Overreaction

[Sidewinder]

The past couple days at my school have been ridiculous. On Friday, there were rumors floating around about a student with a gun. In lieu of what happened at Virginia Tech, there was this huge pullout of students by their parents. Upwards of 80% of the school left, me not being one of them.

The true story about the kid with the gun was much different than what many people were saying. The kid was having some rough times with his life and owed people money. He stole a gun and gave it to who he owed money. He never had the gun for a long period of time and never made a direct threat against anyone, in or out of school.

In school, this was played up to "he's in the hall with a gun" or "the SWAT team is in the school" or "he has a hit list with 44 names on it." As for the mass pullout of students, I blame more than the stupid students and the more stupid parents. I blame the administration. To avoid the hysteria that was created, they could have simply announced the situation as it was to the student body, relieving any worries that students may have. They could have also released a statement to the public stating that there is no danger to any students.

What many kids overlooked is the fact that they were more safe in school than anywhere else. If the teen had the gun and was crazed enough to go on a shooting spree, he would have simply had to go up and open fire on the dozens of parents and students leaving the building. Our school had about six armed police officers in the building on Friday. No one would have gotten very far on a shooting spree.

To top this off, someone got the bright idea to sharpie a bomb/shooting threat on the bathroom wall. The threat closed school on Monday and created even more hysteria. All day yesterday, they searched the school from top to bottom with bomb dogs. They found nothing. What the superintendent told the school was that there was no danger and that they found nothing.

This didn't stop them from going full out gestapo on us today. They brought in several bomb dogs and a bunch of metal detectors. We were not permitted to carry any bags except clear plastic ones. I find it interesting that they plan on doing this for the rest of the year. While the rest of the year is only 18 days, it will still cause major problems. Today, it took until 8:45AM to get everyone into the building. School starts at 8. This eliminated first period, which is one of my most important classes of the day. If I miss 18 more days of this class, I'm screwed next year.

I love how our administration, students, and parents of the school district can take something small and make it seem apocalyptic. Now, for the rest of my high school career, I have to deal with this abysmal administration leading what used to be a prestigious school.

(I should look into private school.)

[BoyEngland]

I used to have these problems in my school.

We had 8 bomb threats in a span 0f 10 school days, not one of them fased the admin enough to even announce it. The only reason we know is because the SI released a letter to all parents telling them of the problems we face in a school society or some crap.

Your school really is retarded though, they got everyone worried over nothing. Not once in all my 3 years of being at my school have we ever been in a huge panic or had parents take kids out of school after a bomb threat. You know why? They don't tell us what is happening. We get told that we are having an evac' drill and move out the school, it's only the teachers that later tell us that we could have all been blown up.

The only time I ever saw a panic at my school is when everyone was sat on the football stands and thought a huge floodlight was falling on the stands. It was just the way the sky was moving, needless to say I am not proud of attending Poinciana High School.

I think its nice that your school district worries enough to actually do something though, we did have SWAT clear the school last school year because of a kid supposedly having a gun, but once again we didn't find out until afterwards. (Teachers have to put green card in the door window to signal the class is fine, hense us not being able to see out)

Once again, it's nice that your school over reacts, because mine barely even reacts when something like that happens. I would rather have to be searched everyday than later find out we were sat on a bomb.

[Teqila]

This is a foreshadowing of what society will degrade to.

[pyro120]

I'm looking into cyber school next year, so I don't have to deal with that crap.

[ThaReNeGaDe]

Well if I hear there is a bomb threat or a gun on campus, I am leaving.

1) You never know, rather be safe then sorry.
2) Easy excuse to leave school

People get picked on everyday, some people crack and it leads to things like Virgina Tech and Columbine. It doesn't happen often but its still does and it still can.

[Magnum Force]

My school is pretty laid back. We get the occaisional fight or threat here and there, but we are never forced to skip a day of school or go on a full lockdown. The district here seems very prepared and professional when they deal with these problems, so it doesn't seem to cause any more hysteria than was already there in the first place. We do have a campus police officer, but there's one at every school just because it's a regulation. But it's no biggie. I feel safer with one anyways.

[NUN-PUNCHER]

The sad thing is after a mass slaughter such as Virginia Tech and Columbine. Kids just can't stop picking on other kids. Then when someone goes postal shooting up the place, they ignore the fact that they abused the hell out of that person or persons and they just say....Man..He was weird.
Not that it's that way in every situation, but most of them.

I remember when I went to elementary school everybody would pick on this one kid bad every day nonstop. Then the kid's father died and while he was absent for his dad's funeral the administrators called a big assembly and pleaded all the kids not to pick on the kid when he got back to school. Of Course, when he returned it was back to business as usual.

[RadioactiveMan]

My school was required to have six fire drills this year, so we had them all in two weeks in the winter. That's the closest we've ever come to bomb or shooting threats, and the closest thing to a police officer are those old men who dress up and clock everyone on the highway with radar.

[Boba.Fatt]

I teach at one of the largest and ethnically diverse high schools in NYC. Last week our school was on lockdown with a threat of a shooting massacre. We even had info regarding the exact time and place it would happen. Of course it was going to go down right across the hall from my room. Lucky me.

Turns out that the previous day some goth/metal/emo/screamo/black wearing kid (sorry for the stereotyping) was being picked on as usual by the class bullies and he quietly said how he wanted to "kill them". He meant no harm by his words but some brilliant young slutbag in the class posted a bulletin on myspace about a "shooting tomorrow during period 5". The rest is history and that day was wasted because parents were frantically rushing up to get their kids and most of the other kids took this golden oppurtunity to just cut. Hell, I would have.

Since then the kid has been tranferred to another district and the ho was suspended. What a world eh?

[NUN-PUNCHER]

Originally Posted by Boba.Fatt

Since then the kid has been tranferred to another district and the ho was suspended. What a world eh?

Just like pressing the reset button.
Interesting to hear it from a teacher's point of view.