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12-20-2012 at 10:24 PM
austenread...
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Joined on 12-05-2004
Virginia
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austenreader85 is not online. Last active: 05-25-2013, 4:48 AMGold

How is your area reacting?

Since we've been on the subject of Sandy Hook quite a bit.

There have been threats all week long in the local schools.  A (non fired) bullet was found in a bathroom sink in one high school.  They keep locking down the schools and bringing in cops and dogs to search for weapons.  And on my local newspaper there are so many people upset and saying that we shouldn't take these precautions.

After Columbine my high school in the city did a lock down drill.  They locked the class room doors, the teachers put black paper up on the windows so you couldn't be sure who was in there, we were told to lie flat, away from the windows and doors and be silent.  And during all of this I knew it wasn't really going to help much.  Even if someone comes with a target in mind I don't think they're just going to shrug their shoulders and say "shucks, guess I'll have to try another day because I can't see in the rooms."  They will find someone.  There will be kids in the bathroom, in the hallway.  And then they can't get out of the dangerous areas and into a classroom.  It felt as futile as our parents probably did during the "duck and cover" days. 

This city would probably seem small to a lot of you but it has grown a lot.  There are multiple gangs present in the schools.  There are drive bys in the neighborhoods.  Not daily, but yearly at least some gang related gun death.  But there would be such an outcry if metal detectors were proposed. 

A few miles away and it feels much more rural.  I went to one of those schools too.  Kids would leave their hunting rifles in their unlocked vehicles.  There is a huge meth lab presence in the area, in addition to importing all the other drugs.

Crime is here.  Violence is here.  The students are armed.  It was a problem 15 years ago when I was a student.  And I'm sure there's someone out there with the potential of committing a mass killing, mental illness knows now geographical bounds.  

But all most of the people in my area are saying is that it's not a problem here.  Nothing here needs to change.  We're still just a quiet little town.  It makes me sick.  As a former student and a current parent- you find a bullet in the school you make sure as heck that there's nothing else there. Don't you dare brush it off!


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12-21-2012 at 4:08 AM
pepomntpat
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Joined on 03-02-2006
Lancaster, PA
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pepomntpat is not online. Last active: 05-16-2013, 4:20 PMPlatinum
I don't watch local news much, so I'm not sure. There hasn't been a whole lot of talk about it with the Moms groups though.  I would assume they are doing the usual drills which they will then forget about in the new year. 

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12-21-2012 at 6:12 AM
flip_flops
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Joined on 09-04-2007
Virginia
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flip_flops is not online. Last active: 05-25-2013, 4:37 PMGold

VB Sheriff sent deputies to all elementary schools for as long as they need/want them.

All the high schools already have a police officer there, but I don't know about middle schools.  After Columbine at least my high school was fitted with locks to lock down each classroom (the rest probably were but I have no idea).  We did intruder drills, and I would assume they still do them.  Metal detectors were installed for awhile, but not permanently.  At my high school there is also only one unlocked door into the school and the police officer generally stays near it.

Also, my old high school was designed by the same firm that designed a couple jails in the area.  The windows are small and do not open.  I'm not sure if this makes this particular safer than others.  I'm sure the glass is not bulletproof, but my insane French teacher tried to smash a window with a desk once because she was hot and it did not work.  

 ETA:  There have been a couple guns found this week, but none of them were intended for use in a school shooting.  One was a hunting rifle some poor kid forgot to take out of his car.  Now he will likely be charged with a felony for his stupidity.  The other one was found at a private school at the oceanfront and appears to have been "discarded" on the playground.  The school is right on the edge of a not very nice area.

Quite honestly, Va Beach is too busy figuring out how to waste money on a new basketball arena to care about much else right now.  Idiots.


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12-21-2012 at 6:39 AM
abs1978
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Joined on 12-15-2005
Houston
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abs1978 is not online. Last active: 05-25-2013, 8:23 PMGold

I honestly have no idea.  Like pep, I really don't watch much local news.  I know nothing has changed at Maddie's school.

There have been several threats of violence for today.  I have no idea what that means.  Some of the parents in our neighborhood are keeping their kids home today even though I think most of the threats are just a way to get an extra day of Christmas vacation.

I graduated high school before Columbine happened, so we had the occassional shelter in place drill, but that was it.  Schools weren't locked down in the slightest.  My high school was very open so I don't even know how they could lock it down.  I'm sure school is very different today.

Our governor has gone on record as saying he will support legislation to let teachers bring guns to school. I have no idea where that will go.


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12-21-2012 at 7:19 AM
angelashly
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Toledo
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angelashly is not online. Last active: 05-25-2013, 7:43 PMGold

 I don't know so much about other schools because they aren't mentioning it on the news, but Marissa's DC sent out a letter reminding people not to open the doors or hold the door for people when walking in because they may not belong. They have been keeping the big gym doors closed and all the classrooms in the front of the building have to keep their doors closed.

After Columbine my high school has the whole school on lock down after the first bell. No one can get in or out except the front door where someone sits all day checking people in and out and a cop is there daily.


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12-21-2012 at 8:03 AM
Patella112...
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Patella1129 is not online. Last active: 05-25-2013, 8:19 PMSilver

A couple years ago, the school I used to work at started up a new safety program that was pretty extensive.  We had 5 different procedures for different situations--shelter-in-place (tornado), evacuation (fire drill), evacuation-relocation (bomb, gas leak, something wrong with the building, etc.), soft-lock down (doors locked, but continue teaching), and hard-lock down (doors locked, lights out, hide, etc.)  They also installed a buzzer system for the front door.

We needed specific procedures for these situations because we had several issues with unannounced lock-downs that all turned out to be false alarms.  With one, there was a gym class outside and we didn't have a procedure for what to do if a lock down is called and your class is out of the building.  Another happened at lunch time.  The lunch room is in a multi-purpose commons space that is right near the front door/office.  That was absolute chaos, trying to herd 300 kids into nearby offices and the music room to hide.  We had several practice lock downs during lunch after that.

ETA:  The school was not in a high-crime area.  But generally, things get done in schools that have vocal parents and this school (and district) has LOUD parents.  If parents don't buy in to what the school is selling, it generally doesn't fly. 



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12-21-2012 at 8:25 AM
palmtrees9...
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I'm not sure about the area we live in now, but in high school we only ever had fire drills.  We did have a situation once where we were on lock down in our classrooms but but teaching continued and police brought dogs in.  I'm not sure if it was for drugs, weapons, or both.  One of the kids in my class stupidly wrote "bomb" on an envelope when helping with a mass mailing and got suspended.  The only thing I can remember changing after Columbine was there was now someone sitting at a desk to check you in right by the front door but this was only after classes had started.  The doors were still always open.  I have no idea what changes have been made now.  I have a friend who teaches 1st grade and another who teaches 6th grade.  I'll have to ask them what has changed in their schools.

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12-24-2012 at 6:46 AM
PunkyBoost...
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I'm not really sure- I don't know many school aged kiddos and our local news stations are a joke. With that said, DS's preschool has a guard starting in January, which I think is an over reaction (not to mention the tuition hike!) but what can you do? I'm far more concerned about kidnapping than my 2 year old being shot at school, to be honest. 

As far as gun control, we've been watching the CNN debates about that at night. I live in SC so my state itself isn't going to do a thing about this unless it's federally mandated.  


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