Gunfire and moments of fear as a rural Oregon school tests its readiness

[The Straight Story]

HALFWAY -- Two masked men wearing hoodies and wielding handguns burst into the Pine Eagle Charter School in this tiny rural community on Friday. Students were at home for an in-service day, so the gunmen headed into a meeting room full of teachers and opened fire.

Someone figured out in a few seconds that the bullets were not drawing blood because they were blanks and the exercise was a drill, designed to test Pine Eagle's preparation for an assault by "active shooters" who were, in reality, members of the school staff. But those few seconds left everybody plenty scared.

Principal Cammie DeCastro said it became clear very quickly just how many of the school's 15 teachers would have survived. The answer: "Not many," she said.

Elementary teacher Morgan Gover, 31, said only two teachers would have lived to tell the tale. She admitted being scared, and also acknowledged she would have been among the casualties, having taken several fake direct hits from the shooters.

http://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/index.ssf/2013/04/gunfire_and_moments_of_fear_as.html

[Coyotl]

1. Insane wingnut charter school?

[Poll_Blind]

2. Whole town population 288? Shooters "played" by school staff? Uh...

Unprofessional much, guys?

The reality of what must have gone on there, Friday, does not sound as professional or informative or even useful as the article might imply.

In fact, it sounds dumb and dangerous.

PB

[Javaman]

3. sounds like a bunch of ex-frat boy wanna-be's. nt

[Poll_Blind]

4. Well I'm no expert on extreme rural Oregon (where all this takes place) but having...

...been through rural Oregon a few times (parts even more remote than this but still inhabited by humans), I can say that things go on in these places and it's basically like people make their own reality. There's really nothing from stopping them from just going loopers.

I'd traveled across farming communities where, like, there was one house every quarter mile, half mile, mile or more and basically the whole universe was extremely small. These kind of situations are not always the best for human psychological health.

In my recollection, I never ran across any strange or weird folks out in rural Oregon. But I came from the wilds of Southern Louisiana and I can tell you shit there can get unrestrained.

PB