Teachers were in a meeting in the Pine Eagle Charter School in Halfway, Oregon when two hooded figures burst into the room and sprayed screaming teachers with gunfire. It turned out to be blanks and they turned out to be cops. This was viewed as a useful drill to prepare the teachers for school massacre scenarios.
Such an unannounced exercise could just as well have resulted in a heart attack or other medical emergency. It is not clear what the teachers learned much beyond what it is like to be shot.
Principal Cammie DeCastro noted that they learned that few people would survive among the 15 teachers. Only two were not hit by the spray of gunfire. It is not clear why actually shooting teachers was needed for that particular lesson or what they got from that realization even if they could not have anticipated it.
Elementary teacher Dollie Beck, 54, said that she learned to keep her classroom door locked and to think of windows as escape routes.
By the way, Halfway has a population of only 288. One teacher explained that the exercise was needed because “We are tender-hearted people who give hugs all day. We don’t think like that.”
The question is whether it is necessary to think like that in such exercises. I think it is wise to train staff on all such emergencies but we are seeing districts giving teachers bulletproof shields and arming janitors. Even if you are going to carry out exercises, such unannounced attacks present other risks of actual heart attacks and panic attacks as part of the faux victims. Fortunately, unlike other ill-conceived pranks and exercises, the students were not present for the Oregon practice massacre.
Source: OregonLive
“While staff had received training in active shooter scenarios from the Union County Sheriff’s Office, they were not aware that the drill was going to take place (except for the masked men, who were both teachers at the school). According to Principal DeCastro, the point of the drill was to test how people would react to such a scenario so that better emergency plans could be designed. The district’s Safety Committee and the School Board will now evaluate the results of the drill and the policies and procedures in place before deciding what to do next.” The gunmen were teachers.
Schools will soon be promoting the Four Rs: reading, ‘riting, ‘rithmetic, and rifles.
“The gunmen were school staffers?” -Elaine M.
Were they “resource officers”, perhaps?
Let’s see, what are the chances that the stress of the situation could have caused a teacher to stroke out or do something to hurt themselves, a student or cop? The media would have us believe that these situations are common. They are exceedingly rare in a population of almost 317 million.
Kentucky boy, 5, accidentally shoots to death 2-year-old sister
By Michael Muskal
May 1, 201
http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-kentucky-boy-accidental-fatal-shooting-sister-20130501,0,2768797.story
Excerpt:
The girl, Caroline Starks, was in her Burkesville, Ky., home when her brother fired the rifle he had been given as a birthday present about 1 p.m. Tuesday. The mother had just stepped outside the house for a moment, White said. The child was pronounced dead at Cumberland County Hospital…
“The little Crickett rifle is a single-shot rifle and it has a child safety,” White said. “This was just a tragic accident.”
The child safety lock was in place and operational, White said. Officials believe a shell had been left in the weapon from the last use and no one realized it.
5-Year-Old Boy Killed Sister With Gun Made For Kids
By Annie-Rose Strasser
May 2, 2013
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2013/05/02/1953621/guns-for-kids/
Excerpt:
On Wednesday, a five-year-old Kentucky boy accidentally shot and killed his two-year-old sister with a gun he’d been given as a birthday present. The weapon, a small rifle, was manufactured specifically for children’s use.
The boy’s weapon was a “My First Rifle” .22-caliber gun from Keystone Sporting Arms’ youth branch, Crickett. Crickett’s website markets itself “especially for youth shooters.” The firearms come in several neon colors, and the website even has a “kids corner” featuring pictures of small children with guns…
Crickett does not manufacture bullets. The company offers books for “Grades 2-3 and up,” and says their guns are “ideally sized for children four to ten years old.”
The militarization of children has been tragically spotlighted in the aftermath of the horrific shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut last December. Since then, the country has paid heart-sickening attention to the myriad accidental shootings that have taken place around the country, and the growth of a market of bulletproof children’s clothing.
In one week alone last month, four people were shot by toddlers.
Elaine, Myself and Michelle Rhee.
Elaine, good question.
Oregon Teachers Fail Active Shooter Drill As Masked Men Shoot Blanks At Surprised Faculty
The Huffington Post
By William McGuinness
Posted: 05/01/2013
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/01/active-shooter-drill-oregon_n_3195706.html?utm_hp_ref=crime&ir=Crime
Excerpt:
Cammie DeCastro, principal of the Pine Eagle Charter School in Halfway, Ore., admits that the plan she had to protect her school from an armed gunman is in tatters after two masked men stormed in and appeared to open fire on a meeting room full of teachers last Friday, The Oregonian reports.
Luckily, the bullets were rubber, the gunmen were school staffers, students were not in the building that day, and the whole thing was a drill. But the teachers were surprised.
*****
The gunmen were school staffers? Good grief!!!!!
Who were the parties responsible for planning this idiotic drill?
If this is the path gun rights advocates, the Police and our government have by instilling fear for the purpose of their agenda by fear alone, they just lost me as a supporter. This is where i draw the line. NO guns and storming schools in Drills is not the way to get 2nd Amendment supporters on your side. Why is it necessary to change schools into Prisons and scare children trying to learn. Now im more scared by the action of my own Government that by the few crazy people with guns. Suspect the motives of anyone who uses fear to control a population rather than medical care to solve a medical problem of just plain crazy.
Hard to have a police state without indoctrination, dontcha kno….
Sharon Rengers, a longtime child advocate at Kosair Children’s Hospital in Louisville, said making and marketing weapons specifically for children was “mind-boggling.”
“It’s like, oh, my God,” she said, “we’re having a big national debate whether we want to check somebody’s background, but we’re going to offer a 4-year-old a gun and expect something good from that?” TPM
Blouise, These are acts of desperation in a country where some arm five year old children with real guns not toy guns.
Blouise, “The stupidity is not in the choice of band aids”. You nailed it. Yesterday my daughter said to me that she was glad that she did not grow up with guns in the home. She is not part of the gun culture at the law school. Hope your back gets better soon.
SwM (I’m cranky, my back hurts.),
Get with the program … guns are good … kids are expendable.
Fortified white boards, Swat drills, armed guards, pistol packin’ teachers … everybody is looking for band aids when it’s a tourniquet that’s needed.
The stupidity is not in the choice of band aids.
Now here’s an idea…
Fire the sceurity guards. Hire art teachers:
http://dailynightly.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/05/01/18005192-principal-fires-security-guards-to-hire-art-teachers-and-transforms-elementary-school?lite
“We are tender-hearted people who give hugs all day. We don’t think like that.”
So the lesson is TRUST NO ONE! and fear for your lives every single second of the day. This is insanity and any involved in planning and executing this scheme should be removed from their positions. As people mentioned above, the statistical probability of a school shooting is infinitesimal and yet our media ramps up fear in the service of creating a police state. We see this phenomenon writ large in the coverage of the Boston Bombing vs. the West Texas explosion. Both were devastating, yet the news of terrorist aspect of Boston trumped the seeming massive criminal negligence in West Texas that actually resulted in arguably greater devastation. The instilling of fear in the people usually results the welcoming of oppression by those who would demagogically propagate the fear.
jomo995,
Your comment just above at 9:55AM puts you on thin ice. One of the most respected commenters on this site is a retired career LEO. My youngest daughter has worked for two different law enforcement agencies. You really don’t want to go there with the secundum quid faulty generalization.
Because a few officers behave badly does not give you the right to tar them all with the same brush. Want to comment on these officers and how bad they are?
http://www.odmp.org/
Once again we see the stupidity and absolute insensitivity of the semi literate animals known as police who have absolutely non regard for the people they are supposed to serve. When will these morons ever be controlled. I am certain that none of these jackbooted thugs will ever be punished