Brickbat: Don't Shoot Me, I'm Only the Piano Teacher

Some teachers at Missouri's Farmington High School balked at taking part in an active shooter drill after they were handed safety goggles and told they might get shot with pellet guns. I would hope that if police did respond to a shooter at the school they would not shoot the teachers.

Comments

[Snark Plissken]

I'm guessing the teachers weren't allowed to bring their own pellet guns, I'd only play if I was allowed to shoot cops.

[UnCivilServant]

I would hope that if police did respond to a shooter at the school they would not shoot the teachers.

Clearly you've never read an H&R Brickbat before.

[Radioactive]

can they shot their dogs?

[UnCivilServant]

There aren't too many, only service dogs. Though I wouldn't be surprised if they shot a seeing-eye dog. "The owner of that attack service dog wasn't obeying my hand signals!"

[Suthenboy]

Active shooter drills in a school? Who comes up with this shit? I am guessing a 14 year old in an adult body who sees himself as an action hero and can't wait for a situation like that to occur. These are the same guys who shit themselves when it actually does.

[Steve G]

Not to mention the question of what honestly is to be gained by actually shooting people...

[Radioactive]

besides loads of side splitting hilarity?

[Brett L]

Which raises the question: How many police induced casualties are "acceptable" in an active shooting situation?

[WTF]

Any number, as long as none of the casualties are cops. The safety of the cops is paramount.

[UnCivilServant]

To whom?

To the cops - they could raze the building to the ground and kill the entire student body for all it matters.

To the Parents - so long as their kid isn't among them, numbers are irrelevent.

To the public - since when has anyone cared what they think?

[sarcasmic]

The more the merrier. Remember that people don't seek out a job where they can kill people without consequence unless they want to kill people without consequence. Innocent or not. Doesn't matter.

Just this morning I watched a cop pull over a teenage girl. He approached the car with his hand on his weapon, took a wide stance, and was basically looking for an excuse to kill her. That's why these people take the job. Every interaction with someone is an excuse so commit murder.

[Swiss Servator, alles klar?]

He approached the car with his hand on his weapon, took a wide stance, and was basically looking for an excuse to kill her.

My first suspicion is that he was trying to figure out how he could intimidate her into some sort of sex pay-off.

[Radioactive]

hmmmm...wide stance...where have I heard THAT before?

[Mainer2]

No homo

[db]

I got pulled over yesterday by Ohio State Troopers on a "saturation operation" along I70 and I77. Their justification.for.pulling me over? "You got.to within less than.two.car lengths.of.the.car.in.front of.you.after seeing us."

They went out.of their way.to say that my pony tail and beard were not.a.factor.in their.decisi9n to pull.me over.

[sarcasmic]

I used to have long hair and the cops would harass me every single time they saw me. Since I cut it off I haven't been harassed once.

[VicRattlehead]

Agreed man, gotta go stealth rebel
be the most innocuous looking white guy in the room, draw the least attention of the all seeing eyes. though since they've been hoovering up all our information i suppose looking normal is only useful for deflecting initial suspicion once they have my name and they know ive been on reason and infowars itll be gitmo for me

[Agile Cyborg]

Creative mining operations by police should be shut down every single time through legislative fury.

[Brendan]

I would have cited you for Aggravated Punctuation Abuse.

[Agile Cyborg]

Cop trainers inculcate their pupils with the alternate reality that all living creatures pose a viable and singularly-condensed threat to their survival. A toad hopping down the road could be an al qaeda plot, a teenage girl could be a demented serial killer on bath salts, a grandmother rocking on the front porch is probably coked up and has an mp5 stashed in her granny pants, that dog in the backyard is likely super-powered due to PCP and has a stash of throwing knives up its ass.... the list goes on.

The modern cop is an over-armed, over-armored, paranoid pussy. And, I'd throw a lot of gun-owners right into the same mix, tho I fear them far less due to their inability to act with impunity with would make the majority of them far more ethical than your average panty-wearing law enforcement thug.

[Mainer2]

Small example from Airplane Repo. The owner of the helicopter being repossesed shows up with a young cop to stop the repo man. Cop makes repo man show his papers, meanwhile owner takes off in helocopter. Repo man runs out onto the tarmac, cop runs after him, hand on his pistol. NOTHING in the situation rose to a deadly threat, but copper's instinct was, go for your gun. Who was he going to shoot and why ?

[sarcasmic]

Or the episode where the guys get separated, with the one with the paperwork being left behind. The guy in the plane stops to refuel, and a half a dozen cop cars show up. Out come a horde of cops with guns drawn, shouting conflicting orders. I thought he was a dead man.

[Bee Tagger]

"?which means when they actually go in and show you what an actual shooter situation is you can say: I don't want to be one of the victims, I think that's too scary,"

What if they conclude "I wish I was armed, too?"

[Rich]

I trust the realistic drill uses air soft pipe bombs, too.

[CampingInYourPark]

I trust the realistic drill uses air soft pipe bombs, too.

They're those cans that release a spring monster when you open the lid.

[Tonio]

It is possible to safely create a loud boom by releasing compressed air all at once. Surprised they don't have training devices which do that.

When I was a lad, back in the sixties, one of my favorite toys was a fake bazooka that used compressed air. Thanks, Mattel.

[Mainer2]

Big and black with a red lever to pump it up ?

[goneGalt]

I LOVED that toy! So did Kurt Russell.

Note the Consumer Reports killjoy review.

[Mainer2]

The linked article calls it a school safety drill. On it's face, that makes no sense to me. A drill for the kids in an active shooter situation in my opinion is get out as fast as you can and run like hell. However, there was some lockdown reported on the evening news recently where the kids were all marching out, single file, hands over their heads. Stupid way to get away from a shooter, so I'm assuming they need to line up like orderly little victims so they don't get shot by the cops.

If this drill is for the cops, they don't need to practice in an actual school, unless your goal is to show off to a bunch of grade schoolers.

[sarcasmic]

It's all theater.

[Agile Cyborg]

In terms of the kids I couldn't agree more. In terms of the teachers I couldn't disagree more. Many of you guys are gun-owners who are concerned with self-defense strategies. Some of you are even survivalists. How to respond to violent hostility is a good life tool, especially when one is safe-guarding a pile of youngsters for a few hours.

[Agile Cyborg]

As one who is critical of law enforcement on every level practically I just don't see a problem with teachers having to deal with a bit of self-defense training- even the kind that pushes their fear buttons. They are, after all, the only adult between our kids and a potential (albeit extremely rare) threat. They should have a solid sense of what their response reactions are in the event of a bizarre twist of fate.

[Mainer2]

The article didn't say the teachers were getting trained. My view may be colored in that I really don't see self-defense training in the stories I've read. As I said above, the training for the kids and teachers is line up, march out, be orderly, wait for the cops. If you want to train the teachers (and kids) train for what to do before the cops are there. In other words a drill that says, wait for the cops, and by the way, they may shoot you is a really poor way to prepare for the threat.

[sarcasmic]

If you want to train the teachers (and kids) train for what to do before the cops are there.

I thought they were supposed to cower in place and wait to be killed. Because if the cops walk in while they're fighting back, the cops will kill everyone.

[Mainer2]

When you say it that way it sounds kind of stupid, but that is the argument. What if, what if, what if...right ?
What if the cops show up and kill you in the confusion ?
What if you take out the shooter before the cops arrive ?
What if the shooter never starts because he can't know who's armed ?

No the only plausible scenario is you wanna be Rambos try to fight back and get killed anyway.

[Agile Cyborg]

I think your opinion is valid here, but most of the victims would likely be fighting back with books and similar. Now if the teachers were armed... Holy fuck I can just see the bloodbath. Dumbass SWAT types seem to realize few boundaries.

[sarcasmic]

but most of the victims would likely be fighting back with books and similar

Doesn't matter. The cops are trained to consider anyone who isn't cowering on the ground with their hands in the air to be a deadly threat. If you're not on the ground, they'll kill you. If you are on the ground and they can't see your hands, they'll kill you. Or they might kill you anyway just because of the excitement. And nothing else will happen.

[Agile Cyborg]

Well, you have a point there. People have been killed over hair brushes and remotes. The ALICE training is being pushed by a former SWAT trainer. I wonder if REASON should do an interview with this guy since the Libertarian position approaches defense measures through the ethical lens.

[Agile Cyborg]

They were getting trained. It's an active shooter drill.

And, your view on the marching to orders aspect is correct. My small country school here in West-Central Ohio is holding their active shooter training this Friday. I wrote the superintendent to get more information since I did not want my youngsters exposed to police activity and told him as much. Interestingly they had already cancelled school that day and simply forgot to tell the parents until a week in advance. Cancelling school is at least a viable option to get the students away from police activity.

In terms of the teachers... In spite of the fact that there will likely be dick cops involved in some of these scenarios why is it such an issue to get popped by an airsoft gun during a training exercise designed to test your reaction and stress level seeing that as a teacher it is your job to help safe guard young ones while they are away from their parents?

If a teacher is going about their business unaware of a shooter in any given situation a cop acting out an active shooter role can help give teachers an idea of how they would react to being shocked in the education environment.

In some ways this isn't much different than your average gun-owner/survivalist/self-defense type putting themselves through various scenarios to test their response mechanisms to hostility. It's all somewhat useful.

[Mainer2]

so the cops are playing the role of the shooter ? I didn't get that from the article.

[Mainer2]

You are right that a realistic drill is good practice. But if the training is, as sarcasmic says, cower in place lest you be killed by the cops, that's lousy training.

If someone really wanted to create havoc, cause a diversion. Then during the orderly evacuation, do your worst with guns or a pipe bomb. What I'm saying is that these drills are worse than no training, becasue they are teaching the wrong thing.

[Agile Cyborg]

You make valid points, tho if the training is ALICE-based one of their points is to train teachers and kids NOT cower in place as a last resort. That being said sarcasmic draws an interesting juxtaposition between fighting back against an active shooter and SWAT misinterpretations (which as we all know are common) which can lead to additional deaths.

[Tonio]

Interestingly they had already cancelled school that day and simply forgot to tell the parents until a week in advance.

I call bullshit. Not on you, ClunkyRobot, but on the school. My guess is that they got a lot of pushback on this from parents and decided to save face as best they could.

[Agile Cyborg]

Could be. Could very well be.

[VicRattlehead]

didnt a shooter use this retarded crap as a way to pick off more people back in 1998? pulled the fire alarm and hid on top of the school picking off the students as they filed out orderly?

[Vampire]

Seriously?? It takes minutes for the damn cops to arrive. In that time, many can die. Oh but to hell with the evidence of such tragedies already. But lets keep lying to ourselves and believe "gun free zones" will protect the kids, while taking away the ability of the school to defend itself and eliminate the threat as soon as it happens.

Their policies lead to kids being killed by some douche bag hell bent on doing harm to others by stripping away the rights of individuals to defend themselves and the kids who attend the school.

Private schools would be able to offer such protection, and those whom wish to remain oblivious and risk their children's lives can fund such an institution, while other parents can fund a school that is able to defend the grounds and the kids.

[Tonio]

I'm guessing that the person playing the active shooter might, you know, actually shoot at teachers, students and staff.

I love to see government agencies in conflict with one another. Even though those situations are total wastes of tax dollars the education value (for the public) is priceless.

[VicRattlehead]

Ive always wanted to play paintball in a school, perhaps the police chief was thinking the same thing

[GILMORE]

"Oui! Tirez sur le pianist!"

I assume that was the reference.

BTW, you can't call that a cult movie either, because as per my previous comment, *the book can't be better*, and the book is very much better.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.....from_novel

[ScoobaSteve]

Alt-Text: Don't shoot me, I'm only the Alt-Text

[PRX]

would a realistic drill be for the cops to stay in their cars and piss their pants for an hour? #columbineheroes

[JeremyR]

Bear in mind that pellet gun usually means a BB gun that fires lead pellets.

In this case it's those guns that fire tiny plastic pellets.