducks*[/size][/color]

In my community, guns are necessary. We live ten miles outside of town, our power/telephones go out often, and drugs run rampant in the communities on either side of ours. Our county's entire law enforcement system is lazy as hell. If you can't get them to take you seriously (which happens a little too often for comfort), it takes them hours to get there.

For instance, there was the time that a very, very high man appeared on my grandma's front porch, waiting to recover to break in through her glass storm doors. My grandma called the cops as soon as he appeared. By the time the cops arrived two hours later, my dad (with a hunting rifle) had already escorted the man off the property. When the cops did get there, they just stood around drinking iced tea and chatting about nonsense things. It's hard to imagine what might have happened if we hadn't had that gun.

To get anywhere around here, you have to go through backroads. Along backroads are where what we call "the druggies" tend to live, making and trading meth within a quarter-mile of the road. For a woman in West Virginia, a gun is independence. As a single woman who intends on living off-grid as soon as my house is built - i.e., in the woods, with no electricity and no landline telephone - I will buy a pistol as soon as I'm old enough to do so. To go anywhere without a concealed pistol - like my grandma and all of her sister carry everywhere they go - is to risk being mugged, raped, or worse. Here, the law doesn't particularly care.

But, I do think that we need to be more discerning when it comes to who we sell guns to, and who has access to those guns. I think people should be made to go through drug tests and serious mental evaluations before being allowed to purchase guns. I think that machine-type guns should not be purchasable by the public - only hunting models and pistols. And, the guns that responsible people do earn should be locked up in safes when not in use, so that unauthorized persons can't get at them. In the end, a limited number of population would be allowed access to guns - but that number wouldn't be so apt to go around shooting up schools.

So, don't duck. I agree with you, at least partially, as I'm sure any responsible gun owner would also agree with you.





Now, because that was completely off-topic, I agree with what dr2005 has said about the school principal being suspended.

[Koharuchan]

Originally Posted by Writer

But, I do think that we need to be more discerning when it comes to who we sell guns to, and who has access to those guns. I think people should be made to go through drug tests and serious mental evaluations before being allowed to purchase guns. I think that machine-type guns should not be purchasable by the public - only hunting models and pistols. And, the guns that responsible people do earn should be locked up in safes when not in use, so that unauthorized persons can't get at them. In the end, a limited number of population would be allowed access to guns - but that number wouldn't be so apt to go around shooting up schools.

I agree with this completely. There have been too many shootings, particularly school shootings.

The only real lockdown I can even remember was from middle school, and it took hours. We even had to miss our lunch, because we had to stay locked in class. For a long time a lot of students had no clue why we were locked up so long. It was because our middle school was right down the road from Virginia Tech, and we were in school the day the attack happened. Apparently we were locked in class while the shooting was happening, incase the shooter decided to go down the road to our school.

[Kintsukuroi.]

When I was in school we had lockdowns where we would lock the door, turn off the lights, crouch down in the corner farthest from doors/windows, and the principal would go around jiggling and banging on doors to make sure they were locked. We did have two actual lock down scenarios when I was in school, one where there was an attempted murder in one of the streets near my school and they were conducting searches to find the guy so all of the schools near by were put into lock down. We did have police officers search our school hallways and bathrooms with guns but the teachers got a text explaining what was going on and let us in on it and we also checked the news site on our phones. The other time there was supposedly a guy with a weapon on the school grounds and we got put into lock down. We had police searching our school and outside. They found him in a backyard with no weapon but he had an object protruding out of his pocket that did in fact resemble a weapon.

That said, I do think drills are necessary and sometimes more effective if the students do not previous knowledge about what is going on but the guns were slightly over the top. I do know though when drills are planned they have to get authorization and I do not believe the fault should be solely on the principal.

[dr2005]

Originally Posted by Adam the Fish

Well, in terms of realism, the drills (ie. fire) we do need are sometimes deliberately changed to replicate specific situations - at my school, for instance, a handful of pupils are sometimes instructed to hide in the school buildings somewhere.
Use of guns with a load of children is a bit different though.

Very true - I was thinking more specifically about the "lockdown" drills with that comment, which despite the occasional incident (not least Dunblaine) haven't been rolled out across the UK. But fair point.

Originally Posted by Adam the Fish

I would have to say - maybe if there were similar gun controls to ours (these incidents here are decades apart, not so likely a problem that we require drills), there wouldn't be a problem in the first place. *ducks*

You do like opening your cans of worms, my friend...