After the mass shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, Broward County schools explored new school safety procedures including bullet-proof glass in school buildings, buzzers on all office doors, and background checks on visitors. At Stoneman Douglas students were required to be scanned by metal-detecting wands before entering the building and to carry school supplies in clear backpacks. How these precautions would stop a determined shooter armed with a semi-automatic weapon trying to enter the building, stationed outside in the parking lot, or targeting an out-of-school event, is never addressed. Nikolas Cruz, a registered student at the school, entered Stoneman Douglas about 20 minutes before the end of the school day when entrances and exits were opened for dismissal.
In response to the clear backpacks, Lauren Hogg, the younger sister of student activist David Hogg tweeted: “My new backpack is almost as transparent as the NRA’s agenda. I feel sooo safe now. As much as I appreciate the effort we as a country need to focus on the real issue instead of turning our schools into prisons.”
In Harwinton and Burlington, Connecticut, school security guards will carry handguns starting in the fall semester. The district hired retired police officers as security guards after the attack at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012, but up until now they have not been armed. Parents opposed to the plan complained that they were not informed it was under discussion until they received an email announcing the new policy because the school board met in closed session. One other school district armed its security guards after the Sandy Hook attack but suspended the program in 2015.
Other proposed or implemented school safety plans border on the ridiculous. The Parent-Teacher Organization at a school in Coral Springs, Florida is raising money for classroom trauma kits containing tourniquets, stress balls, first aid, scissors, flashlights, glow bracelets, lollipops and phone chargers.
Florida’s governor signed a bill allocating $450 million to enhance school safety. Scott wants metal detectors, bullet-proof glass, steel doors, and new locks in school buildings. This law led to schools being flooded with phone calls by companies wanting to sell them the latest security devices.
NBC News did a feature on Southwestern High School in Shelbyville, Indiana, supposedly the safest school in America. Classroom doors are bullet-resistant, security cameras line the halls, and the Sheriff’s Department is located only ten miles from the school building and they can monitor the school cameras. Classrooms have red security lines away from windows and students drill huddling behind the line with textbooks held up to cover their faces. But the major innovation is “high tech.” Teachers all carry panic fobs that activate the school alarm system. Doors lock, trapping an “intruder” in the hall and students and teachers in classrooms while “hot zone” ceiling “cannons” release smoke bombs into corridors. The system cost the school district $400,000. Indiana Sheriffs' Association Executive Director Steve Luce called it a "paradigm change in public safety." The plan was put into effect by former Indiana governor, now United States Vice-President, Mike Pence. Pity the poor kid who goes to the bathroom without a hall pass.
In San Diego, California, teachers, school administrators and board members were invited to attend a free gun training event at a local park. It was sponsored by a local gun advocacy group and gun retailer Discount Gun Mart. The San Diego County gun owners plan another teacher training day in October. In Chicago, the gun range “On Target” offers teachers free sessions. The Texas Association of School Boards said 13 percent of Texas districts allow employees to have guns on campus. At the Harrold Independent School District in North Texas teachers aim, shoot and eliminate suspects using real-life video drills.
A high school literature teacher at a private school in Ohio described his gun training experience with “wooden Glocks,” conducted by a private security contractor, as an “absurd disaster” and “costly.” Staff development meetings turned into “disarmament training.” In the end, the school decided to ban all weapons on its campus.
At St. Cornelius Catholic School in Chadds Ford, Pa., graduating eighth-graders received bullet-resistant Kevlar shields they can put in their backpacks to protect them from being shot in the back while in high school. The shield will not stop an AR-15 bullet but offers some protection against handgun bullets and shotgun shells. The shields sell for $99 each. St. Cornelius already has special bolts on doors and conducts lockdown drills. In Louisiana, Governor John Bel Edwards’s gift to students was signing a bill that permits them to carry bulletproof backpacks in school. Even the executive director of the School Safety Advocacy Council, Curtis Lavarello thought the bulletproof backpacks were ridiculous. Lavarello thinks they create “a false sense of security for the student and the school itself.”
In Somerville, Massachusetts’ Healey Elementary School kindergarten children are trained in how to respond to a possible mass shooter using a nursery rhyme modeled on “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.” It is posted on note paper with brightly colored lettering. “Lockdown, lockdown, lock the door. Shut the lights off, say no more. Go behind the desk and hide. Wait until it’s safe inside. Lockdown, lockdown, it’s all done. Now it’s time to have some fun!”
On a recent Comedy Central Daily Show, comedian Lewis Black mocked a series of “school gun safety” plans. It was funny, a little obscene, and very painful to watch.
I like the nursery rhyme idea so much I decided to write my own using “Mary Had A Little Lamb” as a template and dedicating it the National Rifle Association, President Trump, and the Republican-controlled Congress.
Donnie had an AR gun
Mag of bullets in tow
And everywhere that Donnie went
The gun was sure to go.
He brought it to his school one day
Which was against the rule
It made the children runaway
To see a gun in school.
So Donnie’s teacher drew her gun
They fired across the room
Shooting stopped when they were done
The school is now a tomb.
TV news was on the scene
Cause many students died
The NRA blamed the kids
And gun control was denied.
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