Texas is a state where anyone can carry a gun without a permit, thanks to Governor Greg Abbott.
The right to life is precious for a fetus but not for anyone else.
In recognition of the lawlessness and easy access to guns in the state, teachers of preschoolers in Houston are now getting trained on how to respond to an active shooter. This is training that would also be useful in shopping centers, movie theaters, concert venues, grocery stores, and wherever people gather.
Everyone from lunchroom staff to administrators from 31 southwest Houston preschools gathered Monday to learn about how to prepare themselves and the children for an active shooter.
About 500 staff from the nonprofit BakerRipley gathered in a cavernous conference room at the NRG Center to learn a protocol for responding to active shooters in the wake of the Uvalde school massacre. Teachers had spent much of the day on training, including how to confront an armed attacker, before returning to their classrooms later this month.
The nonprofit has been preparing “age appropriate” language and visual aids for its charges, who range in age from 6 weeks to five years, said Cimberli Darrough, BakerRipley’s senior director of Head Start programs.
“If you hear ‘pop pop,’ hide,” said Darrough, explaining how the preschoolers will be taught active shooter protocols. “When we say it is time to hide, you need to hide. You need to stay still. We are turning the lights out, barricading the door.”
Sounding practical rather than alarmist, Alvin ISD Sgt. Jermaine Jackson, instructed the preschool workers on avoidance and defense tactics he said would help them react quickly during a school shooting.
“Run, hide, fight,” he repeated, citing the basic tenets of active shooter protocols promoted by the FBI. “You want to be a moving target instead of a stationary target.”
Arming the teachers and training the students how to hide must be a whole lot easier than banning assault weapons and limiting access to deadly firearms.
Good morning Diane and everyone,
When the shooting at Uvalde happened, I heard an “expert” on active shooters say that the first thing people have to do is tell themselves there IS an active shooter when there hear what they think are gunshots. He said most people second guess this and lose precious time. The next thing they should do is RUN. So if you are at the mall or grocery store, you should run because the shooter usually wants to get to where there are the most people. In schools, we are told to hide in our classrooms away from the sight of the door or windows. Sometimes this is impossible due to the configuration of the room. We all feel like sitting ducks. Also, I have 2 closets in my classroom and I often think I would stuff kids in there to hide and break what the school is telling me to do because I think it might be safer. I actually think a lot about where I would go and what I would do if I were to get caught in different areas of the school during an active shooter incident. What would I tell students to do in that moment? No matter what I did, it probably could be questioned in the end. It’s an impossible situation. After Uvalde, a few teachers I know were keeping their classroom doors closed and locked. So, yes, teachers think about this all the time and so do students.
This same active shooter “expert” was asked what students and staff in schools are supposed to do because they are not taught to run, they are taught to hide in their classrooms which goes against what he had just said was the best thing to do. The “expert” had NO ANSWER for this question. He didn’t even say that students should hide or that what is taught in schools is a good tactic. He had no answer.
And they are shocked, SHOCKED, as to why teachers are quitting in droves….
You sure that “expert” wasn’t an adminimal. Sure seems to have adminimalizing down pat.
There is insanity deep in the heart of Texas but it’s nothing compared to the insanity on the Supreme Court. The slaughter will continue until we root out the cause.
yes, as with so many school issues—what we now have will continue until we, as a society, choose to SEE and then root out the causes
I agree with everything but the “until we root out the cause” part. Based on empirical evidence, I don’t see how that will happen in this nation. Ever. For Americans, it’s easier to have the bad luck lottery and believe the odds are completely in the favor or you and your loved ones. That way no one has do anything. Ever.
The powder keg has always been there but it was the Extreme K³ourt that lit the fuse.
“The slaughter will continue until we root out the cause.”
Well the cause, America’s love affair with everything about the death and destruction machine-the US Military won’t be broken as there is too much jack “to be made by plying the army with its tools of trade*.” We, America, are the world’s greatest killer and destroyer of lives, homes and civil society.
Why wouldn’t one expect that same death and destruction at home here in the states? Ever hear of blowback**? School and mass shootings are the blowback from our foreign and domestic policies that produce the death and destruction.
*Country Joe and the Fish: “Feel Like I’m Fixin to Die Rag”
“And you know that peace can only be won when we’ve blown them all to kingdom come!”
**Chalmers Johnson’s coinage from his trilogy on America’s ongoing wars abroad: The term “blowback,” was invented by the CIA and refers to the unintended consequences of American actions abroad and at home.
“Run, hide, fight,” huh? Interesting. Shooter training alongside potty training does not exactly sound to me like pragmatism. You know what people really do when someone aims an automatic firearm at them and pulls the trigger? They get shot.
The stars at night must run, hide, fight
Deep in the heart of Texas
Houston: Preschool Teachers Prepare for Active
ShooterTexan Situations”Fixed.
How can you pick out an active shooter in Texas?
He’s the one with the cowboy hat.
TAGO
“Texas is a state where anyone can carry a gun without a permit. . .”
It doesn’t matter if one has a permit or not. Carrying a loaded weapon around in public is unethical usage of a firearm and those that do should be arrested and charged, and not allowed to own a firearm again. Sadly, though it has been enshrined that in Amurika one can carry a loaded weapon out in the public and it is encouraged. No wonder we see such death and destruction in the mass murders. Sad, indeed very effin sad.
“Carrying a loaded weapon around in public is unethical usage of a firearm…” Wiser words were never written.
I was a part of a shooter-drill for PreK students 4 yrs ago. Up here in blue NJ. This was one of several clients; I was a visiting Spanish enrichment teacher to regional PreK/K’s for 20yrs [until extended PreK covid closures caused me to retire; I was already 70yo when covid hit]. So as a visiting teacher, I couldn’t know what was routine for the kiddies, but this school had clearly already been doing this for a while. It was a reform-temple PreK/K, & the school had decided to reinforce practice, in the wake of the Pittsburgh temple shooting in Fall 2018 just a few days prior.
We were in a large activity room. The protocol: teachers were advised via cellphones to initiate the drill, and immediately locked the doors to the activity room and ushered the kids into a large double-doored storage closet at the back of the room, while keeping everyone quiet. The closet was not big enough for our 20 kids, so there were ‘front lines’ upon whom the doors could not close. And a few regular teachers, and myself, who were advised to plaster ourselves against the door wall, as far away as we could get from the doors.
These were 3yo kids. Some were crying—muffled/ consoled by teachers. A first and only for me. I was shocked. And crying too, but muffled myself so as not to alarm the kids.
“ Arming the teachers and training the students how to hide must be a whole lot easier than banning assault weapons and limiting access to deadly firearms.”
And unlimited rounds of ammunition.
I think that ammunition is the key, at this point. Yes: ban or restrict sales of assault grade weapons, but there are already so many in circulation, at this point. Someone with the know how will make his/her own ammo. But that’s different than JQ Public walking into a store and buying 1000 rounds.
Bears repeating from my post earlier this summer:
Oil, lots of marbles, and hornet spray.
Didn’t want to be sitting ducks but weren’t comfortable with firearms in the classroom. So we discussed different ways of dealing with a shooter and came up with those items, kept out of children’s reach in the hiding area.
Once the alarm is sounded, we’d spread the oil in the doorway area (wide area), pour out the marbles, and wait. Hopefully the perpetrator loses his footing. Run out with the hornet spray and aim for the face.
How’s that for a lesson plan? I retired soon after that brainstorming session. Don’t know if anyone stocked up or not.
Legalized insanity.
Sounds like you were watching Home Alone.
Those all sound like good ideas.
Thumb tacks on the floor along with the marbles might also be a good idea.
And bears might also be a good idea. Preferably grizzly bears.
And rabbid racoons
Maybe a few rattlesnakes thrown in for good measure.
I like the Grizzlies. They could function as teacher aides/paraprofessionals during the down times.
Inflatable SWAT Team was a seriously considered option, as well.
We were told at training this year that once your door is locked, do not open it for anyone. ANYONE–and that includes a child begging to come in. A shooter could be forcing the child and so you would need to choose one child over many. I am already retired and only working one day a week in a library, but this cemented that this will be my last year. I could not do this even though I understand the logic (?)
I work one day a week, as well; subbing for our chapter leader. Yep: once the door is locked, that’s it. I hear ya…though I’ll keep working. Glad to be retired but I like to stay in touch.
My hope is that one day we’ll be able to look back on these times and realize that we made the mistake of letting fundamentally insane people rule our lives. One thing we know about the founders of our nation is that they were rational people, not fundamentally insane people, and so they cannot possibly have intended things to work out the way they are today.