Mock School Shootings

Since the mid-1990's a couple hundred child have died from the results of a school shooting.  Although the National School Safety Center has released checklist of characteristics common among students who have acted out as a school shooter, there is really no way to know who will become a school shooter and if/when it will happen.  Because of this, there is nothing better than to be prepared for an event that no first responder ever wants to respond to.

October 21st-27th is America's Safe Schools Week according to the National School Safety Center.  Is there a better way to make sure your schools will be safe in the event of a disaster or shooting than to actually practice for it?

Tahoma Junior High School in Ravensdale, Washington takes their drill quite seriously.  The drama club is actively involved, as they are caked in bloody make up and prepared to ensue chaos when the mock-shooting starts.  The drill has other details of school shootings too, such as the exits being chained shut and a gunman on the loose with a gun (an officer and gun with blanks, of course).  The mock gunman fires (blanks) in the hallways and towards classrooms as students and teachers flee to quickly locked classrooms where headcounts of students begin.  Although that might seem like enough, all of the emergency responders get involved as well.  Police and SWAT storm the school, paramedics set up an emergency triage center.  All in all the treat the event like it was actually happening.  This year marked the sixth year of performing this drill.

It might seem like overkill to prepare kids, teachers, and responders to prepare for an event that might never happen, but you'd be surprised what they've learned...and what they are still continuing to learn.  Prominent points are they are realizing the difficulty of reaching the injured stuck behind locked doors or that they're triage location has the ability to quickly come under rifle fire from second story windows.

Watch the video to learn more, and to see if this is something you should think about executing in your neighborhood.