Maybe it should have been that April, when they told us to move the kids to the closet, to the floor, away from the windows, to be quiet, not to stir.
Maybe it should have been that December, when they told us to be ready to block the doors, the windows, build a wall, find your weapon, think of escapes, organize your class.
Maybe it finally be now, when they told us they need to fire guns in the building, so kids will know what it sounds like, will be trained, will be ready.
When did it become reasonable school policy to teach kindergartners to throw their sneakers at men firing weapons?
When did we as teachers, as administrators, as school committee members, but most of all as parents, decide that training our children to be front line troops was a part of what they were sent to school for?
The literary analogies stretch back as far as history; I think of Moloch in Leviticus. The post title is from Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" in which the "why" is never answered.
We have failed to address the real issue--yes, it's guns.
We have failed to realistically assess the threat--Massachusetts schools are more likely to be hit by a tornado (for example) and we don't require those drills.
We have responded with an "answer" that has no evidence of doing anything other than traumatizing kids, and even some evidence of increasing the problems.
We have spent lots of money on "school safety" and not nearly enough on things that make kids safer and healthier across the board.
I'm with the Parkland students all the way on gun control. But that isn't the only pushback that is needed.
We are also well overdue for a discussion of REAL school safety and security. We need a rebellion, a refusal to subject our children to unproven theories that make some people a lot of money, give a few people power, and make a whole lot of kids traumatized.
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