Scare tactics and lock down drills in Jackson Schools
By Staff Report
So, this morning, we had a tough time getting our daughter out the door and in the car to school. At first, we thought maybe she had come down with something, but she eventually opened up to us and told us she was scared to go to school today. Why? She loves school. In fact in her homework the other day she listed school as her favorite place to go over the boardwalk, beach, sports and even the park.
It turns out yesterday was a lockdown drill in her school and the children were all instructed to be quiet. One boy sneezed. The teached informed the children that the sneeze meant they are all dead. Or would have been dead had this been a real lock down. The teacher went on to tell the kids about how a bear rampaged a school last year and that people can break into school and do bad things to kids. Are you kidding me?
For crying out loud, these are 6 year old first graders! The same ones that believe in the tooth fairy, Easter Bunny and Santa Claus. Why on earth are we telling them they could die and get mauled by a wild bear in school?!! Sure, I understand the lock down drills. We don’t want another Columbine, but at the same time, we also don’t want to put fear into the childrens’ day either.
Turns out she had a few nightmares about being locked in school with bears outside on the prowl and children were dying when they sneezed. Luckily I was able to convince her that her teacher was out of his or her mind for saying such things and we Googled to see if a bear ever killed a student in schoo, at least not in the United States. Then we googled to see if a sneeze ever killed a student and couldn’t find that one either.
I get the lockdown drill. It’s just as important and nearly as unlikely to ever be put into action at the Lucy N. Holman School, so I told her the importance of following rules and thanked her for not sneezing or talking when they were supposed to be quiet, but that it is just a drill and not real. On top of that, she was lectured for arriving 1 minute late this morning. Seriously?
Posted by Staff Report
on Sep 16 2009. Filed under Opinions.
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