school shooting-adjacent, pop culture, america
So, like. In the last I guess decade or so I've noticed Kids On The Internet using the phrase "I'd die for them" more and more, generally as a punchline to a joke or meme. It's obviously hyperbolic and I never thought much about it...
... until the other day when I read something that implies this is something kids get taught (!) as part of active shooter drills?
Is that... is that real?
school shooting-adjacent, pop culture, america
@alis I was never taught that, but I can definitely see it being something that some teachers/schools might tell their kids.
I remember being like 8 years old (this was after Columbine) and my 2nd-grade teacher telling us to fall down and play dead if a guy with a gun came in to our classroom, and actual lockdown drills started to become a thing a few years later. Who knows what they've started doing since I graduated
school shooting-adjacent, pop culture, america
@alis active shooter drills are basically just 'lock the door, turn the lights off, hide out of sight of the door, & be quiet so they assume the room is empty'
they're also very rarely called 'active shooter drills' usually its just 'lockdown procedures'
school shooting-adjacent, pop culture, america
@alis its possible some teacher at some point said that to their class but in general lockdown drills are very sanitized/abstracted
so a question like that would be incredibly odd and out of place
school shooting-adjacent, pop culture, america
@alis taught by teachers? no. did kids talk about it like some popularity contest? yep. "the shooter would go for me because I'm pretty/popular/etc." was rampant. yes, it's fucked up.
school shooting-adjacent, pop culture, america
@alis It's not something they're actively taught, but when things like school shootings are normalized, I'm sure it's something they think about.
When I was in school, there were times where I was walking down the hall, or in class and i'd start thinking about the best places to hide if somebody started shooting.
school shooting-adjacent, pop culture, america
Like is that seriously something kids get taught in American high schools, to like look around their classrooms and decide who they'd be prepared to take a bullet for?
That's so fucking messed up? Like what the actual fuck?