Empowering kids and teachers is the best thing we can do. They'll feel less helpless against these 'bullies' with guns who threaten our school. Fear is the tool that these criminals feed on and they're killing the fear by giving these kids the tools to stand up against them when they try something. Not all or maybe even many may react with an attack but enough of them will that others will be encouraged to join in. Teachers need to be FREE to fight back. Teachers are too afraid to fight back because they could be blamed for anyone getting hurt. We are seeing that a passifistic attitude does not calm the criminals but seems to encourage them. Even if an aggressive attitude does not work better I doubt it will be any worse. For example - 1st classroom that the shooters walked into in the columbine incident, say the students rushed the shooters and took one or both of them down? Even if one was left I doubt he would have been as cocky as to keep waltzing around the school hunting kids. I doubt as many of the rest of the school would have been terrorized and shot down or watched their fellow students killed. I'd much rather my daughter go down fighting than cowering. Myself either. If I were a teacher I would prefer not waiting, locked in a classroom and cowering in the corner with all my students, wondering if the shooter would find us first. I'd rather grab a broom handle and stand by the door waiting for him to stick his greasy litting head in only to have his nose bashed in.
If we want the kids to fight back we need to give them the tools though. Self defense courses all around - Teachers, staff and students.
Here's this attitude (Fight not cower) in action
http://www.rd.com/content/openConten...ontentId=26879. Granted there were some consequences and the student was larger BUT it CAN work in the right circumstances. Run if you can Fight if you can't. That's how I'd operate.
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"Always learn the rules so that you can break them properly." Dalai Lama
My Karma just ran over your Dogma.
