Memory Hole Blog Report
The militarization of law enforcement, sensationalized mass shooting events, and a creeping police state have merged in the now common “active shooter drills” that transpire in various public places, including schools.
Yet recent research suggests how such exercises do little in the way of preparing for mass casualty events, and instead needlessly traumatize children, in the process making an entire generation more acquiescent to state authority and control over their everyday lives.
Amen!
I’m a former high-school teacher, and even though I left the field nearly 20 years ago, we were already up to our eyeballs in fire drills, tornado drills, lockdown drills, active shooter drills, anthrax-release drills, and I know there were others which I’ve forgotten now.
Apart from the fire drills (which btw can frighten younger children tremendously!), the usefulness of practice-practice-practice for the other scenarios seemed to us teachers to be close to zero. That’s because there are so many unpredictable variables in these situations, which you simply can’t be prepared for! You can practice what to do if a shooter bursts in the front door … but what if he comes in through the loading dock? What if he comes in during lunch, or during an assembly, or during AP exams, or at the end of the day when everyone is boarding buses? You get the idea.
And while you’re wasting time that could be used in actually teaching something, the kids definitely are getting upset. They worry about what would happen to younger siblings or girl/boyfriends in another class, about calling Mom to let her know what’s happened, etc. etc.
There’s only one reason for all the drilling that I could ever identify: YOU MUST BE AFRAID. VERY, VERY AFRAID.
Pfft.
An example of how “disaster capitalism” has become a cannibalistic Federal Reserve requirement in a fiat currency society with a compelling need to sustain the Ponzi scheme of perpetual growth.