Wednesday, March 14, 2018, was marked across the United States of America by peaceful, sometimes reverent, civil disobedience. From Maine to Hawaii, from elementary school- to college-age, students, and from nearly 3000 schools, young Americans joined the National School Walk Out protest. The mass exodus was loosely coordinated by Empower, a youth branch of the Women’s March. At 10:00 a.m. local time, students left their classrooms; many gathered outside on school grounds, football fields, or tracks.
They were urged to stay away for just 17 minutes, as a symbolic recognition of 17 victims killed one month earlier, on Wednesday, February 14, at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, in Parkland, FL. The focus was to protest gun violence, call for action from lawmakers, and request new gun control measures.
Student Maya Homan of Palo Alto, CA, made this powerful statement to the New York Times. It sums up the feelings of many Americans, “Seventeen people are dead, and I am no longer willing to listen to politicians who deem my life less valuable than a piece of metal.”
“About 40” Morrison High School students “walked very quietly on the track,” stated retired Middle School teacher Marie Popkin. “They formed a quiet circle and read the Parkland School kids’ names.” She discussed voter registration with the older students; some are already registered, they said. She asked if they knew who their State and Federal Representatives and Senators were–they did not. She encouraged the young men and women to make a personal contact and express their concerns.
Morrison Police Chief Brian Melton estimated “40-to-50 Junior High kids” participated, while members of the Police Department observed. He was invited to address students in grades eight-through-12 about an action plan called A.L.I.C.E.
At 12:30 p.m., they gathered in the High School auditorium. Principal Kay Harwood noted one purpose of the assembly was to discuss adult concerns: “What can we do for our students?” She stated the “biggest concern of the kids is, ‘What do we do if something happens?’ Let’s keep each other safe,” she added. Harwood urged teens to be aware of students being aggressive online or in person and to report them to school officials. Later Melton stated, “One way to prevent school shootings is to be nice and kind to everyone. Don’t make fun of [others.] We have zero tolerance for threats.” He praised “four or five girls who last week reported to Mrs. Harwood” such an incident. “We don’t tolerate meanness and threats,” he repeated.
Chief Melton discussed Active Shooter Response Strategies for the next hour. “What do [shooters] want? They want to shoot and kill with quickness. The situation is fluid, unpredictable, and changes quickly” as they go through a building. Five options are a model for action if a school is under attack. They can be used in any order, and all need not be followed in every situation.
ALERT–Notice and report strangers inside or someone trying to enter. Pay attention to and report sounds of distress in parts of the building; get away from there if possible.
LOCK DOWN–This is the preferred response and is effective. Lock classroom and other room doors, turn off lights, move out of view from windows/pull shades, and keep still. Pile desks against the door to thwart entry. The idea is to make an intruder think the locked room is empty.
INFORM–Let others in the building know where a problem is, that the Police have arrived, and when the scene is safe. Tell staff or the Office what has been observed or if someone has been hurt.
COUNTER–Distract an intruder as a group. Throw books, chairs, backpacks, phones, or Chromebooks at him, to interrupt his thought pattern and shooting. This gives enough time to tackle or wrestle him to the ground or remove a weapon.
EVACUATE–If the attack is in an area away from you, get out of the building, and go to a predetermined, safe, rally spot. He urged students not to go home, as Police must determine where all students/staff are.
He stated the National average time for Police to get to a scene is “five-to-six minutes,” but he thought it would be shorter in Morrison. [A passing train could delay Officers.] “The incident is usually over by then. We need your help to fight back.” The Police “goal is to eliminate the threat. Ninety-five percent of shooters are killed, and 74% of those are suicides” as Law Enforcement arrives.
Locked doors are one means of increasing school security. He concluded by warning students to not let students into the building, even those they know, and to not prop open doors. “Morrison is a safe community, and this school is safe. But an active shooter or violent intruder could happen anywhere.”
The first recorded incident of a school shooting was a mass killing in the 18th century, in Colonial America. On July 26, 1764, in Greencastle, PA, ten persons died; two were injured. Perhaps the earliest shooting to happen on school or college property, in what would become the United States, was the notorious Enoch Brown school massacre during the Pontiac’s War. Four Delaware (Lenape) American Indians entered the schoolhouse near present-day Greencastle, PA, and shot and killed schoolmaster Enoch Brown and nine children (reports vary.) Only two children survived. However, this incident only incidentally may be considered a “school shooting,” because only the teacher was shot; the other nine victims were killed with melee weapons.
The second recorded incident of a school shooting was a crime of passion in the 19th century. On November 12, 1840, in Charlottesville, VA, one person died; no one was injured. John Anthony Gardner Davis, a law professor at the University of Virginia, was shot by student Joseph Semmes and died from his wound three days later.
Click here for a list of school shootings throughout our Country’s history, listed by decade. There are 474 incidents, including the two above.
- Only 24 school shootings occurred in Illinois, the majority of which took place in Chicago.
- Of 148 shootings (31% of the total number) which took place in the 2010’s, there were 159 deaths.
- That contrasts dramatically with the 63 shootings in the 2000’s and the 62 shootings in the 1990’s.