Jennifer Abel writing at the Anorak site has an amusing/horrifying summation of a burgeoning trend in public education: sending fake "gunmen" into schools, just, you know, to watch 'em squirm, near as I can tell. (The chance that anyone experiencing such a drill will ever encounter a real gunman in their school, pretty much zero. The chance that if they do anything from that drill experience will help, pretty much zero on top of zero.)
Administrators at Eastern Wayne Middle School later sent parents a letter explaining that they sent a masked gunman to various sixth-grade classrooms as an "enrichment lesson on exhibiting good citizenship and observing your surroundings."
It's unclear exactly what good-citizenship lesson the kids were supposed to learn — "sphincter control," perhaps — but it's a lucky thing none of the kids tried anything heroic, like disarming the gunman, because any student who did that would surely be kicked out of school.
…..Last March, that's exactly what happened to a Florida high school boy after hedisarmed a fellow student who was aiming a loaded weapon at a third classmate. School spokesmen justified the hero kid's suspension because, "If there is a potentially dangerous situation, Florida law allows the principal to suspend a student immediately pending a hearing."
See? The school was only trying to avoid harm from a potentially dangerous situation, and when you're in charge of guiding impressionable youth, it makes perfect sense to teach them "Never stop a gunman from shooting his intended victim, lest you create a potentially dangerous situation."
More and more American schools honestly believe "fear for their lives" (without trying to defend themselves, because danger) is a perfectly cromulent lesson to teach kids.
