Police Officers Draw Guns During Unannounced ‘Active Shooter Drill’ At Elementary School

[cali]

Students, teachers and parents were taken by surprise after an “active shooter drill” brought the Winter Haven middle school into lockdown as armed police officers burst into classrooms with their weapons drawn.

Students at Jewett Middle Academy said they were terrified when police officers burst in the doors for a planned active shooter drill – but students and teachers are irked they were not told ahead of time.

Seventh-grader Lauren Marionneaux told WTVT-TV that when the officers burst into her class with an AR-15, she was in fear for her life.

“We actually thought that someone was going to come in there and kill us,” the station quoted her as saying.

<snip>

http://tampa.cbslocal.com/2014/11/15/police-officers-draw-guns-during-unannounced-active-shooter-drill-at-elementary-school/

[Politicalboi]

1. WTF?

Time to sue the police dept. What a bunch of assholes. Sue them for PTSD. So what did the kids learn from this assholes? This shit has never been done before. At least not when I went to JR High School 40 years ago. I know we live in a different time. I prefer my time. When guns weren't so fucking easy to get, and the only gun a 14 year old owned was a BB gun. At least in Ca.

This stunt reminds me of that show Reno 911. Seems like something those pigs would do.

[PeteSelman]

2. Why have these "exercises" at all?

The whole thing seems absurd. Instilling all that fear and paranoia into the kids.

It's fucked up.

[Man from Pickens]

9. you answered your own question

they're training the children to fear and obey anyone with a badge and a gun

[GreatGazoo]

18. Yes. something like Stockholm Syndrome

a psychological phenomenon in which hostages express empathy and sympathy and have positive feelings toward their captors, sometimes to the point of defending and identifying with them. These feelings are generally considered irrational in light of the danger or risk endured by the victims, who essentially mistake any lack of abuse from their captors for an act of kindness

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockholm_syndrome

[Turbineguy]

3. Once you have somebody point a gun at you and threaten to shoot you,

it's easier the second time.

Maybe we should look for ways to improve our society instead.

[djean111]

4. Another sanctioned form of intimidation.

Also - not that difficult for a school shooter to dress as a policeman. What if a teacher had a gun and used it?

[Locrian]

6. yep

further proof that they don't give a DAMN about the citizens. Their ability to bring massive force on anyone and anything must be maintained and exercised at all cost.

[WinkyDink]

5. "irked"? "IRKED"???? I'D BE THINKING "LAWSUIT"!!!! School board, Administration, PD, oh, HELL, yeah!

This outrageous stunt could have caused heart attacks, never mind the probable nightmares and forever and warranted distrust of authorities. It's what we might call a Lose-Lose for TPTB.

[Ed Suspicious]

7. Fucking idiots!

[DeSwiss]

8. Fortunately.....

...no firearms were lost nor left behind during the drill. Nor were any unexpectedly discharged while being handled by a professional law officer. Hitting said professional law officer in his own leg.

- Hopefully there won't be any lawsuits either.....

K&R

''I call it the law of the instrument, and it may be formulated as follows: Give a small boy a hammer, and he will find that everything he encounters needs pounding.''

~Abraham Kaplan

[center][/center]

K&R

[UglyGreed]

10. Got to get the

kids used to guns and badges on every street, building and block. God bless the US!!!!

[logosoco]

11. Wow. I hope other school districts don't think this is a good idea. There are an awful lot

of idiots around.

Funny how it's okay for police to do this and terrify some of the kids, but a few years back a kid got in trouble for making a pop tart look like a gun.
I just don't get this world sometimes.

[A Simple Game]

12. I hope the fools weren't allowed to have guns loaded with live ammunition.

May have been interesting to have blanks in the guns just to see how many accidental discharges there were.

Yes I know blanks can be dangerous at close range, but still could have revealed just how competent they were in a situation that called for no actual shooting.

[cali]

14. the handgun was loaded

[drynberg]

13. This outrage happened in sunny Florida? Shutthedoor! Outtacontrol Cops...time for the lawyers.

[leftofcool]

15. What could possibly go wrong?

Time to overhaul the police department in that county, starting with firing the chief.

[sarge43]

17. Can't count high enough to list all things that could have gone wrong

Easier to count the things that did, starting with a bunch of traumatized kids

[LWolf]

16. I wonder what administrative idiot authorized this one.

Truly.

The headline is wrong; it was a middle school, not an elementary school. Which is beside the point; adolescents don't need to be terrorized any more than younger children.

It was a drill conducted by police, which is strange to me. In all my decades in public schools in two states, we've done all kinds of drills, but none were ever conducted by the police. We conducted them ourselves. Who authorized this?

Police Chief Charlie Bird's comments highlight the fact that leaving teachers and students in the dark was deliberate.

Winter Haven Police Chief Charlie Bird said police are able to evaluate a school’s response.
“It’s very important that, when you do your drill, you do it without everyone knowing that it’s a drill,” Bird said. “How you train and how you prepare is how you’re going to react when everything goes bad.”

[A Little Weird]

19. Very dumb thing to do

There was a thread about this yesterday and there was at least one poster ok with it - http://www.democraticunderground.com/1016106908