What should I do in a school shooting?

[Caimlas]

I guess it depends.

I'd probably attempt to intervene - or, at least, I hope I would. With a potential hostage situation, I'd figure myself for dead anyway.

I suspect they'd try and use choke points given how most schools seem to be laid out, at any event (unless they had a specific person or persons as targets), so employing the same against them as an ambush method might be appropriate.

Remember: don't play John McCain; you've got other students who might be well employed to assist you. If you can steel your balls enough to resist the attackers, you might be able to steel the balls of other students through quick rhetoric - stuff like, "fill your hands, you sons of bitches, we have to fight back!" and "if we don't know if they're going to kill us all, we have to assume they are!" and what have you.

Think about what can be employed as a weapon in a school: chairs, textbooks (those things are pretty hard! - the pen is mightier than the sword, heh), maybe tables. Chemistry lab room? HCL, H2SO4, and various other acids; beakers, the stand the classroom skeleton is on - whatever you can find, really.

Any attack would necessitate getting in close, and as you'd likely be going against attackers with guns, that means either tricking them and distracting them, or jumping them from multiple directions. I can't see this working unless you're able to have three or four students at any one time jump a single attacker, in close proximity. Again, a stocked chemistry lab and someone knowledgeable in chemistry would be hope for your salvation: they could hopefully create artificial smoke/a smoke bomb quickly enough to provide cover.

And, dare I say it, a naked female might be well employed as a decoy, if she's willing. Regressed teenager or hadji, I think it'd help.

Realistically? The attack is probably goign to go down over a period of time less than 10 minutes; you're not going to have time to plan something much more than jumping out of a janitor's closet with a broom or hiding behind a door (which might work pretty well, if they're not traveling in groups). Then you'd get yourself a gun, and things would at least be marginally more balanced. All hypothetical, though.

 

[Caimlas]

In our drills, a special bell goes off and stduents are immediately herded into the nearst available room. The teacher locks the door as soon as possible and WILL NOT open the door until the all clear is given or officers appear at the door.

Sounds like your school is just asking for an invasion of SWAT-clad hadjis.

Teacher's instruction be damned, I wasn't the type to cower.

 

[Caimlas]

I see one major problem with most of the reasoning in this thread: it fails to take into account the Beslan school massacre. If it's a large private Christian school, I imagine that this might be a potentially larger target than a nearby public school, for dogmatic reasons.

Your two reasonable options in such a situation are to run or fight. If you fail to run, you will either be effectively be committing suicide if they are intent on a large body count, or get lucky. A wooden door with security glass will not stop an armed thug with a rifle; they'll shoot the latch out and come in anyway if that is their intent; I do imagine that they would, at least, round up their hostages - not acting before such a situation would be putting yourself to the mercies of fate and dumb luck.

The only "shooter contingency" plan I've ever heard of involved cowering in the corner subserviently. I don't know about any of you, but I wasn't too terribly interested in perishing before my 18th birthday with my head between my legs and my arse in the air.

Better to die on your feet like a man than on your knees like a slave, as they say.

 

[AJAX22]

Don't carry anything that could get you in trouble while your at school, there are plenty of legal items you could bring that work for defense. (paperweight in a doulbed up tube sock, heavy wood cane, etc.)

the problem with bringing any kind of weapon on campus, is that at school, everyone sees everything, and people snitch. Inevitably you'll accidentally expose whatever it is youre carying, or you'll show it to a buddy.

but if all you have is a carabiner that your keys are on (brass knuckles) or a roll of quarters. there's nothing against the rules about that.

Run if you can, Fight if you can't.

 

[Jeff White]

Caimlas said;

I see one major problem with most of the reasoning in this thread: it fails to take into account the Beslan school massacre. If it's a large private Christian school, I imagine that this might be a potentially larger target than a nearby public school, for dogmatic reasons.

This thread is not about a Belsan type takeover. That represents an entirely different problem then an active shooter and the response will be much different.

Jeff

 

[tegemu]

I think you, me and all the rest of us should write School Boards, media and all else that are in a decision making position, pointing out that keeping guns out of schools just creates a victim rich, killing zone for wacko's and bad guys. A better solution would be to arm all the responsible adults who could and would carry a firearm. A BG might get a few victims but he would rapidly become one himself.

 

[redneckdan]

Back when I was in high school there was little being done to prompt school safety and there were several students who were justafiable threats. The school district turned a blind eye. My plan was to escape if possible (i always parked hear the wing that I had most of my classes in) or hole up in a room and set up a defensive perimiter. Disarming a BG and room to room searching is a bad idea IMO.

 

[silverlance]

heh

Camilas,

Situations like Beslan would be handled very differently - by the responders. However, the basic strategy for teachers and students should remain the same. One cannot expect, for instance, septugenarian teachers nearing seventy to execute an australiant peel back with 40 ninth graders in tow.

The flaw you perceive seems to premised upon a mistaken perception of school doors. Unless you are at a very old school, doors will be heavily reinforced steel and solid wood doors. My school, for instance, features extremely heavy steel-hardwood-steel sandwich doors about 2" thick, 1/4in 1' x 1' lockplates with no external doorknobs, steel doorframes, and 1' solid concrete outer walls. There are no windows. I own plenty of rifles and I would not count on my ability to easily enter any secured room. Certainly, I -might- be able to blow bullets through the door, but 7.62mm holes in a door won't let me in.

I'd post a picture oexample of a secured external wall, but I don't know if the Mods would approve.

K

 

[TheLastBoyScout]

What really got the teacher upset was when I provided him with an option if they tried to break into the classroom but thats for another discussion.

Did it by any chance involve improvised melee weapons and comments on good anatomical targets?

If they don't have the stomach to talk about it, they would never have the ability to think of it or the guts to do it when needed.

 

[Zoogster]

Schools discourage and fear violence, even to the extent of pretending it does not exist as to discourage it and hence being completely unprepared realisticly. Your supposed to hide and hope they run out of rounds before getting to you or escape the school, or trust in the police to save the day, which they likely will, eventualy.
Sorry but an argument for properly preparing hormone raging, aggressive, impulsive, emotional teenagers from a potential problem is simply a futile effort. They are not yet responsible enough on average, and schools and most state run educational systems are socialist in ideology and 'trust in government, police, and others we pick because your not capable' and don't get involved or be prepared to be involved advocates. They think pretending it does not exist, and that if it does police will stop the killing makes it so.

Since many highschools are designed so people cannot slip away unnoticed your ability to escape if in close proximity is also fairly limited. Your pretty much just vulnerable, and this is why both unstable adults and kids choose schools as a primary shooting location. Nobody besides themselves and possibly a clearly uniformed officer will legaly be armed, and the majority of thier victims will be naive and inexperienced enough in life to pose any significant resistance. It is the perfect place for a coward to have control with a gun.