Because the desks could protect you when the windows blow out and showered the classroom with razor-sharp glass.
It’s not like there are two conditions, you’re either vaporized at ground zero, or you’re fine. There’s a huge in-between zone where taking some simple steps could drastically reduce mortality. Sure, there’s radiation and thermal pulse, but lots of the people at Hiroshima were killed by the mundane blast, shrapnel, fires, collapsing buildings, and so on. And these drills were conducted in the 60s, when there were very few ICBMs, most nuclear war scenarios envisioned Soviet Bombers dropping the nukes. If there had been a nuclear war with the technology back then millions of lives could be saved by the same sorts of precautions that work against tornados. Maybe it seems silly to take steps to reduce the death rate from 60 million people killed to 40 million people killed, but then again, saving the lives of a few million people is still saving the lives of a few million people. Of course, the better way to save those people is not have the nuclear war in the first place.
[QUOTE=Soapbox Monkey]
2) Fight back against the person with the weapon, which may also get you killed, but at least you’ll have a fraction of a chance. And if 20 people had rushed the gunman at Columbine, 3 or 4 may have died while the rest overwhelmed them.
[/QUOTE]
You seem to be confusing 11 year olds with Zerg. IF they tried that, you wouldn’t get 20 kids attacking; most would be frozen or trying to get away. Of those that did attack, several would be shot and most or all of the rest would run away. And if one or two did reach the gunman they’d be casually beaten to the ground, and then shot. I wouldn’t expect a mass rush to work most of the time against modern weapons with 20 non-soldier adults ( and I suspect the soldiers would smack you upside the head for suggesting human wave tactics in this day and age ), much less 11 year olds.
[QUOTE=ASAKMOTSD]
When kids do stuff like this as a joke, it is a 20 year felony. Does that apply to the adults?
[/QUOTE]
No. When people do this to you as an adult at work, you have to pretend its a bad joke, fake laughter and head home for a personal day to scream in anguish into a pillow. Don’t report it, no matter what all the manuals say. The manuals lie and reporting it will be used against you. Whatever you do, don’t tell HR. They can’t, won’t, and are looking for a reason not to help you. Don’t tell a lawyer. Their partners will tell them that the case has a low chance of winning, so they won’t take it unless you pay them by the hour. You can either sit there and take it or report it and be called a liar. And whatever you do, don’t mention it on a message board, even in a moment of weakness. The Monday morning QBs and armchair Rambos will crucify you.
If everyroom had a specific ‘huddle point’, does that not inform one where to plant the explosive device?
Of coures I would play the 1812 overture on the PA.
Geez, is this now an actual educatiional film?
[QUOTE=Tuckerfan]
Ah, how wonderful. I should point out that we have a number of Dopers who have the misfortune to live in Murfreesboro, TN. None of whom, IIRC, are elementary teachers, and certainly if any of them are, I feel confident in saying that they wouldn’t be so stupid as to participate in this.
Murfreesboro has seen more than it’s fair share of fucked up shit in the past couple of years for some reason. There was the high ranking cop who told officers at their start of shift briefing that if they weren’t Christians, he was going to make their life hell. Then, while driving a convict bus, he stopped at a street corner, and ordered a bunch of people to get on the bus at gunpoint, with no explaination as to what they might have been doing wrong. (They were, it should be noted, doing nothing wrong, and were never charged with anything.)
Other bizarre things have happened there, that I can’t recall at the moment (though I think that there might have been a Pit thread or two about them). Really surprising, too, considering that Murfreesboro is a college town, and not one of the Deliverence-esque places in the state.
[/QUOTE]
When I heard about this, I died of embarassment. :o :o :o :o :o :o
Tuck is right!
The first website I Googled for this story…was the BBC. :o :o :o
Perhaps the adults responsible for this “prank” should be arrested by heavily armed masked men–in the middle of the night/wee hours of the morning–and hauled before some mysterious tribunal (lots of bright lights shining right in the defendants’ faces, maybe the judges also all wear hoods). A quick summary trial, the sentence: Death! The assorted teachers and Vice Principals and what not are then marched from the trial chamber outside and stood up against a wall; a firing squad marches in: “Ready!.. Aim!..”–BLAM!
Of course all the rifles would be loaded with blanks. Ha ha! “Gotcha ya”! What a funny prank!
If everyroom had a specific ‘huddle point’, does that not inform one where to plant the explosive device?
[/QUOTE]
Oh my God, don’t even get me started on this one. When we had bomb threat drills the WHOLE SCHOOL would be evacuated…and herded into the bleachers of our football stadium.
During the first drill I turned to the kid next to me and said “Well I guess all they’d have to do is put the real bomb under the bleachers.”
We’ll make some allowances for you since you are a Yank. But a liberal should be better informed. Even thirty-five years ago Playboy magazine listed the college there in Murfreesboro as one of the top ten party schools in the country. Since many of the teachers in Murfreesboro schools graduated from this same (now) university, I suspect that “their hate and fear of the modern secular world” was restricted to Professor Gore’s class on Global Warmin’.
Oh, wait! I hear banjoes! I must go and pose with mint juleps under our magnolias. The tour buses are a comin’!
[QUOTE=Monty]
I see a few posts above saying it’s just a bunch of teachers involved and asking why nobody checked with an administrator. Isn’t a Vice-Principal an administrator? One such individual was involved, according to the linked report.
[/QUOTE]
Yep… my bad. I read quickly and thought it was just teachers on a field trip.
I’ve known plenty of individual teachers with poor judgment, so if it was one I wouldn’t be shocked. More than two teachers? Someone should have said, “Hey, this might not go the way we think it will.” More than two teachers and an administrator? I would have sworn that was impossible. Imagine the collective stupidity and short-sightedness of this crew - a random assortment of adults would have likely said, “This probably isn’t a great idea.” Amazing!
I would think that any collective of educators would on their own surmise that this wasn’t the greatest idea, but the hair-trigger senses of an administrator (scared of press/parents/other administrators) would kick in and put the kibosh on this horrendously inappropriate idea. I stand corrected (and slackjawed)!
Phew! That was fun! I love it when the tourists throw money instead of rocks!
Hm. Well anyway, my point was that those teachers in Murfreesboro are pretty used to sin and degradation – being so close to the Raiders and Professor Gore and “the BLVD” in Smyrna and even the live bait machine in LaVergne. That’s not their problem.
[QUOTE=Colibri]
Even if you kill the fish with the pressure wave as you suggest, the bullet is probably not actually going to hit them, so you are not technically speaking shooting them.
[/QUOTE]
Interesting. I always thought that the barrel was packed full of fish, as would be done for transport and later sale. Since the barrel is packed, it’s quite easy to hit one.
[QUOTE=Dung Beetle]
I actually had a teacher do this to me and my classmates. It was a high school drama class and the year was 1984. The class was doing business as usual, when two guys with guns burst in and started yelling for everyone to get on the floor. Naturally pandemonium ensued, as we all got down and pulled the chairs and desks around ourselves. The two guys ran around hollering and scaring us for a couple of minutes, and then our teacher told us it was just a demonstation of improv or some shit. The two guys were former students of hers. She laughed as she told us how one girl had approached her during the panic with tears rolling down her cheeks, imploring the teacher to save her…and we all laughed too. We were kind of shaky, but relieved.
I’m always amazed when I look back on that event now.
[/QUOTE]
Part of my training when working as a Petrol Station Manager for Exxon Mobil was to undergo an armed robbery simulation - that was as real as they could make it, we also had to watch a live dramatisation of a station manager telling someones wife her husband had been killed at work - both were very eye opening (and super memorable) experiences
[QUOTE=Carl Corey]
I always thought that the barrel was packed full of fish, as would be done for transport and later sale. Since the barrel is packed, it’s quite easy to hit one.
[/QUOTE]
What would be the point of shooting a dead fish? Why not, say, apples?