Please share this with your Congressman or Senator. Please share this with your state legislators. This is triggering me it is so raw, and I feel like after today I must do SOMETHING. I will pull you through the looking glass and explain to you why Generation Z is so mentally screwed up yet courageous, why teachers are so paranoid politically, and why in spite of my small town America upbringing I now fully support gun safety measures. I have a story to share.
I will explain the ever evolving active school shooter protocols that your child, your teacher, and now Congress have had to live through. Instead of tackling the problem, we try to sweep it under the rug with this bullshit. It is called ALICE school shooting protocols. It will break your heart. Do NOT read further unless you can stomach it.
Until Parkland (shout out to David Hogg!), all school shooter drills were passive. We’d hide in a corner and pray that the school shooter would off himself (and it is almost always a HIM) before finding our little bubble. Parkland exposed that this strategy wasn’t working for both schools and for law enforcement response to school shootings. Something has to give, and instead of fixing the gun culture + toxic masculinity problem in America, very highly detailed lockdown/lockout procedures and ALICE became cutting edge. In my last year, our school was just starting to implement it.
What is ALICE you ask? ALICE is an active school shooter protocol that is proactive. It gives flexibility as to what response is the best (allegedly). It is meant to buy time until law enforcement can handle the situation at a school. Here’s what it stands for:
I must inform. This is sickening!
Anyone can call an Alert now. It used to be restricted to admin and secretaries. There is a special school wide code that allows for active shooter alerts.
Schools are increasingly fortified prisons. Lockout means the threat is outside the school grounds. Lockdown means the perimeter has been breached. We can choose to enter the classic passive lockdown procedures.
Inform is the secret e-mail protocol where we have to filter through and describe and account for every person in our room. This is to see who is not accounted for and to identify where the shooter could be.
Counter is the terrifying one. We teach our kids and teachers AS A LAST RESORT WHAT TO DO. I cannot even describe the HORROR of teaching 9 and 10 year olds on how to sacrifice themselves for their friends. They know I am first, and what to do when I am neutralized. It is BAD.
Evacuate means that we need to have a pre-determined location to go to if it is deemed safe (either released from lockdown by law enforcement or fleeing on own recognizance). We have to teach kids how to do this. We have to teach them to zigzag to dodge potential bullets. We have to teach them to be absolutely silent until law enforcement arrives to clear us, and NEVER open the door until law enforcement does with their own special key.
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But wait, it gets better. Law enforcement can ‘recommend’ a lockout/lockdown at local schools based upon activity in the area. Let me explain what this could entail.
Level 1: Lockout
A Level 1 lockdown means that there is a threat (shooter, criminal, etc.) nearby, but not necessarily targeting the school itself. The school will be locked until law enforcement officials state that everything is clear.
Level 2: Lockdown
A Level 2 lockdown means that the threat is on the property and more likely to cause harm. Students and educators should immediately barricade themselves in the nearest room and stay quiet.
Level 3: Active Shooter
A Level 3 lockdown refers to life-threatening danger. In other words, there is a threat on the property that is seeking to cause harm immediately. Even in this situation, everyone should remain calm and wait for the police to signal.
Here are some things that can trigger the process: stray animal, police activity in the area, stranger danger, irate parent, school shooter, discovery of a weapon on campus, meltdown by a student with special needs, protests, and so on.
We have to go through varying levels of ALICE each time. And we never know if it is a drill OR an actual emergency. And we can tell our kids NOTHING. There were FOUR lockout/lockdown/drill training situations in the last year I was a teacher. We are supposed to have a drill every quarter, and two were that. But two outside events triggered lockouts.
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Why does your Generation Z student feel depressed? Why do they turn outspoken politically? Why are they so nihilist? THIS IS WHY. Between the climate crisis and school shooters, they have been robbed of their innocence.
It started young with Sandy Hook and the fortification of school buildings. In most buildings, each entrance is carefully controlled by card key access or you have to buzz into the office to gain access. Many schools now have fencing around their property. They look like prisons because THEY ARE PRISONS now.
It escalated with Parkland. That’s when ALICE started popping up, which put skin in the game for kids as I mentioned. I respect law enforcement for helping, but it is wildly inappropriate because we are cowards and refuse to attack the problem of the NRA and gun violence and toxic masculinity. Now, we expect teachers and students to martyr themselves. WE TRAIN FOR IT. Jamaal Bowman knew exactly what to do on 1/6 because he has trained for it. There is even a sickening “age appropriate” curriculum that is never age appropriate BECAUSE IT SHOULDN’T HAVE TO BE THE DEFAULT OPTION.
Everything from silence to enforced count to no privacy happens. If your bathroom is outside the classroom, you are expected to hold it. If you cannot, there is a bucket. Your friends and I have to shield you while you do your business during an ALICE lockdown. I’ve had to do this several times during especially lengthy ones. I cannot console them of their terror, because I cannot speak either. I can only Inform, Inform, Inform.
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Why are teachers (mostly) so paranoid politically? We’ve been under assault by “choice” since Reagan. We’ve been deemed ‘martyrs’ by ALICE protocols since Sandy Hook. Now, we are being sacrificed by the pandemic for school re-opening. Teachers are the #1 whipping post profession these days. I quit due to the pressure, and ALICE was one of the final straws for me. All I can do is inform and expose what is going on.
What you can do for me is contact your members of Congress, who finally lived through this nightmare. Who knows, maybe they will be open to change.
