We Love Telling Ourselves We'll Have Control. We'll Even Terrify The Hell Out Of Our Kids To Believe It
For years, we've been terrifying children into wetting their pants in active shooter drills in schools.
Joe Pinsker writes at The Atlantic:
This week, America got another reminder of the fear that its schoolchildren must make sense of every day. On Tuesday afternoon, nine students were shot--one of them fatally--at STEM School Highlands Ranch, near Denver.Though the two suspects are teenagers, STEM School Highlands Ranch is K-12, meaning that some young children were exposed to the violence. Among them was a second grader who told a New York Times reporter that he'd gone through lockdowns and active-shooter drills since kindergarten. That's close to half his eight years of life.
His familiarity with potential crisis scenarios makes him part of an enormous group: In the 2017-2018 school year, more than 4.1 million students participated in a lockdown or lockdown drill, according to an analysis by The Washington Post.
These lockdowns can be scarring, causing some kids to cry and wet themselves. Others have written letters bidding their family goodbye or drafted wills that specify what to do with their belongings. And 57 percent of teens worry that a shooting will happen at their school, according to a Pew Research Center survey from last year. Though many children are no strangers to violence in their homes and communities, the pervasiveness of lockdowns and school-shooting drills in the U.S. has created a culture of fear that touches nearly every child across the country. In postwar America, have kids ever been so afraid and so regularly prompted to imagine their own suffering?
It's absolutely, completely, absolutely understandable that parents want to protect their children -- while crossing the street and in the very rare chance that there's a shooter in a school.
The reality is, practicing for this is unlikely to save anyone. If you're lucky, you'll be out of harm's way. If not, you won't.
Erica Christakis is of a similar mind on this, writing in The Atlantic that there's scant evidence that these drills are effective:
In one sense, the impulse driving these preparations is understandable. The prospect of mass murder in a classroom is intolerable, and good-faith proposals for preventing school shootings should be treated with respect. But the current mode of instead preparing kids for such events is likely to be psychologically damaging. See, for instance, the parting letter a 12-year-old boy wrote his parents during a lockdown at a school in Charlotte, North Carolina, following what turned out to be a bogus threat: "I am so sorry for anything I have done, the trouble I have caused," he scribbled. "Right now I'm scared to death. I need a warm soft hug ... I hope that you are going to be okay with me gone."As James Hamblin wrote for The Atlantic last February, there is precious little evidence that the current approach is effective:
Studies of whether active-shooter drills actually prevent harm are all but impossible. Case studies are difficult to parse. In Parkland, for example, the site of the recent shooting, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, had an active-shooter drill just last month. The suspect had been through such drills, and may have used them to his advantage.*Moreover, the scale of preparedness efforts is out of proportion to the risk. ... The Washington Post has identified fewer than 150 people (children and adults) who have been shot to death in America's schools since the 1999 shooting at Columbine High School, in Colorado. Not 150 people a year, but 150 in nearly two decades.
Christakis continues:
Our feverish pursuit of disaster preparedness lays bare a particularly sad irony of contemporary life. Among modernity's gifts was supposed to be childhood--a new life stage in which young people had both time and space to grow up, without fear of dying or being sent down a coal mine. To a large extent, this has been achieved. American children are manifestly safer and healthier than in previous eras. The mortality rate of children under 5 in the United States today is less than 1 percent (or 6.6 deaths per 1,000 children), compared with more than 40 percent in 1800. The reduction is miraculous. But as in so many other realms, we seem determined to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
I am of two minds about this. On the one hand, I think for the general population, it is silly... And the same basic desire could be obtained from shelter-in-place and evacuation drills (without specifying why we do those things- does it really need to he a fire drill or does evacuation cover it?)
On the other hand, we are Jewish, and so are at a slightly higher risk overall... And less so from an insider. So I feel there is a greater chance (not necessarily a big one) of it being a useful exercise in our schools (often in synagogues).
Anon at May 10, 2019 3:56 AM
I am an American who lives in Israel. When Israelis learn about this kind of thing, they shake their heads at crazy theatrical Americans.
Every school in Israel has armed guards. Most teachers and administrators received firearms and hand-to-hand training during basic army service - male and female - and a good portion received additional training through the Board of Ed. There are no fits of vapors when these teachers carry on campus.
Armed guards or teachers accompany all school hikes and outdoors events. Lots of high schools have junior medic programs, too, and the kids that age tote the First Aid knapsack on outings.
I am willing to bet that kids are far less traumatized by the sight of "assault weapons" (gasp!) and adults modeling preparedness than they are by this kind of Stokholm-syndrome indoctrination. Which means this is yet another example of how the Left is using the educational system to "deconstruct" and train up the next generation of pliant underlings.
Either engage in real prevention/preparation, or stop the glorified fire drils.
Ben David at May 10, 2019 4:47 AM
Just remember your school desk can function as a fallout shelter and protect you from nuclear radiation. How it does this I haven't the foggiest idea. But the boomers all learned to hide under their desks as kids for some crazy reason.
Ben at May 10, 2019 5:13 AM
A repeat…
Radwaste at May 10, 2019 5:37 AM
How can one revoke the 2nd amendment without pounding into a generation’s heads, be irrationally terrified of guns?
Joe j at May 10, 2019 6:21 AM
Remember, kids, lockdown is an asinine strategy pushed by "adults" who don't have the first notion about fighting or defense. The proper strategy is run, hide or fight -- in that order. Run if you can. Hide if you must. Fight as a last resort. But whatever you do, don't just sit there and be an easy target.
Two of those students chose to fight, and one paid for it with his life. I won't question their decision -- they were there, I was not. Their actions saved a lot of other lives. I understand one of them was a Marine "poolee"; that is, someone who has signed up to join after graduation. Semper fi. There's some "toxic masculinity" for you.
Cousin Dave at May 10, 2019 7:12 AM
We had active-shooter drills at our middle and high school (a few years post-Columbine) for the purpose of corralling all the students while the police brought in the drug sniffing dogs and searched lockers. So, some of my fellow students were shaking in fear for a totally different reason — that they were about to get busted. Nobody even pretended that turning off all the lights and sitting alongside the walls furthest from the door was actually about our safety.
sofar at May 10, 2019 8:45 AM
"The suspect had been through such drills, and may have used them to his advantage.*
I'd be willing to bet the drills also inspire some shooters.
Some staff at the kinderprison across the street from my house carry concealed-- or so the signs on the school doors claim. Along with the signs declaring the school a designated slaughter zone... oops, I mean, prohibiting guns on campus.
The best thing would be to abolish government schools altogether. My appreciation for education explains my opposition to schooling.
Kent McManigal at May 10, 2019 8:48 AM
Fixed the link!
Radwaste at May 10, 2019 8:51 AM
This is what we had to do when I was a teacher:
Lock the door
Turn off the lights
Line up against the wall the door was on.
This was so someone casually walking by and glancing in the window couldn't see us, and might think the room was empty.
Of course we did this every drill, so if the kid went to school they would know this and if they managed to get in we'd be lined up for easier shooting.
Apparently though you''re most likely to get shot in the hall, trying to flee.
NicoleK at May 10, 2019 9:02 AM
"Apparently though you''re most likely to get shot in the hall, trying to flee."
Not really. A moving target is a lot harder to hit, especially for a mentally stressed shooter, who also may not have a lot of practice or skill with guns. Anything -- absolutely anything -- is better than sitting still in a classroom, with no cover and no plan, hoping that the shooter decides to shoot someone else. If more people took active measures, shooters would be less successful and there would be a lot less of this sort of thing.
Cousin Dave at May 10, 2019 10:06 AM
Line up against the wall the door was on.
Concrete wall, or the more normal (and much less expensive) sheet rock? if the latter, put a round thru the wall and see if someone screams.
Apparently though you''re most likely to get shot in the hall, trying to flee.
Didn't the Parkland shooter pull the fire alarm? or was that an after-the-fact cover my escape? fish, barrel, some assembly required.
A moving target is a lot harder to hit, especially for a mentally stressed shooter
The first part is true. Until you pack the hallway full of targets, in which case even a stressed shooter can just shoot and score hits. The odds of missing are much reduced, even if people are running. And someone is going to be trampled in the rush.
I R A Darth Aggie at May 10, 2019 11:43 AM
@Ben: "Just remember your school desk can function as a fallout shelter and protect you from nuclear radiation."
I remember many drills where we assumed the civil defense position, otherwise called "Bend over and kiss your a** goodbye." I don't remember kids ever being terrified like the ones in the article - was that because Boomers were tougher, or because even kindergartners could see how silly hiding under your desk from a nuke was, so we had to assume authorities hadn't come up with a real plan because they didn't think we'd need one? But that was still not as silly as hiding in a classroom from a mad gunman - and that's the best plan present-day authorities are _willing_ to make.
I'll also note that out of the 6 schools I attended from K-12, all but 2 were one-story. I was quite young when I decided that the fire drills that had us lining up in the hallways - where the fire would be spreading - were utterly stupid. (But not as stupid as the active shooter drills.) If any part of the building actually was on fire, I would have tossed my chair through a window and followed it out.
markm at May 10, 2019 11:53 AM
From what I've read, most mass shooters are "spray and pray" shooters, not the deadly marksmen they imagine themselves.
Even the Las Vegas shooter was shooting into a crowd and not picking specific targets.
Conan the Grammarian at May 10, 2019 1:20 PM
Just remember your school desk can function as a fallout shelter and protect you from nuclear radiation. How it does this I haven't the foggiest idea. But the boomers all learned to hide under their desks as kids for some crazy reason.
Ben at May 10, 2019 5:13 AM
_____________________________________
Well...
I knew a boomer who went to a private elementary school in the early 1950s. I asked her (this was a long time ago) if her teachers ever put her through duck-and-cover drills. She rolled her eyes and said "Of course not. They were smarter than THAT!"
lenona at May 10, 2019 2:20 PM
A security expert told me recently that the only time you should hit the floor (as in the movies) is when you can SEE the shooter. If not, RUN!
lenona at May 10, 2019 2:22 PM
"I don't remember kids ever being terrified like the ones in the article - was that because Boomers were tougher, or because even kindergartners could see how silly hiding under your desk from a nuke was, so we had to assume authorities hadn't come up with a real plan because they didn't think we'd need one?"
Because scared kids make for a better story. The very vast majority of kids aren't scared of this. But journalists need to publish something even if that thing is mostly made up.
Heck, look at CNN's reporting on the Russia collusion thing. They got a prize for reporting on something that didn't happen.
Yep Conan, most mass shooters are spray and pray. But historically school shooters also plant explosives. So staying in the building isn't a good idea either. Break a window out and escape that way. Yes you make noise, but so are lots of other things. And yes second floors or higher you may have to think of some other option.
Ben at May 10, 2019 3:51 PM
"boomers all learned to hide under their desks as kids for some crazy reason"
Because the Greatest Generation folk were their classroom teachers and that's what they told their boomer kids to do?
Then again, they also said that exploding nuclear weapons in the air, dirt, and water was totally safe and would keep the commies away, so take their advice with an isotope of sodium chloride ...
Gog_Magog_Carpet_Reclaimers at May 10, 2019 3:58 PM
Columbine was planned as a bombing, but morphed into a shooting when the bombs failed to explode.
The worst school massacre on US soil was a bombing.
I think, going forward, most of these massacres will be planned as shootings. Those get the attention and the shooter's name in the papers.
Conan the Grammarian at May 10, 2019 6:24 PM
Even so I say break a window and escape. Staying at the school hoping you don't get found is plain risky. It is more dumb advice from clueless administrators.
Ben at May 10, 2019 7:58 PM
People were less scared because the odds of nuclear war were lower, and unless you were in NY or DC, the odds of the nuclear bomb being sent to your town were close to nil.
NicoleK at May 11, 2019 5:07 AM
Breaking a window and escaping is the "run" part of Run-Hide-Fight.
I took an active shooter class put on by the CMPD about a year ago and the officer said getting out of the building is the first order of business. If you can't get out of the building, only then do you hide. So, breaking a window to get out is exactly what you should do.
He went around the room asking people what they'd do if a shooter came in through that door right now. It was interesting how many people had not made a plan once they entered the room. I was one of them. Now, I regularly scope exits and escape routes.
Even if you're armed (CCH/CCW), there may be too many panicking people in the way for you to get a clear shot. Plan for that.
And be prepared for any plan you make to fall apart in an instant.
Also note that "hide" kicks in only when "run" is no longer an option. And it does not mean crawl under a nearby desk or table and hope no one sees you. Of course, if that's all you can do, do that. If you can barricade yourself in a room, do that.
Do everything you can to put distance, whether physical or temporal, between you and the shooter.
One of the things the officer pointed out was that the room we were in had several doors leading to offices and classrooms. Yet no one in the class knew if any of those doors were locked. No one had walked over and tested them.
Brings to mind the Jame Mattis quote that made the rounds a few years ago, "Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet."
Conan the Grammarian at May 11, 2019 7:22 AM
I agree with Run-Hide-Fight Conan. But that isn't the advice being promoted in the schools. Look at what NicoleK wrote.
"Lock the door
Turn off the lights
Line up against the wall the door was on."
The advice being promoted is 'Hide and Die'.
Ben at May 11, 2019 10:11 AM
I'll take an actual police officer's advice over that of the school board.
That's because the crowd control design of the hallway herds the fleeing students into a crowd, making an easier target for a "spray and pray" shooter.
Conan the Grammarian at May 11, 2019 11:17 AM
Ben: boomers all learned to hide under their desks as kids for some crazy reason
Thousands of people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki were injured by the flash, the heat, shattered glass and flying and falling debris. A lot of those people might not have been injured if they'd been hiding under a desk inside a building instead of standing in front of a window or on a sidewalk watching the American bombers fly over. At least that was the way it was explained when I was a kid in elementary school in Garden Grove, California and we had duck-and-cover drills every Friday when they tested the emergency warning sirens.
NicoleK: and unless you were in NY or DC, the odds of the nuclear bomb being sent to your town were close to nil.
Garden Grove probably wouldn't have been the target of a Russian nuclear attack, but Seal Beach, El Toro, Long Beach, San Diego, Oceanside, Oxnard, Los Angeles and other cities in the region with substantial military installations and industry would have been; or Disneyland, which Khrushchev unsuccessfully attempted to reconnoiter in 1959 (sneaky Russians) So we learned to hide under desks, not to avoid being evaporated by a direct hit, but to avoid being collateral damage in an attack on something not far enough away.
Ken R at May 11, 2019 1:38 PM
"A lot of those people might not have been injured if they'd been hiding under a desk inside a building instead of standing in front of a window or on a sidewalk watching the American bombers fly over."
*bomber
Fixed it for you. A single plane flew, because the weapon would kill aircraft in the vicinity, too.
Lots of popular drivel about nukes out there.
Radwaste at May 11, 2019 2:58 PM
On 6-Aug 1945 a lone US Army Air Force B-29, Enola Gay dropped the first bomb, Little Boy, on Hiroshima.
Another B-29, Bockscar, dropped the second bomb, Fat Man, on Nagasaki three days later.
Conan the Grammarian at May 12, 2019 2:19 PM
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