Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

training will help

If anyone still remembers the Jonesborough Arkansas middle school shooting in 1998. Here we had a 13 year old boy plan and execute a military type ambush. He had his 11 year old accomplish pull the school fire alarm and once the kids were out in the yard they opened fire with their stolen rifles killing one teacher and four female students. This was over the 13 year old boy being rejected by a girl.


Then there is the Columbine High School massacre where these two boys were tired of being picked on. They were able to acquire guns and make bombs for their adventure. In this case the local law enforcement waited over 13 hours before entering the building and in that amount of time at least one teacher bleed to death.

Just considering these two incidents you all need to ask your self:

1. Is there a problem where the athletes are given special treatment and where it may make some of the more GEEK type resentful?

2. Has there ever been any of these boys or girls dumped by the other?

3. Exactly why did the one boy at Ridgeview threaten the other with death? Was he just playing around?

4. Is there any mixture of society like minority students feeling picked on or other groups being considered outsiders?

5. Is there any mental illness in our schools?


If you take the time to look at some of these shootings and other violence in the country's schools many times the family and parents are your average parents like many of us. Please don't think they are like the parents of the two that shot up Columbine.

If you read national studies I think our schools need plans to make decisions on whether to evacuate or do lockdown. I think the second thing needed is some kind of command post and directions from outside of the school building once one of these incidents start. In the two incidents above different reactions should have been followed.

To manage a crisis like above we will need more training within the schools and it should not be drills that are planned ahead of time. Even with fire drills they are so predictable. The Arkansas boys knew the reaction to a fire drill and they used it in their plan. So if 13 year olds can do this what can 15 or 16 years olds do?

Read the entire editorial

I don't think people posting here have read the entire editorial.

You don't have to set the school on fire to conduct a fire drill.

You don't have to create a tornado to conduct a tornado drill.

You don't have to shift tectonic plates to conduct an earthquake drill.

You don't have to detonate an atomic bomb for a fallout drill.

Likewise, the editorial is saying you don't need to scare students and parents with uniformed officers and guns to conduct a lockdown drill.

Certainly, schools need to plan for eventualities, and officials need to make sure drills are performed.

To say otherwise is to say you need to learn CPR on someone whose heart has actually stopped for the instruction to be valid. Let's hope this isn't the case.

But nobody can accuse the majority of posters on this site (or of the public at large) of having too much common sense.

Like Wise

Nobody will ever accuse those running this school district of having too much common sense. It's unheard of around here.

We need realistic drills.

I have read the Dispatch editorial twice now. The Dispatch only suggests a lockdown drill. If that is all we do in future drills then we all better hope that the threat is from outside the building like a bank robber on the loose.

Most of the more tragic violent school shootings have been within the school building. The Dispatch editor suggests that the students listen and obey instructions. That is a profound statement on the part of the Dispatch. Just how many teenagers actually listen? Will they obey instructions and from whom?

I am sure most of you have watched the beginning of two wars in Iraq and what is the first thing the US military does? They disable the enemy communications.

So you all should consider how does the principal communicate with the student body? Normally by the PA system. If I walk into the Central HS and disable the PA system as my first act then what? Does the school have alternate ways to communicate? I know when the schools were trying to sell the bond levies they always talked about the lack of communication between the main building and the trailers. This was always a dangerous situation.

If just before I enter the Central High School I call in a bomb scare at Heritage with my cell phone, where will the police and fire head?

In one of the school incidents the intruder shot the police office on duty at the school first. What I am suggesting here is what happens if the school and its students are on there own for a short or even long period time who takes charge if the principal or the police officer is taken out of action? How does the second in command communicate if the primary system is taken out? Is there a secondary system or method to communicate?

If any of you have ever been on a US Navy Ship you will find all kinds of ways that the captain can communicate with the crew.

So what happens if you are a teacher and you are in your classroom with your students and you hear shots fired? Lets say that you have an intercom with the office and it is dead. When the bell rings do you hold your students in your locked down classroom or just write it off as some kid bringing fire crackers to school?

I believe what was the suggested scenario of the planned drill was a hostage taking and I believe there were going to be other victims. I have read where experts say that if you are in a situation where there is a gunman on the loose and you have a chance to run then run like hell. When is the time and the proper way to leave your classroom in this kind of emergency? Remember once the police arrive in force they will need to clear each and every room. Where do you assemble once you exit the school? Remember this is not a fire drill.

Finally I think the Dispatch gives our teenage students very little credit in their worry about making the drills scary. At one time 17 year olds could legally join the Marines and they could also take live fire drills. I also know that many a young man lied about his age to get into the military. What we need is a critique of our teaching staff in these drills and how they react and the decisions they make in a realistic drill. If that drill requires blank shots to be fired then so be it. That is the world we all live in now.