School Shooting in Connecticut

[Anonymous]

I hope Sela is paying attention to this. They would probably be the first target of a school shooting.

[Anonymous]

The fact is that schools are among the safest places for kids. Not perfect places, not that nothing bad happens at them. But you are far safer dropping your kids off at school that at the shopping mall, the playground, the swimming pool, or anywhere else.

It would really compound this tragedy if schools start to lock down in a wild overreaction to this. Don't treat our kids like prisoners or like cattle to be herded.

Generally speaking, it ENHANCES school safety to have parents able to freely come to the school. There might be very specific situations where you need to lock down - like a school run amok and with drug dealers roaming the halls. Sure, lock down the doors then. But tragedies can and do occur anywhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The fact is that schools are among the safest places for kids. Not perfect places, not that nothing bad happens at them. But you are far safer dropping your kids off at school that at the shopping mall, the playground, the swimming pool, or anywhere else.

It would really compound this tragedy if schools start to lock down in a wild overreaction to this. Don't treat our kids like prisoners or like cattle to be herded.

Generally speaking, it ENHANCES school safety to have parents able to freely come to the school. There might be very specific situations where you need to lock down - like a school run amok and with drug dealers roaming the halls. Sure, lock down the doors then. But tragedies can and do occur anywhere.

+1000

[Anonymous]

For a lot of children in this country, school is safer than home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The detail regarding CT has changed over time. His mother did not teach there. He was not buzzed in. He shot his way in. My ES has a buzzer system but I don't think it would prevent a determined intruder. Even a metal detector, who would stop the intruder after the system buzzed? We just can't protect against ever unimaginable scenario..

This is the bottom line.

Your child's school is protected against this kind of incident for the same reason that whatever airplane you are flying on is protected from extremists flying it into a building. Your child's school is protected because--statistically speaking--this stuff never happens. It will never happen to you or your kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hope Sela is paying attention to this. They would probably be the first target of a school shooting.

Obviously, it wouldn't.

More importantly: What the hell is wrong with you?

Like there aren't enough freaks in the world? You have to abuse a tragedy and bring your slime here? Do you know that Lithium and/or Prozac on a daily basis would make you far happier than spewing your anti-semitism in the hopes that you'll nail a victim? Seriously, stop hating the children and take your meds.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is the bottom line.
Your child's school is protected against this kind of incident for the same reason that whatever airplane you are flying on is protected from extremists flying it into a building. Your child's school is protected because--statistically speaking--this stuff never happens. It will never happen to you or your kids.

I wish this were true! While schools are certainly among the safest places, including home, for any child, evil can strike in the most peaceful communities. Statistically speaking we're often very few degrees removed from evil disasters. To prove it, try this: I personally know two people who died in 9/11, I myself was shot in one of the safest places on earth by some crazy person wielding a weapon, and my husband ran into one of the victims of the notorious Empire State building shootings. So how probably is it for our children to be fully sheltered from evil? Let's not stick our heads in the sand. All these incidents are actionable lessons that, as a society, we need to do more to foster peace and to keep the deranged away from means of murder and destruction.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is the bottom line.
Your child's school is protected against this kind of incident for the same reason that whatever airplane you are flying on is protected from extremists flying it into a building. Your child's school is protected because--statistically speaking--this stuff never happens. It will never happen to you or your kids.

I wish this were true! While schools are certainly among the safest places, including home, for any child, evil can strike in the most peaceful communities. Statistically speaking we're often very few degrees removed from evil disasters. To prove it, try this: I personally know two people who died in 9/11, I myself was shot in one of the safest places on earth by some crazy person wielding a weapon, and my husband ran into one of the victims of the notorious Empire State building shootings. So how probably is it for our children to be fully sheltered from evil? Let's not stick our heads in the sand. All these incidents are actionable lessons that, as a society, we need to do more to foster peace and to keep the deranged away from means of murder and destruction.

I your personal experience of being shot has understandably colored your perception, but, no, your elementary school is not going to get shot up by a crazy person. I can guarantee you that. In the same way that I can guarantee you are not going to win $50 million dollars in Powerball.

The chances of you having an anvil drop on your head while walking to work are much, much greater. You don't obsess over that. And you don't consider yourself "sticking your head in the sand" either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is the bottom line.
Your child's school is protected against this kind of incident for the same reason that whatever airplane you are flying on is protected from extremists flying it into a building. Your child's school is protected because--statistically speaking--this stuff never happens. It will never happen to you or your kids.

I wish this were true! While schools are certainly among the safest places, including home, for any child, evil can strike in the most peaceful communities. Statistically speaking we're often very few degrees removed from evil disasters. To prove it, try this: I personally know two people who died in 9/11, I myself was shot in one of the safest places on earth by some crazy person wielding a weapon, and my husband ran into one of the victims of the notorious Empire State building shootings. So how probably is it for our children to be fully sheltered from evil? Let's not stick our heads in the sand. All these incidents are actionable lessons that, as a society, we need to do more to foster peace and to keep the deranged away from means of murder and destruction.

I your personal experience of being shot has understandably colored your perception, but, no, your elementary school is not going to get shot up by a crazy person. I can guarantee you that. In the same way that I can guarantee you are not going to win $50 million dollars in Powerball.

The chances of you having an anvil drop on your head while walking to work are much, much greater. You don't obsess over that. And you don't consider yourself "sticking your head in the sand" either.

One last thing: none of this means that we shouldn't "foster peace" and keep deranged people away from firearms, either. We should do that for its own sake.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is the bottom line.
Your child's school is protected against this kind of incident for the same reason that whatever airplane you are flying on is protected from extremists flying it into a building. Your child's school is protected because--statistically speaking--this stuff never happens. It will never happen to you or your kids.

I wish this were true! While schools are certainly among the safest places, including home, for any child, evil can strike in the most peaceful communities. Statistically speaking we're often very few degrees removed from evil disasters. To prove it, try this: I personally know two people who died in 9/11, I myself was shot in one of the safest places on earth by some crazy person wielding a weapon, and my husband ran into one of the victims of the notorious Empire State building shootings. So how probably is it for our children to be fully sheltered from evil? Let's not stick our heads in the sand. All these incidents are actionable lessons that, as a society, we need to do more to foster peace and to keep the deranged away from means of murder and destruction.

I your personal experience of being shot has understandably colored your perception, but, no, your elementary school is not going to get shot up by a crazy person. I can guarantee you that. In the same way that I can guarantee you are not going to win $50 million dollars in Powerball.

The chances of you having an anvil drop on your head while walking to work are much, much greater. You don't obsess over that. And you don't consider yourself "sticking your head in the sand" either.

One last thing: none of this means that we shouldn't "foster peace" and keep deranged people away from firearms, either. We should do that for its own sake.

What does "We should do it for it's own sake" even mean? We should do it because, if we don't, someone somewhere is going to blow and some other large group of innocent victims is going to pay the dearest price: their lives. (especially now that the world knows that when you viciously murder a lot of small children, the world is shocked - that's what deranged people like this guy are looking for, that world attention/shock).

You're probably right that statistically speaking it's more likely an anvil will fall on your head. But neither you or anyone else is in a position to say "it'll never happen to you" because, look, it just happened. It happened to someone (26 smeones, tragically), and that's now 26 famlies plus the family of the killer who have to deal with the aftermath and mourning. We have to do something different because we don't want this to happen again, and it will if we don't address the roots (and it's a lot more than "fostering peace" - we need to look at how we handle chronic mental illness, gun control, and whether we shouldn't take certain video games off the mainstream market where it's shown some of them desensitize long-term players to violence.

[Anonymous]

We have to do something different because we don't want this to happen again...

My point exactly. We have to do something different because--even though it is not going to happen to you or I--we don't want this to happen to anyone.

If we understand this, we're more likely to address it in a reasonable and effective manner--by dramatically increasing Medicaid & other public health initiatives that fund mental health treatment. And by strengthening gun control laws.

As opposed to panicking and doing taking ineffectual measures like arming school security personnel or banning video games.

[Anonymous]

No, I don't think my kids' school, or almost any other in world, is safe against something like this. But we can take solace in the fact that this is so extremely rare that the chance of this happening to one our own kids is far less than their getting strike by a lightening bolt or killed in a plane crash.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

We have to do something different because we don't want this to happen again...

My point exactly. We have to do something different because--even though it is not going to happen to you or I--we don't want this to happen to anyone.

If we understand this, we're more likely to address it in a reasonable and effective manner--by dramatically increasing Medicaid & other public health initiatives that fund mental health treatment. And by strengthening gun control laws.

As opposed to panicking and doing taking ineffectual measures like arming school security personnel or banning video games.

I'm the PP you quoted, and I agree with you tremendously... except on the video games. I've read a few times now that the killer in CT was obsessed with one of those lifelike games (they didn't name it but I'm assuming Call of Duty), and if that is true, we truly truly need to look at the impact of those games. I've been to a few conferences with workshops on the growing brain and these games, and there is real evidence, real data, real research to show that it has a numbing impact, a disconnecting impact, as well as a glorifying violence impact.

So we do have to include looking at the effects of violent video games in the equation, because there are a lot of cases of youth who do NOT have mental health problems doing some crazy and violent things because they "just wanted to know what it feels like in real life", and yes, they got the ideas from violent video games.