People, (real life,) that’s the only real drill there is.

2-28-18   Colleen Derkatch, an associate professor at Ryerson University in Toronto:  “If you look at the proposals in the United States, it sounds like they’re trying to make schools an awful lot like prisons, with monitored perimeters and armed guards and possibly armed teachers.  You could extrapolate from the experiences of kids living in potentially violent situations, where you never know what’s going to happen.  That does have a profound impact on kids.”...
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2018/02/effects-of-active-shooter/554150/
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2-23-18    But I have to say this:  it is not about the drills.  The problem with these plans and drills is that all too often the shooters are the students who have participated in them and can exploit them....
  We are conditioned to perpetuate the system, too, and to think our questions about plans are reasonable when the only reasonable question remaining is:   “At what point does a nation lose the right to call itself ‘civilized’ if it allows its young the means to slaughter its young in its most sacred communal spaces?”
  And I’ve had some people respond to these sentiments of mine in this way:  "Well, yes, that’s true, but until changes are made, some drills are better than nothing.'   I’ve been thinking a lot about that, and I think I disagree.  I disagree that any drill is better than no drill because I live the realities of a school building every single day.  Drills desensitize kids to the realities of dangers they may face. ...
  The endless, repetitive, process of drilling has caused us, rightly, to believe that when a fire alarm goes off, the very last thing we should be concerned about is that the cause is an actual fire.  I am OK with an occasional fire drill.  I am OK with an occasional tornado drill.  I am even OK with an occasional lockdown drill — the kind we use when there is a medical situation, altercation or some other distraction, safety or privacy issue that requires the hallways to be clear.  But a drill for when we are having an active shooter?  No....
  People, (real life,) that’s the only real drill there is.  That is the only drill that’s going to matter.  That is the only preparation that actually exists.  Any other active-shooter drill is just a way of making us feel like we have some power and control.  Any other active-shooter drill is a false sense of security.  Any other active shooter drill lulls us into a deadly complacency.  Any other active shooter drill is a lie....
  Work at it like the lives of your kids, your friends and your country depend upon it because they do.  And if you won’t do that, then get out of the way for those of us who will.  You’re blocking our window, and it’s our only means of escape.    

-Michelle Bacon Curry, a resident of Iowa City, Iowa    https://www.press-citizen.com/story/opinion/contributors/guest-editorials/2018/02/23/active-shooter-drills-desensitize-kids-realities-school-shooting/356469002/
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