Sunday, February 18, 2007

WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE?




Am I the only one that thinks this is outrageous? And wrong? ANd stupid?
This is a classic example of finding a solution based on your own limiting beliefs.

Marilyn was telling me this morning that they had a scary incident in their Colorado high school where her two kids go...they had a bomb threat last week
SO
the administration-thinking quick, locked all the kids IN their classrooms for 4 hours while they brought in
bomb sniffing dogs to sniff EACH CHILD while the kids sat still and waited their turn. Hmmm

She was NOT ALLOWED to get her children from the school until they declared that the school was bomb free.

What is wrong with this picture? Can you guess?

Well-when there is a bomb threat do they usually LOCK the people IN the building? Or do they EVACUATE while they determine IF there is a bomb? Well they evacuate grownups because bite me if I am staying in the building while they figure it out! Get me outta there! But kids are all locked in??? Talk about some stress because they all knew.

When she told me I said it was f-ing nuts, why didn't they evacuate!

She said "well, they said they don't have a protocol for how to evacuate that many kids from the building safely."

"YES THEY DO!" I screamed a bit shrilly! I mean these kids are like my nephew and niece! "It's called a FIREDRILL and those kids have been trained since Kindergarden how to get safely out."

Or wait. Firedrill for fire, bomb drill...we don't have one. Let's lock 'em IN until we figure this out. Can't have all those wild and crazy teenagers running around loose!

Oh wait-we do have a bomb drill-we all went through it and it wasn't much better, remember? Sing it with me..."duck and cover...duck and cover" assume the position. Like getting under our desks if an A bomb hit was going to do any good at all! EVen at 6 we all knew that was a bit of a stretch. The mighty desk?

I said "Write up a protocol called "In CASE OF BOMB THREAT" and take it to the Principal. Make it look very official on custom stationary-and offer it to them for their files. And make sure you have
#1-get children out. Use firedrill protocol" in big letters
#2-determine IF there is a bomb AFTER GETTING CHILDREN OUT

Sounds to me like the administration is more worried about looking like a fool than about the safety of the kids. Bad choice based on their own beliefs about teens.

I figure they assumed it was a prank and wanted to make it as uncomfortable as they could for the kid so he/they don't do it again. My guess is too they figured if a student brought in the bomb, and they were locked in, they would crack if there really was one. Oh wait. Unless he planned to die anyway. Don't they watch the movies?

Or what if it hadn't been planted by a student? Hmmmm? Small thinking is dangerous thinking to me. This is a classic example of actions being determined by the conclusion they have ALREADY made. Now to give them credit, there was NOT a bomb. Thank GOD. Thank you thank you GOD.

3 comments:

CatherineAnn said...

There's more to this story then they are letting on. Just a gut feeling.

Joy! said...

you betcha! :)

Joy! said...

From Romedy

I'd be wicked upset if my kids were forced to sit in a classroom when the school was under a bomb threat. Send them home and then sort it out... If some kids called in a bomb threat just to get the day off even then it seems best to err on the side of safety.
What if someone called in a tip to the Columbine administration and they ignored it?
It sounds like they're not paying the administration to think...so they aren't. It would be difficult to imagine looking any stupider than they do. They already have the fool categories full to overflowing. They better come up with a bomb drill or I smell lawsuit-and it would be justified.