My 2 School Lock downs in Florida WITH Armed Deputies on Campus
Last edited Fri Jan 18, 2013, 09:08 PM - Edit history (1)
The first one happened in 2008 in a elementary school. This school had one full time armed Deputy and one part-time armed Deputy. Hello, NRA? The school housed ED classes, including a 5th grade class with boys who had criminal records. I worked in this class. A man shot his wife in a nearby apartment building and ran onto school property. We locked the doors, put up the metal hurricane shutters, and brought the kids into a storage room between the classroom, which had no doors or windows to the outside. If one didn't know these rooms existed, there would be no way to know it. This lasted about half an hour before the police, summoned by the Deputies, apprehended the gunman. Working in this class, all staff had radios on their person, and we were able to monitor the police frequency. The students in the class thought all this was "cool". Not surprised at that.
My second lock down happened in 2010 at a different elementary school. This time it was far worse. This school was older and all the classrooms had outside entrances. It looked very much like a motel. I was working in a Head Start Class a a 1:1 with a developmentally delayed 4 year old CP boy.
This school had one full time armed Deputy. An armed gunman again ran onto campus after robbing a bank. This time also, we locked the (outside) doors and pulled the blinds (no hurricane shutters), and brought all 16 Pre-K kids into the classroom bathroom, and locked the doors there too, with the teacher and two aides being inside. Since the child I worked with could not stand up or sit by himself, I sat on the toilet bowl holding him on my lap, for one hour and 45 minutes. No adult staff member ever left that bathroom in all that time. It was not easy keeping sixteen 4 year olds cramped in a tiny bathroom all that time, but we did not want them to go outside until the all clear alarm rang. No adult every left that bathroom while the kids were in there.
While the majority of these children, especially living in a high crime area, understood what was happening, the poor little boy I worked with couldn't comprehend what was going on. The OTHER CHILDREN in that bathroom tried to help me to calm him down. There was nothing we could do about this situation.. We had to protect them and hiding in that bathroom was the SAFEST thing we could do at that time. Again, there WAS an armed Deputy on that campus, who we knew had radioed for backup help from the local police. All we could do was WAIT. Sitting ducks, too, gun owners?
After both of these Lock downs, I NEVER heard one person from Administration say STAFF should have been armed. I never heard one single teacher, where it is VERY EASY to get a CCW in Florida, say STAFF should be armed. Even BEFORE these lock downs, I never heard anyone working in any of the schools say that Gun Free School Zones should be banned. I never heard any staff member say they wanted to take THEIR guns to school.
Apart from my own childhood experience with gun violence, my last Lock down with the Pre-K kids, gave me nightmares after Sandy Hook. When I heard that a class hid in the bathroom, and some of the kids came, out only to be murdered by the gunman, all I could see my mind were the faces of all those Pre-K kids I worked with when we also hid in a bathroom.
I am not a violent person. I want nothing to do with guns, for me, or ever use my husband's guns. Yet, when I hear the NRA's propaganda, and them USING our President's CHILDREN for their own AGENDA and PROFITS, I just want to SMASH the NRA, as a MOTHER, and as a CARETAKER of LITTLE CHILDREN.
You are DESPICABLE NRA, and your MEMBERS, and GUN OWNERS who agree with you. You are POOR EXCUSES for HUMAN BEINGS. Other people's RIGHT TO LIFE, trumps YOUR 2nd Amendment Rights.
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