Spring Break
Generation of shooting
Issue date: 4/30/08 Section: Opinion
Remember growing up when the fire alarm would go off in grade school and all the students would line up in an orderly fashion and head outside?
Those were simpler times.
Students these days participate in Full-Scale Disaster Exercises, which is just a nicer way of saying a school shooting drill.
Students no longer worry about being trapped in a fire or, for us Midwesterners, getting sucked out the window from a tornado. Instead, they hide under their desks in fear they'll be shot for being at school.
On April 25, 20 Western Illinois University emergency management students played the parts of hostages and bloodied victims in order to train for such an event at Cuba Middle/High School in Fulton County. Usually preparation is key to any undertaking, but how much can really be done?
In the 1950s and '60s, students were told to hide under their desks in the event of an atomic bomb hitting their school. Teachers might as well have had their students suck on Lifesaver candies, since that would be just as helpful.
The only way to effectively safeguard a school would be to essentially turn it into a prison, which probably wouldn't be hard to do since most students think school is prison anyhow.
There would be metal detectors and big guys with badges frisking students every day of every year. It would be great for all students to be protected by their Big Brother. We would be giving up our most basic civil liberties in order to be protected.
There is only so much that can be planned for a shooter entering a school. Officials can't predict if someone will turn left or right down the hall or what time of day an intruder will attack. There are too many variables involved.
Students involved with the Columbine shooting probably couldn't wait until they got into college since shootings never happened there. Obviously, that didn't work out. With university shootings occurring on an almost monthly basis, it begs the question: is our entire generation screwed up?
Maybe it's the video game violence or maybe it's the broken homes, but we're a part of a generation that needs to change.
Those were simpler times.
Students these days participate in Full-Scale Disaster Exercises, which is just a nicer way of saying a school shooting drill.
Students no longer worry about being trapped in a fire or, for us Midwesterners, getting sucked out the window from a tornado. Instead, they hide under their desks in fear they'll be shot for being at school.
On April 25, 20 Western Illinois University emergency management students played the parts of hostages and bloodied victims in order to train for such an event at Cuba Middle/High School in Fulton County. Usually preparation is key to any undertaking, but how much can really be done?
In the 1950s and '60s, students were told to hide under their desks in the event of an atomic bomb hitting their school. Teachers might as well have had their students suck on Lifesaver candies, since that would be just as helpful.
The only way to effectively safeguard a school would be to essentially turn it into a prison, which probably wouldn't be hard to do since most students think school is prison anyhow.
There would be metal detectors and big guys with badges frisking students every day of every year. It would be great for all students to be protected by their Big Brother. We would be giving up our most basic civil liberties in order to be protected.
There is only so much that can be planned for a shooter entering a school. Officials can't predict if someone will turn left or right down the hall or what time of day an intruder will attack. There are too many variables involved.
Students involved with the Columbine shooting probably couldn't wait until they got into college since shootings never happened there. Obviously, that didn't work out. With university shootings occurring on an almost monthly basis, it begs the question: is our entire generation screwed up?
Maybe it's the video game violence or maybe it's the broken homes, but we're a part of a generation that needs to change.
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