brag on teen son in active shooter / lockdown drill ...

[wtr100]

Skrool did an active shooter drill. Nothing big , just a Sherrif's Dept officer slipped into the building in civilian clothes and wandered around w/o a vistor pass until he was noticed and a 'Code' was called. Actually they didnt know it was a drill until it was over.

Anyway #2 son was caught in the locker room changing, SOP is for the classrooms to lock down and shelter in place. Since he was in the locker room doesn't lock down he beat feet and hit the door. I guess he lead 10 or 15 students away from the school to the Apostolic Church maybe 300 yards away.

Gotta say when your 14 year old calls on cell phone (that they're verboten from having during the skrool day) and breathlessly tells you hes at the Apostolic Church and the school is on Code {something} lockdown it spikes the old adrenaline and blood pressure. They'd been practicing and talking about is so I was 99.9% sure it was a drill but still....

 

[twofifty]

I too would be very proud.

You have done well teaching your 14 yo to make his decision in terms of increasing the odds of survival and then acting decisively. Sounds like a good leader too.

How is his school handling this unexpected display of self-preserving independence?

 

[MachIVshooter]

Good on your boy, stupid on the SO. Unexpected fire or tornado drills are one thing, but the actions of people when put in a situation to fear for their lives can be unpredictable, and easily endanger others, including the actor(s). All it would take to turn that drill into tragedy is one or two hot shot kids deciding they could handle it, and you could very well have an officer with pointy things stuck in him.

 

[savanahsdad]

shelter in place !! when my kids were still in school , I told them if they ever heard shots and knew for sure there was a shooter in the school that they were throw a chair "or what ever" through the window , get out . and run the length of the school and not strait away from it , that way the shooter would have to lean out the window to get a shot at them , if they ran strait away the shooter could shoot at them from any window , good thing they never did a mock drill at there school , I'd be buying a window

 

[wtr100]

shelter in place !! when my kids were still in school , I told them if they ever heard shots and knew for sure there was a shooter in the school that they were throw a chair "or what ever" through the window , get out . and run the length of the school and not strait away from it , that way the shooter would have to lean out the window to get a shot at them , if they ran strait away the shooter could shoot at them from any window , good thing they never did a mock drill at there school , I'd be buying a window

In this school shelter in place actually makes sense. It was built in the 1950's with money from the Feds to serve as a CD Shelter. The entire building including interior walls is cinder block. They upgraded the doors to steel in steel frames the doors swing into the room. There are extra brace/latch things on the inside and I take it on their own some teachers have purchased wedges to jam under the door.

One of the take aways from the drill is for some members of the staff to round up strays and either evacuate or move to another shelter location.

Pretty much classic run, hide , fight.

I guess during the drill several PO were walking the building to evaluate how locked down things where. One forgot to pull out the 'Police' flap on his raid jacket and almost got konked in the head by a custodian with a large wrench! DOH!

While armed security along with the SIP strategy would be ideal, in the real world it isn't going to happen any time soon.

 

[wtr100]

Good on your boy, stupid on the SO. Unexpected fire or tornado drills are one thing, but the actions of people when put in a situation to fear for their lives can be unpredictable, and easily endanger others, including the actor(s). All it would take to turn that drill into tragedy is one or two hot shot kids deciding they could handle it, and you could very well have an officer with pointy things stuck in him.

Once the Code 'whatever' was called away police pulled the 'Police' flaps down on raid jackets.

With the exception of the one mentioned above.

There were no weapons shown, not even blue guns or air soft.

 

[savanahsdad]

our high school has windows next to the doors on all the classrooms and was built in the late 50's, it is one story , outside windows are about 4' off the ground , so bust and run is the best bet , you would be a sitting duck in the classrooms, the office would be the worst place to be , as it has a wall of glass so they can watch down the main hall , the shop classes have all steel doors but I think there is only 4 of them , , but we also have an on duty cop at are high school most of the time , he only leaves if needed else where ,

Sounds like your boy did the right thing,

 

[bikerdoc]

Kudos to him for quick thinking and showing leadership by taking the others with him.
As my gramaticaly challanged grandpa would say, you done raised him right.

 

[MachIVshooter]

Once the Code 'whatever' was called away police pulled the 'Police' flaps down on raid jackets.

With the exception of the one mentioned above.

There were no weapons shown, not even blue guns or air soft.

Having third hand knowledge of the events, I'll give the benefit of the doubt and assume they had a solid plan in place to keep things safe.

However, I maintain that using this kind of drill to test people's responses can be very dangerous for all involved. One simply cannot control all of the variables, and while the average response will be "flight", it only takes one "fight" response for things to go horribly awry.

Look at that fool who was masquerading as a terrorist on some street corner to "see what people would do": He's very lucky the police got to him before an armed citizen decided he was an imminent threat and took decisive, lethal action.

For anyone who thinks human responses are predictable enough to play these games, just look up some of the surprise/scare prank fail video compilations on youtube. Most people react more or less as expected, but once in awhile the person pulling the prank winds up hurt by the target. One really sticks out in my mind where a young girl startled her mom and caught a baking sheet to the face. There are others where some dude jumps out of a trash can or somesuch, works 8 times, but on the 9th he gets his teeth rattled.

 

[strambo]

The difference is there was no weapon, no shots fired, no threat indicators, just a code and someone walking around unarmed, seems pretty safe.

I did an active shooter drill with an airsoft gun (gas only no pellets) at a Nat. Guard Armory, but it was not no-notice (everyone briefed it would happen sometime that day), had observer/controller with "shooter" at all times and additional ones scattered. The briefing went over the ROE (i.e no hands on of anyone at anytime for any reason).

I totally agree, a no-notice "drill" with a weapon (inert or real) is bad, bad ju-ju. Either everyone knows and you can up the realism, or it's no-notice like a fire drill, no weapons, nothing during the event to kick someone into fight/flight against a person involved.

 

[ACP]

What is "skrool"??

 

[LocoGringo]

What is "skrool"??

Euphamism for "school" invented by Rush Limbaugh to reflect his opinion on the quality of today's schools...ie getting screwed at school because of a poor quality education.

 

[HankB]

We didn't have "active shooter drills" when I was in school, only air raid and fire drills. But I strongly suspect nearly everyone in a classroom or library on the 1st floor would have evacuated through the windows.

There were quite a few exit doors, and people in the hallways would have exited through them rather than entering a classroom to ". . . shelter in place . . . "

 

[Anmut]

Good for your son - natural born leader! I do question the need for showing all your cards like this on the side of the police. Can you see a couple kids ordering "tactical vests" with POLICE patches for their next school shooting? I can...

 

[wtr100]

Good for your son - natural born leader! I do question the need for showing all your cards like this on the side of the police. Can you see a couple kids ordering "tactical vests" with POLICE patches for their next school shooting? I can...

This was more of an administrative drill than anything else. They did nothing tactical AT ALL so I think the raid vest were to calm folks - keep the 911 calls

 

[DHJenkins]

Great kids come from great parents. Kudos.

 

[twofifty]

And they get to live to have kids of their own.

 

[HankB]

How did school admin react to the spontaneous evacuation your son led?

 

[Ranger Roberts]

Good for your son. Showing that kind of leadership in your 30's is impressive, at 14 your boy is a natural. Hat's off to him.

 

[wtr100]

How did school admin react to the spontaneous evacuation your son led?

There was an issue with him having his cell on him but that was pretty much just a finger wag.

Other than that it was positive, he even got to sit in on the after action. The school is working out plans on what to do with 'strays'.

I guess the thing that most impressed them was he wasn't the only student to hit the doors but others were milling about just outside the doors.

 

[larry_minn]

Sound to me like he did good. I have always HATED folks who go thru door (on fire drill for example) and then STOP. blocking others inside. Get clear of dang building.

It does not sound like Police did anything wrong. Just had people walk around (who shouldn't have been there) until someone did something. Yrs ago it was common to have person in school and nobody knew why they where there.

 

[45223]

Nice work.

 

[45223]

We didn't have "active shooter drills" when I was in school, only air raid and fire drills.

Boy times have changed. When did they do air raid drills?

We only had fire and tornado drills. At my college now we have posted notes about what to do in an active shooter drill.
They say lock doors, barricade, and hide.
I don't know how effective that is.

My plan is that if anyone comes in shooting. I'm going to hide right to the side of the wall behind a door, and if he comes through that door tackle him. In that situation I'd try to get everyone else to volunteer to charge him in such a case. Hiding under the desks is what most kids already did in most school shootings and it didn't do them much good.

I also had thoughts about climbing up into the ceiling. They're the type you can push up and get into really easily. I don't think a school shooter would look up there.

 

[HankB]

Boy times have changed. When did they do air raid drills?

You never heard of "Duck and Cover?"

We didn't actually do that - but classes were led down into the school's basement and we were supposed to sit quietly against the walls and cover our heads. And, of course, NO TALKING! as those Russian bombs might home in on our whispers.

This took place during the '60s . . . thinking back, the practice probably peaked during the Cuban missile crisis.

Growing up in Chicago, the air raid sirens were tested weekly every Tuesday at 10:30 AM.

 

[jeepnik]

I know things are much different today. But most of the male teachers I had were WWII vets. I can just see Mister A (Marine, who went to this funny sounding island, Guadalcanal)or Coach S (spent the better part of a morning on a little beach in France one June day in 1944) reaching into his desk draw, drawing either a Luger or a P-38 and dispatching the miscreant. Then going back to either the history lesson or yelling at the football team.

Heck, if a student had gotten to the parking lot the issue would have been dealt with long before, and by darned near as many had gotten there, any black and whites arrived.

Yes folks, we have really, really, really improved the safety of our children with todays wisely enacted firearms laws and school regs.