Folks?

In Oregon a school ran an Active Shooter Drill.
No one was warned about such drills and one teacher has filed suit for PTSD directly related to the drill

http://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-n...15/04/teacher_terrified_by_surprise.html

The Oregonian article notes the local sheriff's office "reviewed concealed carry permits ahead of the drill to ensure that no teachers would fire back."


And yes the folks playing the active shooters did carry guns, and did shoot staff with blanks.

At least one teacher was injured when, unarmed, they tried stop one of the active shooters.
Now what if such a drill occurred in a school attended by Kent-Lane offspring?

I have been working on just such a story, off and on, as part of my NextGen set. If you can't take my word for it, ask Morgana since she is privy to the work.

I can imagine. Sounds like scary stuff. Teachers don't get paid enough to be put through that.

Let's hope they don't accidentally out themselves.

Oh, hell no! I would have had a heart attack if that had happened in my school. We don't get paid enough for that crap! I'm glad she filed suit - no one should have had to endure that trauma. As to the fanfic idea, it could certainly be an interesting and dramatic situation, but I wouldn't be in the right mind to write it.
Susan, who is now looking nervously out her classroom window

Thank God none of the teachers had weak hearts. I could easily see someone having died of a heart attack from that little stunt. I'm all for preparedness drills, and unannounced fire drills even seem appropriate to me, but this was waaaaay over the top. And an alleged safety officer should know better than to shoot blanks at people. I've never held a gun in my life and even *I* know that people can be injured from blanks being shot at close range. That is horrible, and I hope whoever thought up this drill was fired or, at the very least, severely punished and also required to go through some *real* safety training.

No joy with this one,
Lynn

Completely agree with what Lynn said: waaaaay over the top. Fire drills and weather related drills are one thing...something like this type of 'drill' is complete uncalled for. Can not begin to imagine how scary that would be for those teachers!

Laura

Ken,

I am very sorry for whatever I said that made you think I would doubt you about something like this.

In the school district I work for, there have been a few active shooter drills, but everyone was informed ahead of time (including the police and the staff at other sites, because radio communications can be picked up between sites that are close together).

For that matter, all drills are planned ahead and the staff is informed that they will happen (excluding a few unplanned fire drills caused by students pulling the alarm). If an unexpected lockdown is announced, we know there's a reason for it. It may not be a shooter, but there's some sort of danger.

I have been present for a few incidents where there was some sort of danger (or the perception of danger). When I was a freshman in high school, shots were fired at the apartment complex across from the school and we were placed in lockdown. When I was a sophomore, some students wanted to start trouble because of the rioting going in L.A. (the Rodney King incident). When I was a senior at the same school, there were two small-scale riots on campus. At the first school I worked for (the same high school I graduated from), we had frequent lockdowns because morons would hold up the fast food restaurants and gas stations across the street from the school, then run on campus to try to hide. Someone also set off a homemade bomb one day (it didn't do any damage, but it did scare the heck out of people). At my current school, we had one attempted murder (a kid lay in wait for another kid and bashed him over the head with a pipe), one incident where several cops surrounded a nearby house, guns drawn (so we were in lockdown so no dumb kid would try to get into the middle of things), and one incident where someone apparently fired a gun into the air and the bullet came down and shattered one of the library skylights. In every case, some people got panicky (students and staff) and had to be kept calm and out of danger. Rumors flew in every case, too, blowing things out of proportion (and they flew just as fast pre-cell phones as now).

Because of all this, I can definitely say that having an active shooter drill without informing the staff and students first is a very bad idea. People will panic, some people may be traumatized, and some people may try to defend themselves and others, which can end very badly.

As far as a fanfic challenge goes, I can definitely see this used for a nextgen fic, or even a fic about Lois and Clark (as teens or as adults; I can easily picture Superman hearing the screams for help and rushing into the middle of a drill that people weren't informed about).

As an aside, how could the school authorities be so dumb, especially in the wake of Sandy Hook? Situations like that are really scary. Heck, even in theater, where everyone knows the gunshots and the threats aren't real, the are very strict rules about who may handle a prop gun so there are no mistakes and no accidents.

Back in my day we had "duck and cover" drills for earthquakes and/or nuclear warfare. The teachers were informed, but the students were not but were trained what to do.
These days in Los Angeles, drills for all kinds of things are a common place occurrence and lockdowns are frequent. Sad to say there are frequent gun fights right across from schools.
Also the incidences of students (grammar school level) bringing unsecured fire arms from home are increasing. I think that level might be a good scenario for a second gen story also.

Artemis

Good thing there are no improvised ways of fighting back. I wonder how this would read if their officers were hospitalized from being beaten with a baseball bat or stabbed with a flagpole. It wouldn't be the first time desperate people defended themselves with something other than a gun.

By the way, the teachers aren't the only ones they should have been concerned about. The son of a friend of mine was 6'1"and about 220 lbs when he was twelve years old. Great kid, but I wouldn't want to see him in a situation like this one. I guarantee he'd defend himself.

There's a line between an unannounced fire or tornado drill and an active shooter drill and this is way over it.

Annie, I'm sorry you've had to deal with such scary situations, and so frequently. I'm glad that, at least physically, you've survived unscathed. (I imagine that going through such things would have to be traumatic, though.)

They didn't need to worry about students attacking. One of the very few things they did (relatively) right was that they had the drill on an in-service day, meaning that there were no classes and there should have been no students on site. Imagine how traumatized the kids would have been had they had it on a regular school day!

- Lynn

Framework,

No, I didn't mean anything by that. I just didn't want anyone to think I was stealing an idea for a story when I already had one kinda like that in the works.

It's not stealing if it's in this thread. Anyway, Ken, you're a pretty straightforward guy and we believe you when you say you have a story in the works.

Also, you'd be surprised how many ideas I've had before they've shown up here suggested by someone else. I've also had ideas I've used (or will soon be using ideas ) from this forum. That's I love this challenge ideas forum! It gives what us doing a usually very solitary activity (writing) a chance to spitball story ideas. It's almost like (I imagine) working on a TV script writing team. Sometimes, I come up with what I think would be a great story, but I know I either a) don't have the time to write it, or b) someone else would tackle the topic better. This forum is a great place for ideas (many of which come from you, Framework4, so don't stop them coming). Sometimes, someone's writing block can be unlocked from inspiration from this forum.

Ken, you'd be amazed how many times I've thought, "Geeze, I better get writing. XYZ has just started a story using a plot I was planning on using in ABC story!" Or "That's just what I was going to do in ABC story." Then, I remember that it's also great when more than one person takes an idea (or comes up with an plot idea independently) because two completely different stories are written. (The more the better, IMO) As you well know, there were many similarities between your alt-Clark story and my Wrong Clark story and yet, they went in completely different directions.

I'm hoping your story will be another one from the Young Hattie Chronicles.

Hi Virginia,

Yes, young Hattie will be involved along with JJ (Jimmy Junior), Jon and Laura and a new character based on a friend - Cynthia. They are all in High School together. It will be a multi-part story, not a 1/1.

Before I retired I was an educational laboratory technician in a London school, which meant that I was usually somewhere where there were a lot of things that could be used as improvised weapons - chemicals, tools, fire extinguishers etc. I didn't think something like that was very likely, since I worked in London where guns aren't readily available, but did occasionally think about it when there was something on the news, and had some ideas in mind.

I suspect that what I would have actually done in the real event is cowered in fear, but if I got over that anyone trying this sort of drill might have had an unpleasant surprise.

Bump