glocktoter
Member
- Joined
- Sep 1, 2008
- Messages
- 1
I'm all fired up by several things on this thread. As a teacher in the public school system who is currently waiting patiently for her conceal carry permit to arrive, I appreciate that many of you think this was a stupid drill. Duh.
What I disagree with is the idea that we're "trained" to "cower." Ok, yes, I can't disagree, in general. If we hear there's an intruder in the building, we are trained to close our doors, lock them and keep the children as safe as possible in our unarmed states. So in that way, yes, you're right. But I don't like the feeling I'm getting from a lot of these posts that we're mindless, or because of us, the kids are not learning to defend themselves. We're apparently cowards, so it's no wonder that little Johnny is, too-- after all, that's what he's learning at school.
Some posts mentioned "snapping off a chair leg" or some variation and beating the meanie with the gun with it. Well, in order to do this, a person must have 1. Massive action-movie strength to break the chair (which of course, wouldn't be noticed by the gunman, right? After all, they don't notice in the movies...) 2. opportunity to approach the gunman without being seen or heard, and then 3. Smack him hard enough with the improvised weapon ONCE so that he is down and can be detained or ... dealt with. Yes, as teachers we should defend ourselves, but I think the situation has to be just so in order for something like this to realistically work without a paranoid gunman shooting everyone in the room. Often the gunman is feeling a sense of power. If cowering and praying saves lives by making him believe we're not racking our brains trying to think of something we can do, then good.
Another tidbit to think about is this: all of us have heard about situations where a crook of some sort is high on who-knows-what, and the cops shoot him dozens of times to get him to go down. If I were to try to do something like this, I would hope I'd be high on SOMETHING. The chance that the gunman is right in his head at the time of shooting seems relatively low. You might as well bash YOURSELF in the head with the chair leg for all the good it will do you. I understand that the hero with the chair leg may save lives, but he may die, too. Many of you are willing to do that at a moment's notice. Good for you. I like life, and would like to continue it, so depending on the situation, there's a good chance I won't try to be the hero. I'll be cowering in my classroom, thankyouverymuch, keeping my students quiet.
I know many of you are not anti-teacher, and have more of a problem with the fact that schools are killing zones waiting to happen, and I agree. Just remember please that we are not all cowardly sheep being led to the slaughter. We are people too.
What I disagree with is the idea that we're "trained" to "cower." Ok, yes, I can't disagree, in general. If we hear there's an intruder in the building, we are trained to close our doors, lock them and keep the children as safe as possible in our unarmed states. So in that way, yes, you're right. But I don't like the feeling I'm getting from a lot of these posts that we're mindless, or because of us, the kids are not learning to defend themselves. We're apparently cowards, so it's no wonder that little Johnny is, too-- after all, that's what he's learning at school.
Some posts mentioned "snapping off a chair leg" or some variation and beating the meanie with the gun with it. Well, in order to do this, a person must have 1. Massive action-movie strength to break the chair (which of course, wouldn't be noticed by the gunman, right? After all, they don't notice in the movies...) 2. opportunity to approach the gunman without being seen or heard, and then 3. Smack him hard enough with the improvised weapon ONCE so that he is down and can be detained or ... dealt with. Yes, as teachers we should defend ourselves, but I think the situation has to be just so in order for something like this to realistically work without a paranoid gunman shooting everyone in the room. Often the gunman is feeling a sense of power. If cowering and praying saves lives by making him believe we're not racking our brains trying to think of something we can do, then good.
Another tidbit to think about is this: all of us have heard about situations where a crook of some sort is high on who-knows-what, and the cops shoot him dozens of times to get him to go down. If I were to try to do something like this, I would hope I'd be high on SOMETHING. The chance that the gunman is right in his head at the time of shooting seems relatively low. You might as well bash YOURSELF in the head with the chair leg for all the good it will do you. I understand that the hero with the chair leg may save lives, but he may die, too. Many of you are willing to do that at a moment's notice. Good for you. I like life, and would like to continue it, so depending on the situation, there's a good chance I won't try to be the hero. I'll be cowering in my classroom, thankyouverymuch, keeping my students quiet.
I know many of you are not anti-teacher, and have more of a problem with the fact that schools are killing zones waiting to happen, and I agree. Just remember please that we are not all cowardly sheep being led to the slaughter. We are people too.
