Police "training" at union middle school today? wtf

[fjcruisin]

So, our son starts talking about his day at school and how he ended up hiding in a dark closet. Umm......WTF?
He proceeds to explain that the (Sandy) police were doing a training exercise where the school was on lockdown and the police were going through the hallways shooting blank ammo.
His teacher seemed to have knowledge (according to his observations) that this exercise was going to take place today. She also explained to the class afterwards that the school she worked at a couple of years ago also did these (drills) exercises.

Has anyone else heard of or had their kid deal with this crap in their school? IF this has been going on for a couple of years, I think it would be fairly common knowledge amongst parents and the community.

 

[RogueJeepr]

At least they are trying to prepare for a situation like this. Would you rather they do nothing ???

 

[SAMI]

I'd be upset as a parent that I wasn't aware of the trainings ahead of time. Fire drills, earthquake drills, are one thing. But shooter drills are a bit more in your face given today's climate and exhausted media coverage (hype/glorification) of the horror brought by school shootings. Seems insensitive to parents to not inform them of the trainings ahead of time.

 

[Tacoma]

yeah, I'd be super pissed not to have any notice as a parent.

 

[Team1k]

In Idaho at my cousins school they did something similar where the students were left in the dark about it. A "terrorist" group took over the school and then the local police responded and took the school back. The giveaway was they used paintball guns however in the heat of the moment many students didn't realize that. My cousin who was there said it was very scary. you can still see stains on some of the walls from the major standoffs. I would be worried about some teacher who was concealed carry taking out some of the "terrorists" Due to complaints and the overall damage from the paint they decided against doing it again.

 

[ricsrx]

Hey i was a Union bobcat....1978.........
The only drill i ever did was the one strait to the principal’s office...

 

[mesha]

We have lockdown drills at my school as well. We have had them for a long time. We haven't had the police come with blanks and start shooting. They always tell the teachers ahead of time. And usually make an announcement that it is a drill and not to worry.

My son is in 1st grade and he had his first experience with a lock down drill the other day. The police came, but did not shoot blanks or anything. He hid in the dark in a corner of the room not by the door or any windows. It didn't bother him at all.

I for one am extremely glad they they do these drills and it bothers me zero that they didn't tell me ahead of time that they were going to do them. Well, they do tell the parents in the mass emails they send out at the beginning of the year and at district open houses and on many district websites. Who can be bothered to read those though, not me;-). In my opinion it is better that they don't let everyone know when they are doing a lockdown drill. If you are feeling like going and shooting up a school an email saying, hey no body worry tomorrow all the shots you here in the halls are fake", just might be a good opportunity to go and turn a fake situation into a real one. At your child's school that wouldn't be smart cause the cops are already there, but at my school where no cops showed up that would be very very bad. Imagine the call goes in saying a school shooting is occurring and the cops respond by saying, "oh don't worry it is just a drill".

If your child was traumatized by the incident and you feel like your discussion with him doesnt help then I would recommend going to the school counsellor and letting him talk to them. It will be free and they can help him work through it.

I would also make a phone call to the district and ask how you can get updates on when these will happen. My principal doesn't tell ahead of time that it is going to happen, but an email goes out after the drill is over to all parents saying we had a drill that day.

 

[rockreligious]

Im glad they are training, Id rather they trained in an empty building rather than giving my kids night mares for the rest of there childhood and giving unstable kids ideas of what to do after years of bullying.

 

[TJDukit]

I have to agree with Davy on this one. When my kid starts going to school I hope they do drills like this. As long as the district makes parents aware they plan on doing these types of drills, I wouldn't want to know when though.

 

[Kevin B.]

Im glad they are training, Id rather they trained in an empty building rather than giving my kids night mares for the rest of there childhood and giving unstable kids ideas of what to do after years of bullying.

This. They're welcome to ask me if I'd like my child to be involved in a live-action safety drill with officers firing blanks, and maybe I'll say yes. But I'd damned sure like the opportunity to talk it over with my child first.

This is not a fire drill we're talking about, this is a very realistic drill about people shooting other people, and my boy is seven. Exposure to that sort of thing might be appropriate for him, or it might not, and I need to be in control of when and how it happens. I'll be PISSED if they do this at my boy's school.

 

[DOSS]

This reminds me of the stuff from the Red Scare and some good old McCarthyism

[video=youtube;C0K_LZDXp0I]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0K_LZDXp0I[/video]

 

[Hatewagon]

They do similar drills here but no gunfire, no weapons drawn. Its Canada.....what can i say. For live fire they use an abandon school and run senarios using simunition and police studies students from the local college.

Sent from the Hatewagon chop shop....

 

[SAMI]

I have zero qualms with LEO and school faculty training for a shooter scenario; anyone who knows what I've been up to recently would know that I firmly believe that. However, I do not agree with how this case allegedly went down; firing off blanks while kids are essentially used as props is not cool. I don't think children need to be present for that level of training. Is there not after hours, or an off day perhaps a weekend that could work for this live fire training? Children can run lockdown drillsin their class as many times as they need to, get it drilled into their head, and be set for a real event.. but live fire from LEO is , IMO, extreme, and I don't believe that it is necessary when children are in school.

My wife had been working late in Fashion Place Mall years ago when the local SWAT was running active shooter drills. They used actors from local colleges, and ran the drills with blanks, firefight, blood packets, simulated injuries, EMT crews.. it was the real thing without being the real thing. This also went down between 12-3am when the mall was closed.

 

[jeeper]

I heard another school back east did the same.. THe idea was to allow children to be used to gun fire, so they are able to identify and think through it better than if they were to be hearing it for the first time

 

[SAMI]

I heard another school back east did the same.. THe idea was to allow children to be used to gun fire, so they are able to identify and think through it better than if they were to be hearing it for the first time

I feel that is ridiculous. The kids just need to have a second nature action in relation to a certain worm, code word, etc. Mst children in the school won't even.be able to identify a gunshot coming from an opposite end of the building. One kid from Sandy Hook described what he heard as sounding like repeated kicks to a door down the hall.

 

[KWight]

My opinion as a Licensed Mental Health Therapist is that they should not be mixing drills with training. The cops do not have any idea about the trauma history of the unconsenting participants and this can cause more damage than good. I agree with drills and announcing over the intercom or letting teachers know so they can prepare their students.

Kevin

 

[JL Rockies]

Place your children in the care of the government and the government will do what it thinks is best for your children.

 

[SAMI]

Just got off the phone with the Principal and Vice Principal of Union Middle School. The lockdown drill that was conducted this week was announced over the intercom as a drill, teachers then went through lockdown procedure. Law enforcement was not, nor ever has been involved in this school's lockdown drills.

 

[I Lean]

So....this was a "normal" lockdown, nobody shooting blanks?

 

[SAMI]

So....this was a "normal" lockdown, nobody shooting blanks?

That's what I was told by the Principal and VP. I'm guessing someone has a sound imagination, or was gullible to something they were told by another student.