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appalachiablue

(41,052 posts)
Wed Feb 12, 2020, 12:14 AM Feb 2020

Teachers Unions Ask Schools To Rethink Shooting Drills

Source: PBS NewsHour

The nation’s two largest teachers unions want schools to revise or eliminate active shooter drills, asserting Tuesday that they can harm students’ mental health and that there are better ways to prepare for the possibility of a school shooting. The American Federation of Teachers and National Education Association joined with the advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund in calling for an end to unannounced drills or drills that simulate gun violence.

“Everywhere I travel, I hear from parents and educators about active shooter drills terrifying students, leaving them unable to concentrate in the classroom and unable to sleep at night,” said Lily Eskelsen Garcia, president of the National Education Association. “So traumatizing students as we work to keep students safe from gun violence is not the answer. That is why if schools are going to do drills, they need to take steps to ensure the drills do more good than harm.”

The report released Tuesday recommends schools concentrate on training teachers to respond to an active shooter incident rather than drilling students. It also issued guidelines for schools that decide to use drills. Those include never simulating an actual shooting; giving parents, educators and students advance notice of any drill; working with mental health officials to create age-appropriate and trauma-informed drills; and tracking the effects of drills. About 95% of schools drilled students on lockdown procedures in the 2015-16 school year, according to a survey by the National Center for Education Statistics.

“In Indiana they were shooting teachers with rubber pellets so they would feel the adrenaline of what a school shooting would feel like,” said Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action, which is part of Everytown. “In California recently, a superintendent hired a stranger to wear a mask to rattle the doors of classrooms without letting faculty and students know. We’ve seen students asked to pretend to be victims and lie down using fake blood in the hallway.”...

Read more: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/education/teachers-unions-ask-schools-to-rethink-shooting-drills





- Joe Emery, TAC*ONE trainer and former Las Vegas police department sergeant, leads kindergarten students in evacuation training at Pinnacle Charter School during TAC*ONE training for an active shooter situation in a school in Thornton, Colorado, Aug. 29, 2019.
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Teachers Unions Ask Schools To Rethink Shooting Drills (Original Post) appalachiablue Feb 2020 OP
Using the Institutions to turn the U.S. and its citizens MarcA Feb 2020 #1
This is heartbreaking to see, and makes me livid. In the UK appalachiablue Feb 2020 #2
Absolutely. lindysalsagal Feb 2020 #5
They're damaging pattyloutwo Feb 2020 #3
Unions shouldn't even have to ask. The PUBLIC should demand guns be away from children. ancianita Feb 2020 #4
I Went Through One, Last Week ProfessorGAC Feb 2020 #6
I agree. These are not helpful. AllyCat Feb 2020 #7

appalachiablue

(41,052 posts)
2. This is heartbreaking to see, and makes me livid. In the UK
Wed Feb 12, 2020, 01:05 AM
Feb 2020

in the 1950s 'Forest Schools' for children were started to teach kids outside and around nature. The concept was successful and adopted by Denmark and Sweden, and then Canada in the 1990s.

The dysfunction here is becoming unhealthy and detrimental to children, learning and living. It's tragic.

- Forest Schools
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forest_school_(learning_style)

ProfessorGAC

(64,413 posts)
6. I Went Through One, Last Week
Wed Feb 12, 2020, 08:10 AM
Feb 2020

Lock doors, get kids away from windows, etc. The instructions actually seemed wrong to me. Where kids were supposed to gather seemed more dangerous than other options available.
Then, all clear gets sounded. I'm a freaking sub, & nobody came to check whether I did the right thing. They likely checked 2 rooms with regular teachers, like those folks weren't going to get it right. Of course, they would get it right, and the guy who's never done it before they didn't check.
I did it right, but you get my point.
After that, the kids were checked out. Waste of time.

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