I want to know what you guys think of this idea.............
I felt and still feel that immediately after the woman and attendent were shot around 7:15 in the morning, WHY the school waited so long tell the students about the shooting and the fact that both people were dead.
Now come on, I realize this Univ. is HUGE! 25,000 students, many in dorms and supposedly 9,000 students on their way to school. Like a small town.
They knew early in the morning that they had two dead people in another dorm, police were there, and all I've ever heard was that they thought the killer had fled the campus!
I live in San Diego CA, La Jolla to be exact. IF.........there is just a robbery or break-in........We've got hellicopters flying all over our area, back and forth, back and forth in a ten mile radius! Once they had a missing child from our local elementary and they were flying over AND making a LOUD announcement that a 9 yr. old was missing from La Jolla Elementary, told us what she was wearing, what color hair and height!
Here's is what I think campus's should do. College, High School, Elemementary schools. WE HAVE to do something!
Have a SIREN or SIREN'S in every school.
If this College had been able to turn on siren's throughout the campus this would mean to the students that something very dangerous was happening........or in this case, had happened. (the murders in the early morning). Stay in you dorm, lock the door to your room, if just coming to campus, leave as fast as possible.
So far, the only thing I've heard was that they thought the killer in the morning had fled! Jeeze, if you had two people murdered on your campus as early as 7:15 in the morning........wouldn't every person here immediately notify everyone else on campus? What were they thinking? :doh: :doh: :doh:
Those poor student's and teachers knew nothing until about 9:45 am, and it was too late!!!
My suggestion is to have siren's installed. All students would be given instruction's on what to do if they heard them. Any better suggestions?
xxxxxxxxooooo
mama
:blowkiss: :blowkiss: :blowkiss:
Mama,
In a 'perfect World' yours is a wonderful suggestion, but:
Colleges are noted for attempting to cover-up, silence, etc. bad PR which results from violent events which occur on their campuses daily in order for their enrollment to stay up.
20/20, Dateline and others have done stories on this. Murders, rapes etc barely make a 'blimp' in the news because the colleges do not want the bad publicity....
This tragic mass murder on VT campus BECAME so large and horrific that there was only so much damage control which the college could successfully accomplish. (But do not be mistaken, in the beginning hours they desperately tried 'damage control'.)
Doesn't anyone find it remotely odd that with Columbine, the two student killers names and pictures were on TV within no time flat of the shootings and they stayed front and center for months afterward. A primarily county funded and operated 'business' such as a local school system has very limited funding in comparrison to that of a University........
We now finally know the identy of the shooter at VT, some..., how many, ???? hours, later....???
Colleges are almost like an Indian Reservation (can be- no offense intended toward our Native Americans) with their own 'Security' to often 'handle' their own 'issues', and in the case of colleges, these 'situations' are often handled as quietly as possible. When it is indeed a serious emergency with death and/or more criminal events and the local police are brought into the picture, they are often as 'silent' about the facts as the LE involved in this case.
Many college towns would not be more than a one traffic light, bump in the road, without the income generated from the college, its student body and faculty. The LE 'has no choice' but to scratch the back of the people 'scratching theirs'.
Colleges DO NOT WANT BAD PRESS. When it was two students murdered, it could have remained virtually unnoticed by the National Media. It happenes everyday on campuses all over the United States. Colleges characteristically downplay violence on their campuses to encourage high enrollment!
The bottom line is, that every parent in this country should educate their children in what to do in various emergency situations to protect themselves and others around them, (if they can help them, too), if they should they find themselves caught in a situation such as today when they are trapped and do not have the immediate support and help of school officials and law enforcement to keep them safe.
Parents of college age students must tell their children to listen to their own inner voice which warns them when a person 'makes the hair on the back of their neck stand up'. We must encourage our children NOT to ignore these God Given Gifts of judgement; these signs that something is amiss. Each parent needs to verbally cover various scenarios and suggest the best course of action the college level student needs to consider prior to their ever finding themselves in the position of having to choose between using their body or a huge desk to blockade a door to achieve safety from a crazed gunman in a classroom setting. Students need to know that jumping into shrubbry will break their fall and may prevent a broken leg, when trying to escape from a two story window.
Parents of students (High School and Middle School age ) should also have codes with their children that identify emergency situations with both the parent and the student and a predesignated 'safe place' perarranged for pick up of child when necessary.
If they are under 'lock down', parents should advise students what to do in those situations as well.
Barricading the door with their bodies will get them killed.
Bowing on their knees to the gun man will get them shot in the head.
Carefully planned exit through windows may be their only emergency option.
Even older elementary school children, 4 th and 5 th graders can understand that an extreme emergency situation may dictate that the students themselves must make the decision to open the emergency exit door to their room and to run to safety on the school grounds, as they encourage other students to exit the same way. ( A teacher being violenty threatened by another adult at the classroom door- This type situation actually happened in our local school system, in my son's 4th grade classroom several years ago. Thankfully, I was aware of the danger my son and his classmates were in and had advised him of the situation prior to it actually happening. Teachers are human too... They can go through NASTY divorces with crazy husbands or wives... the same as the rest of the population can....We never know what may happen unexpectedly within our schools... and must prepare our children to deal with the dangers if they DO NOT have an adult official present and capable of doing it for them. )
Talking to our children about safety issues in today's school settings Kindergarten through College when the "SYSTEM" can not protect them may save their lives. (Of course, on an age appropriate scale....)
People.... please.... help PROTECT our Children.....Talk to them... Teach them how to protect themselves when there is no one else to do it for them.
Angelwngs, former teacher and concerned human............
(I can see it right now. The writing is on the wall for me. I am going to have to become an ACTIVIST for the safety and well-being of students in America... Dear Lord, help me, please... Too much Passion... and no place to release it to create the needed changes.......)
