Unfortunately, school safety policies have long been dominated by institutional hysteria fanned by politicians, bureaucrats, and much of the media. The federal Education Department reported last year that “nearly 240 schools … reported at least 1 incident involving a school-related shooting” in the 2015-16 school year. National Public Radio investigated and found that the feds had exaggerated school shootings by twenty-fold; NPR could confirm only 11 incidents. Cleveland was credited with 37 shooting incidents when in reality it was simply a report of 37 schools noting “possession of a knife or a firearm.” One school system was listed as a shooting locale for an incident involving a pair of scissors.
https://mises.org/wire/hysteria-over-school-safety-wont-keep-us-safe
Numerous Indiana elementary school teachers were shot in January as part of a “safe schools” training program. According to the Indiana State Teachers Association, sheriff deputies ordered teachers “into a room four at a time, told them to crouch down and then shot them execution-style with pellets in rapid succession,” leaving several of them bloodied and many of them screaming in terror. The teachers union is “is lobbying lawmakers to add [legislative] language prohibiting teachers from being shot with any sort of ammunition” during school safety drills, according to the Indianapolis Star.
The Indiana program was part of the school lockdown drills occurring across the nation spurred in part by a Colorado massacre that occurred twenty years ago on April 20. Twelve students and one teacher died in a shooting spree by two students at Columbine High School. The Columbine carnage helped inspire subsequent school shootings, especially a Newtown, Connecticut attack in 2012.
While the media is vividly reminding Americans of the Colorado killings, few people remember how the Clinton administration rushed to exploit the killings. Attorney General Janet Reno praised the local police response as “extraordinary” and “a textbook” example of “how to do it the right way.” President Bill Clinton declared that “we look with admiration at the… the police officers who rushed to the scene to save lives.” Clinton invoked the Columbine killings almost every day from April 20 through mid-June 1999, when the House of Representatives narrowly defeated Clinton-championed gun control legislation.
In reality, “No efforts were made to stop the assault,” Read the rest of this entry »
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