This Is A Drill

This is only a drill. If it had been actual oppressive acts conducted by the agents of government we'd tell you. At some point. Maybe. If we feel like it.

"Police in the western Michigan community of Wyoming entered two classrooms at Lee Middle and High School on Thursday and announced there was a threat to the school, The Grand Rapids Press reported.
Students, who were unaware police were conducting a drill, were taken from the classroom into the halls, patted down by officers and asked what they had in their pockets, the newspaper said."

All for the sake of doing a "safety drill".

"Some of these kids were so scared, they just about wet their pants,' said Marge Bradshaw, a parent with four children in Godfrey-Lee Schools. 'I think it's pure wrong that the students and parents were not informed of this.'
Officers wore protective gear, including vests and helmets, and carried rifles that were unloaded and marked with colored tape to indicate they were not live weapons, the newspaper said."

So for all intents & purposes the students just saw armed government agents herding them about & demanding compliance with their dictates. I mean how many kids nowadays know that colored tape on a rifle is the universal symbol for "unloaded"? & I wonder if all of the 4 rules were obeyed with these "unloaded" rifles?

"Diana Silva, a parent of an eighth-grade student, said the drill went too far.
'My child was with his face to the wall in the hallway of the high school,' Silva said. 'I certainly don't want anything like this happening to my child."

If I recall in the book 1984 Orwell wrote that the future of mankind is a boot stamping on a human face. Forever. Well ya can't just start out with the boot lest the human faces try to rebel. So you start them off gradually. A wall here, a desk there, etc...

"But Wyoming Police Chief James Carmody said his officers were not aware students and parents were not told. He said his department will mandate that parents be notified ahead of time in the future.
'The purpose was to show how we will evacuate the classroom, not to assault the classroom,' Carmody said."

K, I'm just not getting it. How does putting a kids face against a wall while searching him (warrantless too I might add, but the jurisprudence about such things on school grounds is disheartening) show how they'll evacuate the classrooms? It does sound like the kids were assaulted. Not to the point of physical pain perhaps but assaulted nonetheless.

But it’ll be better next time – they’ll notify the parents & kids beforehand that they’ll be conditioning the students.

Posted by Publicola at October 30, 2006 04:34 AM | TrackBack