Teachers Fear Active Shooter Drills
11 posts in the last 90 days, all from r/Teachers.
“The real problem is that the only solutions to the problem are at a systemic level and nobody in any hall of power is interested in implementing them. And now that we have school defense contractors, the game is over over.”
“After last week, I’m thinking of keeping some kind of tool in my room that I can use to shatter my windows in case of an emergency. My windows: first story, don’t open, not bullet proof. Anybody have something like this? What do you keep? I was thinking of a small sledgehammer…”
“We had a lockdown drill last week in middle school. The para tried to convince me we should leave the classroom and flee with the children outside the building. I told her no, the room is secure and it is safer for everyone inside. The door was locked and a special door jam was…”
Multiple posts express anxiety and concern regarding active shooter drills and safety protocols in schools. Teachers are sharing coping mechanisms, questioning the effectiveness of measures, and highlighting the emotional toll these situations take.
SOURCES (29)
“After last week, I’m thinking of keeping some kind of tool in my room that I can use to shatter my windows in case of an emergency. My windows: first story, don’t open, not bullet proof. Anybody have something like this? What do you keep?…”
“We had a lockdown drill last week in middle school. The para tried to convince me we should leave the classroom and flee with the children outside the building. I told her no, the room is secure and it is safer for everyone inside. The door was locked and a special door jam was inserted at the base. We stayed inside until the all clear. The newest "ALICE" training has us try to overwhelm the attacker if he breaches the door, Throwing stuff at him, hitting him with a chair, etc. Instead”
Wow, hot take. [re: Teachers shouldn't live in fear of school shootings.]
“So I just saw the news about the recent shooting in Bend, Oregon. A 16 year-old boy entered an elementary school with a gun, and committed a shooting there. 3 pre-teen children and a teacher lost their lives. 2 other people, one of them a student, are still critically injured. Thankfully a father who was a bystander there was carrying his gun, and he shot the shooter to stop him from doing further damage. Seeing news about school shootings, specially where most victims are children, breaks my he”
“This sounds a lot like the teacher that got shot by a student and was awarded $10 million because her school was so damn incompetent. [re: Dangers at School]”
“I think this is going to change the training teachers receive. Teachers will probably be getting more PRO-ACT/CPI training, and if you don’t already have walkie-talkies, I wouldn’t be surprised if those become more common too. I watched the video, and I don’t know these students or this teacher, so this is just my opinion based on my own experience. It didn’t look like there were many students, which is what made me think it may have been a special education classroom. I could be completely wron”
“Well, actually, in my school, the students are only taught 'hide and wait for rescue'. So, I was more responding to that than 'run, hide, defend'. I think that procedure is great, actually.”
“Tell me how clear a school shooting is. Is there a minimum qualification for it to be a school shooting? How many kids need to die for you to qualify as a school shooting if I told you that no one died in this are you gonna tell me that I need to suck it up because it wasn’t actually a school shooting?”
“The real problem is that the only solutions to the problem are at a systemic level and nobody in any hall of power is interested in implementing them. And now that we have school defense contractors, the game is over over.”
“I work at a smaller rural school and we start pretty late in the year. The kids don't even come back until next week so outside of a handful of kids it was just teachers and staff thankfully but good grief can we not have one normal day let alone a year!? Anyways the county sheriff is posted up across the street and I haven't heard diddly squat since being sent home. Here's to another year! submitted by /u/Dartrick [link] [comments]”
“Most asinine: when he showed us how to pick up a metal folding chair and slam it down on the neck of the assailant, WWE-style. We do not, in fact, have metal folding chairs in our rooms. Most factually incorrect: there hasn't been a fatality in a school fire since the early 1950s. Tell that to the 95 people (92 children and 3 nuns) who perished in the Our Lady of Angels fire in 1958. (Runner up for about 5 different inaccuracies about Columbine.) Most infuriating: he demonstrated several dif”
“Does anyone WANT to take the risk? "You probably (probably? PROBABLY??!!) won't die" is very different from "you absolutely won't die." Sure, most survive, and the advice may be accurate - unless YOU are the person shot in the head. These are not trained LEOs! These are teachers, i.e. regular folks who take a 1/2 hour to an hour training and thrown in with expectations they will do their best. I wouldn't want to chance being the "one" who was shot in the”
“I personally enjoyed how the company thinks 30 adults in a room surviving a shooting simulation is on par with 1 adult and 29 children.”
“The last teacher I worked with that wanted to arm teachers literally shot himself in the leg. He purposefully pulled it out to set on his leg in the parking lot of the hospital to ‘have it ready’. He’s also nearly completely deaf, so idk what he’d be ready for. Oh, and he also teaches hunter safety courses.”
“Stick with data-driven strategies. Regarding lights and signs, most shooters are former students and know there are kids in rooms.”
“I’ll go first - we were told to collect all our students’ cell phones and smash them so the light from them doesn’t give us away to the shooter as we hide in the dark. submitted by /u/Jacksmissingspleen [link] [comments]”
“I understand the drill. Many districts do them. And we all know they’re drills. My concern and your actual trauma is likely caused by the fact there was a false lockdown in which you thought you and your students were unsafe. Are you telling me you’re more traumatized by what you knew was a drill than you were by being in what you thought was a REAL active lockdown? Because I’m officially confused now.”
“As a teacher, the worst part is that if there were an actual shooter or emergency, the constant pinging and ringing of phones as parents called and texted would give away the location of any people who were actually attempting to hide. Things teachers know but parents don't think about.”
“I don't expect my kids' teachers to throw themselves in front of a gunman, but I do expect them not to run off and leave a classroom of scared kids behind them. I know a sub who did that when my kids' school went into a lockdown (false alarm based on on rumors) and if a colleague did that, I would lose all respect for them. To be clear - I mean the sub said they weren't getting shot and literally walked out and left the school and never subbed in the district again. The kids were”
“TLDR; I have been present/involved in a few active shootings as part of my old career prior to teaching. you may fight, flee, or freeze up. I worked as an armed guard in some dangerous positions for a few years prior to finished my degree. Ironically, at one point after I stopped working dangerous positions, I was the armed security at the campus I am currently teaching in.. During those 5 years prior, I have been present to a few active shootings. I will be speaking from personal anecdote: If y”
“My very year as a sub. I took a job in a middle school mild mod sped class. Great kids. Awesome school. They forgot to tell me at the beginning of the day that there was going to be a Shooter on Campus drill. To describe the room. Long rectangle. From the back of the room. Right wall , back corner door to the room. Left wall computer wall. Tables with the class computers. Right wall. Built in bookcases, filled with books under, non opening windows about 2x2 feet square about 5 feet up off the gr”
“We were talked to by a police officer once and told there were 3 options, run, hide, or fight. They could not tell us what to do, we had to decide what the best option was in the moment. At that time my classroom opened up to a small forest that had an exit to a calm neighborhood, so I told my kids, if I thought they could make it, I'd tell them to run into the forest and not to stop until they felt safe.”
“I have lived through a lock down where we thought there was an active shooter nearby (turned out to be a veteran going through a PTSD flashback and thought he was in Iraq, just wandering around a small town looking for "insurgents") We were out on the field for field day. As we were walking in Admin all of a sudden started screaming to get inside, and to go into lock down immediately. All teacher grabbed all the kids we could find and pulled them into our classrooms. I was pretty far a”
“A teacher invented one called The Sleeve. It slides over the hinge at the top of the door so it can’t be opened.”