The victims families have fought the good fight to no avail. It’s enraging. We outnumber the cowards. Why can’t we unify and get shit done? So many cowards walk among us. Yet, these children are not. The young girl in the doomed Uvalde classroom covered herself in her best friends blood and played dead. She survived. I posted above about 6 yo Jesse Lewis because many didn’t know for quite a while that he singlehandedly saved his classmates. In a split second decision! His classmates told the neighbor who took them into his home that Jesse told them to run.

Never have I cried as hard as that day and beyond to Uvalde. It was the first time my child saw me broken hearted hours later when I picked him up from school. He was 9 at the time and in elementary just a half block away from our home. I remember the script in my head. No matter how I revised it, I ultimately told him to be quick, listen closely to determine where the danger is (footsteps, voices, banging, gunshots) and run, break a window, grab everyone you can and run. My specific words to him— do not be a sitting duck, we will be there, EMS and all parents will be there to get you to safety. When it came out that Jesse was a hero that day, we read everything we could about him. DS: mom, my reading buddy is only 6 years old.

Anonymous wrote:How would you know to run and if it's safer? There could be another shooter outside.

You can’t. The scary and desperate reality is this is a situation where the teacher and kids have to try to survive and do what they can and anybody outside of that room with them truly can’t second guess the choices they make. You hope and pray the teacher can protect them, but sometimes they can’t. Sometimes they die. Sometimes they make the choice that makes us wonder what would’ve happened in the alternative. It is not a scenario you can know what to do in and if one ever finds themselves in it, they simply make the choice they can at that time.

Anonymous wrote:How would you know to run and if it's safer? There could be another shooter outside.

There is almost never a second shooter but it’s true you can’t know.

The challenge is that older kids are better able to run out and escape. But they are also more likely to be assumed by police to be the shooter and thus shot by first responders. And police are going to make this mistake more often with boys than girls, and with Black kids than white ones.

How would you know to run and if it's safer? There could be another shooter outside.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have given my child explicit clear permission to leave the school building at any time for their safety regardless of rules/policy/ an adult telling them not to.

That is horrible advice in the case of most emergencies that a student might face during a school day.

For most emergencies yes, for an active shooter running is the best course of action if they have access to a window

If the shooter is inside. Remember how at Stoneman Douglas the killer pulled the fire alarm, so that there would be more potential victims in the halls? Students may not know where the danger is, and you could be sending them towards it, rather than away, and could also alert the shooter as to which rooms have kids.

Tell your kids that the adults want them to be safe, and are on the same side. Actively disobeying the adults, who may have more information, and certainly have more maturity, is not the answer.

Like the police in Texas? I’m bviously it depends on the age of the child but I trust my teens to use their best judgement.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In Sandy Hook, there were very young children who left the building, escaped and ran to a neighboring house. Very young. They ran after their teacher had gotten shot and somehow they survived.

The neighbor who happened to be home found them and immediately brought them inside. It is discussed in the Sandy Hook documentary. It is not known who told them to run, but they ran as a group. It is an incredible story.

Yes, if you can run, you run

Forever heartbreaking. It was Jesse Lewis, a 6 year old classmate who yelled to the the kids to run after Lanza shot their teacher. His classmates were able to escape while Lanza was reloading. He fatally shot Jesse.

His mother disclosed that "He yelled, 'Run!' Adam reloaded and shot him in the head," said Scarlett Lewis, who learned details of the events inside the classroom from investigators who gathered accounts from children who survived.

"When I heard he used his last few seconds on earth to try to save his friends, I was not surprised," she said. "I am so incredibly proud of him."
https://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/newtown-school-shooting/sandy-hook-student-killed-after-telling-classmates-to-run-mom/1937487/

I have a 6 year old and my God this makes me sick to my stomach. That sweet child had more bravery and honor in him than any of our weak willed politicians who have left their morals at the alter of the 2nd amendment.

This, 100000 this. They were all the epitome of cowardice after Sandy Hook, and no surprise ever since then.

they should climb out window if on first floor, with biggest kid going first to help other kids.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In Sandy Hook, there were very young children who left the building, escaped and ran to a neighboring house. Very young. They ran after their teacher had gotten shot and somehow they survived.

The neighbor who happened to be home found them and immediately brought them inside. It is discussed in the Sandy Hook documentary. It is not known who told them to run, but they ran as a group. It is an incredible story.

Yes, if you can run, you run

Forever heartbreaking. It was Jesse Lewis, a 6 year old classmate who yelled to the the kids to run after Lanza shot their teacher. His classmates were able to escape while Lanza was reloading. He fatally shot Jesse.

His mother disclosed that "He yelled, 'Run!' Adam reloaded and shot him in the head," said Scarlett Lewis, who learned details of the events inside the classroom from investigators who gathered accounts from children who survived.

"When I heard he used his last few seconds on earth to try to save his friends, I was not surprised," she said. "I am so incredibly proud of him."
https://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/newtown-school-shooting/sandy-hook-student-killed-after-telling-classmates-to-run-mom/1937487/

I have a 6 year old and my God this makes me sick to my stomach. That sweet child had more bravery and honor in him than any of our weak willed politicians who have left their morals at the alter of the 2nd amendment.

Anonymous wrote:I’ve told every teacher I’ve shared a classroom with that in an active shooter situation I’m going out the window and taking the kids. They’ve all emphatically agreed.

Please do! Most of the time law enforcement will already be outside long before!

Anonymous wrote:In ACPS we were given ALICE, which distressing to go through gave really practical advice that has stayed with me. (I want to say I did the training like 5 years ago?) They did simulations during teacher training of someone coming in with a Nerf gun and us throwing soft balls at them to show how fighting back and throwing can throw a shooters abilities off. They also stated the importance of announcements being clear and running out of the building if you are far away from the shooter. In a building as large as ACHS knowing someone is in the gym area because everyone towards the other side of the building should be running out. (The only issue there is if you have been in a fire drill those stairs get super busy.)

Moved to Arlington and the training is still to lock down. (Well actually its mentioned but not really more involved training.)

I'm not sure what the right answer is but as a teacher on a lower floor, if given the opportunity I'd be moving out of the building with my students.

This is interesting and important information. Since Uvalde, TX, with the parents being held outside the school against their will, and the police force not responding indoors, I’d advocate for a more nuanced approach vs. the pure lockdown. Eventually everyone in a complete lockdown becomes a sitting duck. I doubt our schools’ doors and windows will hold anyone armed and determined to enter.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh my god. How about we “man up” in this country to the Second Amendment radicals and their enablers, and put some reasonable restrictions on who can buy weapons of mass murder and under what conditions. Some kook shouldn’t be able to assemble an arsenal at Walmart and wipe out a first grade class in one afternoon. Maybe if we started holding the enablers personally liable the message would get through - some things are more important than unfettered access to your toys.

Start with all the DC children that are running shooting people first.
The chance of getting shot in school is infinitesimally low compared to living in Ward 8.
Over a dozen minor children have been killed in DC YTD.

Oh and telling kids to be sitting ducks corralled into a single exit classroom is literally the dumbest thing ever done.
They need to be taught to run, run, run. Don’t fight instinct.

But they are not being taught to run. All the schools are clearly teaching and training to lock down and hide. I find this potentially problematic as well, but these situations are confusing and I am certain the schools are doing it this way on the guidance of law enforcement.

If my kids teacher throws my kids out a window and the kids then break their arm or leg or both in the fall, but that teacher saved their life, I will bring that teacher flowers. Possibly daily. When there's a gun, all rules stop existing. Do whatever you have to in order to LIVE.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In Sandy Hook, there were very young children who left the building, escaped and ran to a neighboring house. Very young. They ran after their teacher had gotten shot and somehow they survived.

The neighbor who happened to be home found them and immediately brought them inside. It is discussed in the Sandy Hook documentary. It is not known who told them to run, but they ran as a group. It is an incredible story.

Yes, if you can run, you run

Several groups of young Sandy Hook kids ran, some up to 1/2 a mile away before they stopped.

I tell my kids to run if it’s possible.

https://www.newstimes.com/local/article/Sandy-Hook-children-ran-to-neighbor-s-4136455.php#photo-3921975

I think about this constantly, because we know what happened to the kids barricaded in the bathroom. I have a hard time knowing the right way to explain to very young children a scenario in which they will need to run, and how, without scaring the crap out of them. But I agree it's the right instruction.

This is my question too. My first grader does not (yet) know this is even a thing that happens…do I tell her, and completely terrify/traumatize her, so that I can also pass on this instruction?

Teacher here. Yes you do. unfortunately that’s our reality. She is going to practice active shooter drills no matter what so she won’t escape knowing about this. Help her survive. My own children fear school shootings because they worry about ME dying at work. I tell them every time they mention it, I will run and so will my students if we can. We are not dying in that room if there’s even the smallest window we can go. But your kid knowing to run helps.