Submitted by Bmartin_ t3_125pzzj in Pennsylvania
CrazyOkie t1_je61wam wrote
Reply to comment by kozynook in Police swarm multiple local schools after reports of shootings, believed to be hoax by Bmartin_
Considering the absolute terror for the kids and their parents, I hope the instigators are caught and prosecuted, put away for a long long time.
I suspect if the goal is calling attention to school shootings and wanting gun control, this will have the opposite effect.
psychcaptain t1_je63hpt wrote
Will it though? I mean, there are a lot people that simple don't care about kids dying right now. I doubt their minds will be changed one way or another because inconvenience trumps child safety.
CrazyOkie t1_je66ss6 wrote
Are there people who don't care? Possibly. I'm not talking about them. I'm talking about parents with kids who are in school - whatever age level. They care - a great deal. Doesn't mean they agree about the solution. For those affected by today's stunt, they're angry.
I'm fairly sure it will have the opposite effect if the intent is to make people want gun control.
When I was young, back in the late 1970s, the state of Oklahoma was considering the equal rights amendment for the U.S. constitution. They were one of the last statest to vote on it, and if Oklahoma passed it, it only needed one more state to be approved. Polling the state legislators, it seemed likely to pass. Oklahoma at that time was run by the Democratic party. The National Organization for Women (NOW) decided that wasn't good enough and unleashed a campaign, having people from around the country mail postcards to all of the Oklahoma state legislators urging them to vote for the amendment. The legislature's post office was flooded with these things. There was so much, it was crazy. I was a Senate page at the time and we were tasked with helping sort through the mail because the regular mail room crew couldn't handle it. We were asked to sort out what had come from Oklahoma residents and what was out of state (the postmark told us). All of it was from out of state, none of it was personally addressed or written - just the postcards. The legislators were so mad at the attempt to influence them from people who didn't live in Oklahoma, the amendment didn't pass. The people of Oklahoma overwhelmingly agreed with their legislators. And to this day, there is no equal rights amendment in the U.S. Constitution.
So yeah, stunts and games to try and influence public or lawmakers opinions can have the opposite effect of what was intended.
wagsman t1_je69ihs wrote
I find it hard to believe that postcards made them change their minds a full 180 degrees. They surely had their reservations(whatever those may have been) to begin with, and the postcards were what ultimately tipped the scales in the state senate.
Hell, the state house refused to vote on it, so even if the Senate had passed it, ratification wasn't going to happen.
SunOutrageous6098 t1_je6b2n5 wrote
How is it any different than the active shooter drills kids have been doing monthly or quarterly since Columbine? What was that- 1998 or 1999?
Do the police practice responding to school shootings? If Uvalde is any indication, I’m gonna go with “no”.
How do you think teenagers feel when they’re listening to a sitting politician go on the news and say “we aren’t going to fix it. Criminals don’t follow laws. My kids are homeschooled.” Like the one from Tennessee did yesterday?
Kids are more likely to die from a gunshot than from anything else these days.
They live with this terror in the back of their mind 24/7.
CrazyOkie t1_je6br9e wrote
There's a huge difference between a planned drill - which students and parents are told in advance about - and receiving a message that there is a shooter at your school.
SunOutrageous6098 t1_je6c9ck wrote
We were absolutely not told about them in advance. Remember, the Columbine shooting was done by students. Imagine the damage that could be done if a student shooter knew exactly when all the kids would be huddled in the corner behind the teachers desk.
CrazyOkie t1_je6h7hc wrote
Seems crazy and irresponsible for the school district not to warn the parents or at least put it in the alert that it's a drill.
And what would this putative student shooter learn from an announced drill that they wouldn't already know from online research?
SunOutrageous6098 t1_je6kcel wrote
Warning students or parents ahead of time would reveal the exact day and time that the drill is occurring… thus making it easier for a bad actor to act since everyone will be hiding behind the teachers desk/in the corner because 40 kids don’t exactly fit behind a desk. In most schools the classroom doors don’t lock, either.
What do you think happens during an active shooter drill in a public school?
We don’t give lunches to kids if they can’t pay- you think we have bunkers to hide in?
CrazyOkie t1_je6nfnw wrote
Still doesn't answer my question of how that's an advantage to the shooter. By that logic, they could call in saying they saw a shooter and then go in guns blazing.
No idea what schools you went to but all the schools I went to and my daughter went to there absolutely were free lunches and breakfasts for those that couldn't pay. Heck, for my daughter's schools we were required to fill out the forms even if we knew we didn't qualify because the school gets federal money regardless.
SunOutrageous6098 t1_je6s1af wrote
Knowing the exact day and time that every student in the school is going to be huddled in the corner of each classroom is an advantage if you are looking to inflict maximum damage. No one is roaming the halls, everyone in administration thinks it’s a drill, so if your goal is destruction… you’ve got sitting ducks.
And yeah, we had a free lunch program. But if you weren’t on it and just forgot your money or your lunch account didn’t have enough… tough! No lunch for you. Google “lunch debt”. It’s a real thing and schools do not care.
SunOutrageous6098 t1_je6s2w0 wrote
Knowing the exact day and time that every student in the school is going to be huddled in the corner of each classroom is an advantage if you are looking to inflict maximum damage. No one is roaming the halls, everyone in administration thinks it’s a drill, so if your goal is destruction… you’ve got sitting ducks.
And yeah, we had a free lunch program. But if you weren’t on it and just forgot your money or your lunch account didn’t have enough… tough! No lunch for you. Google “lunch debt”. It’s a real thing and schools do not care.
CrazyOkie t1_je6tdmu wrote
>we had a free lunch program
So you admit that your prior statement that we don't give lunches to kids who can't pay wasn't true? I understand the "I forgot my account number" but forgetting it one day isn't the same as not having a program for it.
And I'm sorry, but your logic makes no sense on the forewarned drill. There absolutely should be administrators & cops observing what the teachers and students are doing, to correct anything they do wrong, otherwise the drill is pointless. If that's what they did at your school, your school administrators weren't very bright.
SunOutrageous6098 t1_je6ujqu wrote
There were 3500 kids in my high school and 5 principals. Which students did you want them to watch?
It was up to the teacher to make sure we did it right. You know, the one all 25 of us were supposed to hide behind.
SunOutrageous6098 t1_jebd8p8 wrote
Here’s a relevant case of “not all schools provide free lunches” for you.
CrazyOkie t1_jebkpfv wrote
Yes, a very misleading case based on one idiot lawmaker flapping his gums. Which the media was happy to run with.
That in fact was a vote for a state program which would have supplemented the existing federal program, to cover kids in families that are between 130%-185% of federal poverty levels. Kids in families below 130% of the poverty level in North Dakota are still going to get a free lunch at school (and free breakfast as well), just like they do in every school (public or private) in the good old USA. Families that are below 200% also qualify for reduced price meals at school.
https://www.kfyrtv.com/2023/03/28/nd-legislature-votes-down-free-school-lunches/
Luvs2spooge89 t1_je7hxl8 wrote
I mean, they might not send out a memo and announce it in school the day before. But the kids would 100% know they were having a drill before the drill actually happened. They weren’t left to believe that it was an active situation. That’s insane.
SunOutrageous6098 t1_je7omlo wrote
Probably? The teacher of whatever class we were in probably told us. It was in the years right after Columbine- an announcement went over the PA system saying “Mr Smith is in the building” or something and that meant we all had to go stand in the corner, behind the teachers desk.
We all knew it wasn’t going to work if there actually was a situation.
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