My classroom has a back closet. It is big enough to hold 25 students +me. I also have wasp spray

[demtenjeep]

in two different places .

I make the students sit on the floor-turn off their phones and stay quiet. My thinking is that if we do it a couple times , they get the giggles and the OMG it's dark in here out of the way so that if we had to do it for real, we could do it quickly and quietly and that it would be sort of routine.

I also tell them that I am the last one in and the one closest to the door and that I would be the one to decide if /when it would be safe to leave or necessary to fight. I tell them that I at almost 60 have had a full life and they at 11/14 have so much more life to live. It upsets them a little, but hopefully it would work. JUST IN CASE.

I have been a teacher since Columbine.

We spend the first couple days on expectations and routines-then the next couple days on a plan-JUST in CASE.



it's not supposed to be like this!!!!!

[msongs]

1. and the closet door will stand up to an ar 15? nt

[hlthe2b]

3. Maybe all those kids being supplied with bullet-proof backpacks, could arrange to hang them

on the back of the door (hooks pre-placed)... I don't know if this is as common as some suggest, but even if only a couple of kids have them, may as well take advantage of it and use that as a routine storage procedure during class.

[Ocelot II]

2. It's just appalling that exercises like that have to take place at all.

When I was a kid we had to do the duck-and-cover thing, but that wasn't on account of a danger unique to being at school. It didn't make us afraid to be at school, since the nukes would be everywhere. While the statistical odds of a particular school becoming a target at a particular time are very small, they should be zero. Nobody should ever have to worry about getting shot at school - or at the grocery store or at a movie or a concert or at one's place of worship. If I decide to go to the Apple Store at the Mall of America tomorrow to look at new iPhones, the odds that some disturbed butthole with a grudge will decide to shoot up that store while I'm there are extremely small - but they should be ZERO. No other country has to deal with this craziness, even those countries where people own guns. Those countries have bad people, crazy people, violent video games and guns, but they don't have mass shootings. WTF is wrong with us?

[Conjuay]

4. My wife, with nearly 40 years

in a classroom was saying something very similar yesterday.

I remember when a teacher would have to find a safe place to keep her purse or bag.

Now the teacher has to find a safe room.

[alittlelark]

5. I also rely on wasp spray - 25' distance, easy to 'aim', wide spray etc

It is NOT supposed to be like this .

[demtenjeep]

6. yes

[BlackSkimmer]

7. I really don't think wasp spray is going to do a damn thing to a person with an assault weapon.

I'm sorry you even have to think in this way.

[Elessar Zappa]

8. Wasp spray is surprisingly effective.

It could very well incapacitate a shooter enough for the students to flee or the teacher to grab the gun. Not that it should be necessary of course.

[BlackSkimmer]

10. OK, the guy enters the room, gun held to fire if not already firing, teacher reaches or runs for

wasp spray can. Guess what happens next?

[alittlelark]

14. Are you familiar with wasp spray?

It is the worst of the worst chemicals sold to us plebes. It will blind you if it hits the eyes, if you inhale even a tiny bit of it you will be incapacitated coughing your lungs out. On the skin there will be immediate blistering. It is a pure poison chemical weapon that sprays 25 feet with no need to really 'aim'.

It is very effective. but u could possibly be sued for blinding someone or outright killing them with it -depends on the state.

If the perp was wearing a gas mask and full 'level 4' bodily protection he would possibly be OK - maybe.

It is designed to kill wasps ON CONTACT.

I will stick with my wasp spray and not give a penny to the gunipaths,


PS - the smart teacher will already have the wasp spray in her hand at the first sign of danger.

[Igel]

11. Not if you're shot through the door. n/t

[CrackityJones75]

18. Self deleted my post because I wasn't sure

Self deleted my post because I wasn’t sure what your intent was.

I read it as you belittling the post. But maybe I was wrong.

[phylny]

9. I've read so many heartening things from teachers today.

Fire extinguishers to spray, golf balls/staplers/iPads to throw. Wasp spray, yes. I'm just so sorry any teacher has to deal with this crap.

[Igel]

12. I have a fire extinguisher and filing cabinets right next to the door.

I have other heavy objects in my room. and if you get through the door and look around, you'll see little of the classroom. There's a 10' entryway. If me on the filing cabinet with fire extinguisher doesn't surprise the guy, then the football player with a 6' 2x4 around the corner will. And let's talk bricks ...

One wall has no way for a person to destroy it and get in--it's balcony adjacent. The other is background noise. 3k kids go by it a day and never notice it--they assume it's storeroom, not my classroom. A third is between my room and another classroom, and the fourth has a mech room between my room and the hall.

That leaves the doorway.

I figure he's not going to be hurling lead > 5' off the ground 2' to the left of the door. Probably shoot through the door and hit nobody, then aim for the lock. If he gets in, think of the fire extinguisher as Maxwell's silver hammer.

BTW, back in college I learned how to penny a door. The door to my room can be pennied. I have a hammer. I have pennies. I've tried it. It's annoying to unpenny it (when you're on the same side as the coinage). Fortunately, students these days have no clue what it means to penny a door. Now, I'm not sure it would work if the lock mechanism is shot to hell. But it's worth a shot, so to speak.

My students are high-cost targets. Unless the gunman's coming specifically for somebody in my room, he's going to have to work for his petty spite, and work hard, at risk, to get my kids.

On edit: reversed polarity on an expression. Oops.

[Hekate]

13. As the head of the National Education Assoc said today, "Last week they said we were groomers"

This week they want what? As the head of the Texas teacher’s assoc said in a shaking voice: the authorities want teachers to carry guns and be prepared to shoot down youngsters that they themselves loved and nurtured in the past.

I think if some entity purposely set out to destroy our society, they could not have done a better job at it that what we have faced in the past 20+ years.

[Diablo del sol]

15. First off - thank you for what you do

Secondly, that is fucked up that you have to teach pre-teens how to survive in a school.

[dsc]

16. My room has one door, no windows, no closet

I know if it happens I and the students are screwed.