@akerman2631 Yeah I don’t know how much better hiding is than running away. I know age is a factor but as adults I have had training where the best thing you can do is run away from gunshots
@greatestfaith After Uvalde I feel like all bets are off. I don’t want to hear what any expert says and I definitely don’t want to hear what a cop says.
On the other hand maybe I should listen to the cops. All 400 of them came home safe that day.
@akerman2631 Adding to this, the Uvalde police or county police or whoever out there just spent a ton of money for military equipment, SWAT style vehicles and stuff, enough to take down a Pablo Escobar compound, and it did absolutely no good in a situation where that sort of training and tactical equipment was SUPPOSED to help (or so they claimed, to justify the massive costs of all that crap).
@anna_jackson I’m Canadian, and my school didn’t have active shooter drills, or metal detectors, or security, or drug searches, etc. This is truly foreign to me.
I’ll never wrap my head around how America has accepted and normalized this. I’ve seen ads for bullet proof backpacks, suggestions that all teachers should be armed, etc.
I know it’s a byproduct of America’s ridiculous obsession with 2A, with a healthy dose of gun lobbyist money and Fox News, but it’s still so disappointing to see.
Not looking forward to my child growing up and having to go through this as well.
@anna_jackson Last week my kids were playing "active shooter"; had the door barricaded, lights out, and hidden. Very awkward but they remembered their training from school so they got a pass for the barricade. It's unfortunate they are all too familiar with these safety measures however it makes me feel slightly better they're prepared for something that isn't necessarily inevitable. The weak will always prey on the meek, it's disheartening but I'm happy they are staying vigilant.
@anna_jackson I'm sad to say that a few years ago, my wife (then pregnant) was involved in a school shooting. I completely understand your feelings OP as my oldest is about to start school and will be introduced to these drills, but I cannot stress enough how good and important the training is. It saved a few kids in the shooting my wife was in, and it needs to be taught and practiced everywhere. I would even go as far as practicing some stuff with them outside class just to reinforce it. It's really shitty that kids have to deal with this stuff and it makes me so angry. But it's much better to be prepared than be scared and panic in a bad situation.
@anna_jackson My son finished kindergarten and had them in both pre-school and kindergarten. He made mention of them once that it was part of the school day. Turns out it was about the fifth one he had in total and it was very nonchalant. I was more alarmed about it than he was. It's sad that they have to do it but at that age the kids don't understand the severity of the situation.
@anna_jackson I taught for a while and this is just part of the school year now. I had to do one full on active shooter training where they shot at us with pellet guns and such. It was tough as a 22 year old. I am so scared at the thought of something happening to my kid at school. We need a solution here. I’m not sure what it is.
But dads (and other people lurking in this sub), talk to your kids, show them you care and do whatever you can to keep these things from happening. And above all, tell them to report any threats or suspicious behavior immediately. It’s truly scary we even have to worry about this stuff with our KIDS.
@anna_jackson I imagine it is probably similar to hurricane/tornado drills. We would do these drills twice a year all throughout middle and high school. Alarms going off, everyone files into the hallways or huddles under their desk. And they we all have to crouch down in the fetal position covering our heads for 10 mins.
@anna_jackson My kids have been doing “bad guy” drills since they were TWO. All of the kids in the daycare shove themselves into the interior bathrooms and kitchen pass thru. I cried after the first one and my son came home talking about hiding from bad guys. It’s such an ingrained thing for them now that I don’t think they have any problems.
My 7 year old had one lockdown in 2 years due to a threat at the high school a few blocks down the road. However, one of the elementary schools in our district had two lockdowns in one week. It was pretty traumatic for the kids and the parents (we have two friends with kids there.)
@anna_jackson I had active shooter drills in my school years. I doubt as early as pre k, but definitely 6th grade that I could remember. It was definitely a non event for us. Basically sit down in the corner while teacher turns off lights and barricades the door then stay quiet till the all clear.
@anna_jackson When I volunteered at the school library, I had the displeasure of participating in an active shooter drill. We had a group of 2nd graders in the library when they gave the signal. I had no clue what was going on but the kids handled it well (as well as can be expected) for the most part. The librarian herded us into the resource room and kids knew to get under the desks. I got down there too as best I could (I'm a big guy). There were a couple of little ones who were visibly shaken but the librarian comforted them and helped them relax a bit. We hung out on the floor until the all clear sounded, about 5 minutes by my guess. The majority of them did exactly what they were supposed to do and it was basically just another type of fire drill for them. All in all I was glad to see how well the kids handled it but it was a pretty disturbing experience for me.
@anna_jackson We did the same type of stuff when I was young. I think it was more focused on bombs at the time though. While it’s a sad reality, better to have some preparation than none
@anna_jackson My daughter’s daycare did this last year. We tried to find a balance between honest and non-traumatizing.
We said there were bad guys that could come to “hurt her” instead of “murder her”. We also made it clear that it was very, very, very, very unlikely this would ever happen but we just needed to practice like when we practice for a fire drill.
Our goal was to make it as unscary as possible while still emphasizing the importance of it.
@anna_jackson My daughter goes to a Jewish daycare and unfortunately becuase we live in a hate filled society they have to do lockdown drills since she was 3.
@anna_jackson There's a decent amount of long-term experience from duck-and-cover drills and Jewish schools (especially in Europe, where governments secretly allowed attacks as long as "real" citizens weren't targeted) and we haven't seen any notable damage yet.
