50 dead; 53
wounded. Over 320 people out for an evening of socializing with friends and
meeting new friends: 1 in 3 casualties (not counting the remainder who will
develop PTSD); 1 in 6 dead.
Shocking
statistics; horrifying news.
We extend
our condolences to the victims’ families and friends. We weep. We gnash our
teeth as to why and how we could stop this kind of violence.
We mourn.
I’m about to
riff about school safety but I need to stop in respect of all the innocent
lives that were cut short in Orlando this weekend.
Why do we
have a casual attitude toward the security of our school campuses?
Every month
we practice a fire evacuation drill until we reach testing season. Then no
drills are permitted because we cannot interrupt the tests. (As if fires would
put themselves out because the test is too important.) Maybe once a year we
hold a lockdown drill to practice what to do if an active threat is on the
campus. And yet, how many fires in the last 50 years have resulted in student
injuries and deaths? Zero? How many have died because of killers and senseless
violence?
After the
mass killing at the elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, schools across
the nation instituted new procedures, trained personnel, and put plans into
place. Then a few years go by and the procedures are forgotten. School
personnel are told at the beginning of the year that there is a plan in place
and they should go read it. No practice, no drill.
Schools
develop a plan and writes names into responsibilities. It looks good on paper.
I’ll never forget when I found out a school had put me in charge of evacuating
800 students off-campus to a remote site, if needed, and I only found out
months after the fact when they made the plan available for reading. When were
they going to tell me? And when would they explain what they wanted me to do? I
was told the plan was only a draft and not to sweat it.
Why do we
have a casual attitude toward the security of our school campuses?
Capital
orders are issued and fencing is put into place. But that proves inconvenient.
At one school, people wanted to park on one side of the campus and not have to
walk all the way around the front to come in the entrance on the other side of
campus. Therefore, a friendly someone unlocks a gate every day to spare them
the inconvenience. And a shooter? That person could slip in the unlocked gate
and be in classrooms before anyone would know.
Why do we
have a casual attitude toward the security of our school campuses?
In my
end-of-year surveys, the students were generally appreciative of my teaching
and help. (Not all, no one ever hits 100% popularity.) One thing they thought
was stupid was my rule that only I answer the door. Only I am allowed to open
the door to admit people into the room.
They scoff
at my explanation that as unlikely as it may be, if a shooter is in the
hallway, I am the one in the doorway to deal with it. (That’s being a
teenager—it won’t happen to me.) But I am serious and committed to their
safety. If someone goes down, it will be me. While it is unlikely to happen,
somehow every year it happens somewhere. Black Swan Theory: merely because no
one has ever seen a black swan doesn’t prove that one does not exist. However
low the odds of an event occurring, given enough time, it is going to happen.
And then
there are the number of rooms where the doors are unlocked. All I can say is
that I’m glad at my current post that there are no connecting doors with other
classrooms.
Why do we
have a casual attitude toward the security of our school campuses?
