04-17-2007, 09:55 PM
You know Occhi, that's the first sensibly argument I've heard against locking-down the school. You may have just changed my mind about it... but I doubt it.
You're talking a matter of degree, of scale. Locking down a city is no small task. It can take days to pull off effectively. Locking down a school, even a large one like that? Hours, within a single day. I suppose my reaction may read like barnyard braying to you, but to me it's simple logic. Mayhap it's because I am not acquainted with the full facts on the story, or because the only things I have to go on are soundbytes and the stumbling, bumbling administrators who look like they're participants in the Special Olympics trying to compete in the traditional Olympics, but I just feel that they really dropped the ball on this one. It just strikes me that they didn't take the issue seriously enough, and no matter what anyone says about the size of the campus, nor how "inconveniencing" it would have been to lock it down, will change my mind on that. It may very well be that they did everything in their power to find and apprehend the shooter, but from what I hear, it's Louisiana all over again - those in power failed to act, properly and timely.
Maybe I'm just colored from my small-town schooling, but to me, ANY shooting in such an environment is a HUGE deal, much more-so than any random homicide in any town, big or small. That may be foolhardy and ignorant of me, I'll leave it to you to try and open my eyes on that one, but I just can't fathom how two students getting killed, with no gunman found, can be taken so lightly. The e-mails (E-MAILS, for crying out loud! Don't they have PAs? Ways of communicating with teachers who can tell all their students?) about the FIRST shooting did not come until AFTER the second shooting. That, to me, reeks of fault, and for that reason, and many others like it, I hold the administration to blame for their shortcomings. I do not feel they caused this incident, nor am I convinced in any way that they could have prevented it, but I do feel that they dropped the ball big time on what can be reasonably expected from them in such a situation, and their soundbyting about heavy foot traffic does nothing but make them look like even bigger idiots.
Anyway, that's what I have to say about that. You always seem to have a sharp eye, so maybe you'll enlighten me to some things I would not have otherwise known or seen, but my feelings thus far are as such. In any case, it's a terrible tragedy that should not have occurred, but it is the price we pay for living, for beig human. A Social Studies teacher I had back in middle school had a fond saying, that has always rung so true: You can do anything until someone or something stops you. This incident, this atrocity proves that. No amount of screening, counseling, passing of laws, nothing can prevent completely incidences like this. All we can do prepare.
I fear this will certainly not be the last of its kind. I grieve for all.
You're talking a matter of degree, of scale. Locking down a city is no small task. It can take days to pull off effectively. Locking down a school, even a large one like that? Hours, within a single day. I suppose my reaction may read like barnyard braying to you, but to me it's simple logic. Mayhap it's because I am not acquainted with the full facts on the story, or because the only things I have to go on are soundbytes and the stumbling, bumbling administrators who look like they're participants in the Special Olympics trying to compete in the traditional Olympics, but I just feel that they really dropped the ball on this one. It just strikes me that they didn't take the issue seriously enough, and no matter what anyone says about the size of the campus, nor how "inconveniencing" it would have been to lock it down, will change my mind on that. It may very well be that they did everything in their power to find and apprehend the shooter, but from what I hear, it's Louisiana all over again - those in power failed to act, properly and timely.
Maybe I'm just colored from my small-town schooling, but to me, ANY shooting in such an environment is a HUGE deal, much more-so than any random homicide in any town, big or small. That may be foolhardy and ignorant of me, I'll leave it to you to try and open my eyes on that one, but I just can't fathom how two students getting killed, with no gunman found, can be taken so lightly. The e-mails (E-MAILS, for crying out loud! Don't they have PAs? Ways of communicating with teachers who can tell all their students?) about the FIRST shooting did not come until AFTER the second shooting. That, to me, reeks of fault, and for that reason, and many others like it, I hold the administration to blame for their shortcomings. I do not feel they caused this incident, nor am I convinced in any way that they could have prevented it, but I do feel that they dropped the ball big time on what can be reasonably expected from them in such a situation, and their soundbyting about heavy foot traffic does nothing but make them look like even bigger idiots.
Anyway, that's what I have to say about that. You always seem to have a sharp eye, so maybe you'll enlighten me to some things I would not have otherwise known or seen, but my feelings thus far are as such. In any case, it's a terrible tragedy that should not have occurred, but it is the price we pay for living, for beig human. A Social Studies teacher I had back in middle school had a fond saying, that has always rung so true: You can do anything until someone or something stops you. This incident, this atrocity proves that. No amount of screening, counseling, passing of laws, nothing can prevent completely incidences like this. All we can do prepare.
I fear this will certainly not be the last of its kind. I grieve for all.
Roland *The Gunslinger*