I graduated high school in 1988, and never had to do a duck and cover drill. I think by the time my generation rolled around, we knew the futility of hiding from a nuclear blast, and just accepted that if it happened, we would all be dead. Not a lot of comfort in that, but it was realistic.
Now I'm a high school teacher, and have been for 25 years. I remember what things were like before Columbine, in contrast to how they are now. For years after after, we practiced lockdown drills, sheltering in place with the lights off, the door barricaded, and the students hiding as far from the door as possible. This year, they are called Active Shooter drills, and we are encouraged to either fight or flee. If we get the lockdown announcement, we have two choices: stay where we are, or run out of the building. If we stay where we are, I'm supposed to lock and barricade the door. Then any student who is comfortable doing so should get ready to attack whoever comes through the door with something heavy (chairs, textbooks, backpacks). I have a baseball bat behind my desk that I bring out for the occasion. Those who want to hide may, but they should be spread out and not in a large group. Most of the students opt for the attack posture. When we talk about it after the drills, the majority say that they would rather do something than nothing. Option two is run. If the lockdown is announced and they specify what part of the building the threat is in, classes in other areas have the option to run out of the building and meet in prearranged locations out of range of the school. We meet by the tree line at the edge of the school property.
It's not perfect. And it takes a lot of time with the negative imagination to have to come up with solutions to school shooters. It is draining. Columbine wasn't the first school shooting, but it is the one that caught the country's attention. Parkland made us rethink shelter in place as a viable strategy in addressing school shooters. Now now this week in Colorado, Kendrick Castillo was killed stopping one of his classmates from killing even more students in his rampage.
Should any of this be happening? Should kids have to be put in life and death decisions like this in their own schools? Of course not. But the guns aren't going away any time soon, so this is what we've been forced to deal with.
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