I hear you. My daughter told me that during one of her drills (it’s a high school) she was en route from one place to another and was passing through the gym when the “Dr. Lock” alarm went off. In accordance with instructions, she HID behind some hanging mats in the gym until the all-clear sounded.
That little piece of information freaked me out way more than the fact of lockdown drills happening. I hate that they are telling kids how to hide on school premises from attackers. But now I’m glad they do.
They have to really. My kids, at a Catholic high School in Canada are given the same drills, believe it or not. It would kinda suck to be the principal, have an event actually happen, and then explain to the parents, police, media and litany of lawyers that you had no plan in place to deal with the event, and had never practiced anything.
All three of my children are in their schools right now. I’m feeling sick and panicky thinking about them, so far from me at this moment. I mean, I know I can’t protect them every second for their entire lives, but I’m having a gut-level reaction and it’s making me feel ill and shaky.
Rest assured that those of us who are charged with protecting your children is such a circumstance are following this story with dread and mentally running through our own scenarios at our own schools. We care for our charges and take these things very seriously.
So does mine. I’m fine with that, was fine with it before.
For all we know a similar drill saved a life today. 27 people is horrible. 28 would be a life’s worth of more horrible. A safety drill might well have been the difference.
All the children are between 5 & 10. One shooter is dead, the other suspect apparently fled & police are trying to capture him. CT just abolished the death penalty earlier this year too. If he’s capured alive the trial’s going to be a fucking media circus.
Newtown is pretty damn ordinary. My sister lives there but her kids are a little older than elementary school age. It’s hard for me to wrap my mind around this happening anywhere, but even more so with Newtown. Not much crime, fairly affluent and just a shade beyond the NYC commuter towns farther south in Fairfield county.
The town is probably best known for the now closed Fairfield Hills facility, a sprawling collection of creepy-looking buildings that used to house the criminally insane. Now the town will be forever known for this tragedy. I have a feeling all the schools in the town will be closed until sometime in January.
What a horrible thing. Based on the really vague wording in some of these reports about a possible related murder in New Jersey and a “connection to the school,” I’m wondering if the shooter (whose name is being reported on CNN) murdered his ex-wife or something like that and then went to the school where his child was a student or had been a student.
This seems like a bad idea. Panic hits. I forget. Does red mean stay inside the building or does red mean the bad guy is in the building? Cut the silly code words and just tell people what to DO.
Not looking for a fight here, but does anyone else think that the saturation coverage of the situation currently inundating the major networks and news sites is not a good idea?
I understand that it’s all still raw and heartrendingly immediate for the families, and people want information, but the shooter is dead, and by giving his psychopathic actions literally hundreds (in total, by tonight) or even (eventually) thousands of hours of coverage, doesn’t this send the wrong message for other would-be attention seekers on the edge, possibly looking for their time in the spotlight?
Just watching the BBC. They are quoting one student as saying that their teacher got them all to hide in a storeroom and locked the door. They heard a man banging and kicking at the door and shouting to let him in. The teacher told them all to stay quiet and he went away. A short time later the police came and told them it was safe. Good teacher, good drill.
Just a side thought going out for the emergency responders.
The local 9-1-1 center that covers that area is normally staffed with two people per shift. They have got to be overwhelmed. Reports are they called for mutual aid responders from about a third of the state of Connecticut.
