Braden Kling, an eight-year-old from Middletown, Ohio, knows what to do.
His school has prepared him for the moment of reckoning. "We have this
big board and we hide behind that. If he comes in, we start throwing
stuff," he explains. "Pencils, chairs, boxes, books, markers. And then
we escape."
In the aftermath of the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in
Newtown, Connecticut, politicians and educators have debated fiercely
about how our nation should protect school children—with some schools
turning to controversial tactics. Soon after National Rifle Association
spokesman Wayne LaPierre proposed stationing armed guards in every school in America, an Ohio school board approved plans to arm janitors. South Dakota recently passed a law allowing teachers to pack heat in classrooms. A high school in suburban Chicago held a drill in which police fired blanks in the halls in order to give staff and students "some familiarity with the sound of gunfire." Unsurprisingly, these kinds of measures have brought with them risks, accidents, and negative reactions.
Perhaps the most controversial approach has been instructing school
children to fight back. After Newtown, one commentator was met with
derision when she suggested that kids should be trained to "gang rush"
a mass shooter rather than to hide from him. The US Department of
Homeland Security recommends hiding or fleeing if possible when faced
with the threat of a gunman, and fighting back only as a last resort.
Read on...
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