Public schools make good targets
I substituted for a third grade class this week, the first subbing assignment I have had for a few years due to me having a regular day job until now. The shock between subbing a few years ago in 1999-2000 and now is great. The lockdown procedures are pretty much lock them in the room, shut off the lights and kiss your rump bye bye.
On top of that, teachers cannot retrieve students off of the playground if they refuse to come in at the end of recess, only the assistant principal can do that. If a kid gets out of line, the teacher doesn't do anything, just sends them to the timeout room or the office. Teachers act like prison guards in training, though they are nice to other adults.
What got me was forcing kids to only have bathroom access at specific times of the day. I let the kids go at the assigned times and at anytime then needed to.
But back to the subject at hand. If someone intent on attacking a school wanted to, they could do it. I look at the two public school districts in the county I live in here in Missouri. Even with lock down procedures, it is very easy to wipe out the school office and administrative office staff of both schools. Only one district has one police officer at the school. Second, if you wanted to wipe out a good number of students, just wait for lunch time and you have a few hundred students in one place, with only two exits for them to get out through easily in the one school, and in the other you can easily cover the four exits there are.
Those that might be locked down in rooms are easy targets once you shoot the door lock. With the idea of just having them lay down and hide in the room, that makes them easy targets as they won't go anywhere even if they can get out a window (if they are small enough kids).
When I was a reporter in the one town, I regularly had my Leatherman tool on my belt when I had to pick up things for the weekly newspaper I worked for. No one ever questioned me about that, yet there was a sign on the entry doors that said No Weapons Allowed. Not that I drew attention to it, but if a conspicuous tool sheath doesn't draw attention, why would someone with a concealed weapon?
As for a police or sheriff response, it takes our county SWAT team about 45-60 minutes to respond if they are lucky, and it is made up of 9 to 11 road deputies in the county, pretty much all of the deputies in the department. I live in a rural county, so that is typical. But what concerns me is a coordinated attack. I can see one school being used as a distraction while the other one is also hit. Once terrorists are inside, it would be hard to do much to them once they are in. Even though our SWAT team trains on dealing with school emergencies like hostage situations, how could they train to handle devoted terrorists? Or a group of terrorists that hit all of the school buildings in the two school districts?
I am not expert on tatics, but from what I observe, the defense that the districts say they have is mearly a formality of feel good thinking. Sooner or later a rural area will be hit, even if it is not as graphic or attention grabbing as what happened on 9/11. To be honest, terrorism in a rural school would be more shocking because it doesn't happen as much. That is what bothers me so much. If a city gets hit, it is a big target and can be expected to be hit because of its size. But if you hit a rural area here, and another there and still another over there, you break into the minds of people, showing them that nowhere is safe, not that anyplace is really.
Sooner or later the fight will come to the less populous areas because we are more vulnerable here due to smaller size and less budget for security.
