Rehearsing for death: A Pre-K teacher on the trouble with lockdown drills

[snacker]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/rehearsing-for-death-a-pre-k-teacher-on-the-trouble-with-lockdown-drills/2014/10/28/4ab456ea-5eb2-11e4-9f3a-7e28799e0549_story.html?postshare=1051443924751227

"Instead of controlling guns and inconveniencing those who would use them, we are rounding up and silencing a generation of schoolchildren, and terrifying those who care for them. We are giving away precious time to teach and learn while we cower in fear.

It’s time to stop rehearsing our deaths and start screaming."

[villager]

1. Small price to pay for soulless scumbags to wield war-weapons on our streets!

Let's put this in perspective, after all!

[jberryhill]

2. I guess they don't do nuclear attack drills anymore

[Warpy]

3. "duck and cover" redux

Seems like terrifying little kids is part of the thrill of being a swaggering, macho asshole. The last time, it was the MIC. Now it's the gun manufacturers and their pet right wing lobbyists in the NRA.

[zeemike]

7. You miss identify the problem.

The NRA is not the problem, they are just the boogie man's enabler. The whole reason for this is to train a new generation in fear, because people who are afraid are easy to control.

If gun lobby and the NRA were the problem something would have been done about it long ago...but that fear serves a purpose and so it is still with us. And growing every day.

[Warpy]

8. The kindergartners traumatized by "duck and cover"

organized against the Vietnam War.

You've misidentified the reaction.

[zeemike]

9. That was a totally different thing.

That was a threat that had no existence in the news. We had never been attacked by the bomb so it was an abstract concept that kids could not understand.

But this is much different, and is not just a matter of ducking under the desk...and kids hear about these shootings all the time like we all do. So the fear is real in their minds.
Not to mention that schools have been turned into prisons with security fences and cops...with the clear message that the threat is from the outside world.

But I applaud your optimism in thinking that some good will come from this

[Warpy]

10. Not to a 5 year old

Nice try, though.

[zeemike]

11. Well I lived through those times.

And I can tell you I was not afraid...no cops in the schools, no fences no lock downs. And we actually played outside with no one watching over us.
But there was no TV with shootings and killings for entertainment.
And no fear of gun violence even though many kids had a 22 of their own...I got my first one at age 10 for Christmas and could walk through town carrying it and no one would think a thing about it.

Don't tell me we are not in the grip of fear now...unlike any time in history.

[lindysalsagal]

4. My students ask me what will happen when he starts shooting at us

What the hell am I supposed to say when the whole school is making this a reality?

[Turbineguy]

5. Kind of makes you miss

the '50's and '60's and the Soviet Union.

I guess we traded them in for a shiny new 2nd Amendment.

[madfloridian]

6. Lockdown is a nightmare for little kids especially.

My last few years we had no restroom in the classroom. Lockdown for hours meant no relief for the kids or teachers. Usually they would not tell the reason for the lockdown. There should have been a voice on the intercom saying something calming. We teachers tried, but if we didn't know the problem there was not much we could say. We could just reassure them the best we could.

I guess our cowardly politicians would lose money provided by the NRA, and they would get yelled out by gun lovers. That's cowardly

And another thing...once a lockdown was because the father of one of my little girls in class was on campus to take his daughter after beating up her mother. I had begged for ages for a lock on the INSIDE of the door because of times like that. They happened often in the area where I last taught.

They kept telling me that if there were a lock on the inside some kid might lock themselves in. That's pretty stupid when you have a crazed parent roaming the campus.