Comment by macksd | Hacker News Reader

Comment by macksd | Hacker News Reader

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I did secondary school in the US, and there are lock-down drills that are mostly motivated by school shootings. In fact the first time I experienced practicing one was shortly after Columbine in a school not that far from Columbine. That said, the only time we actually had real lock-downs were for things like phony bomb threats, or dangerous criminals being pursued by police nearby.

On the other hand, I did some primary school in New Zealand and we had what I would now call a lock-down for the same reason, where school shootings really aren't a thing. I think schools ought to plan for that kind of thing for safety. I think the kind of first aid they teach you in active shooter training if you happen to take them as an adult (I did because I had a buddy trying to start a business after leaving the military doing it) is actually also really good first aid for anyone who's doing extreme sports, or going in the wilderness, or working around heavy machinery, etc.

I don't think any of that means that people shooting up schools is accepted as normal.

edit: Now that I've read TFA, I'll also add that I've worked in the US my entire adult life and I've never had active shooter training that was mandated at work, or heard of anyone I know having that.

Same here, lock-down drills started after Columbine in elementary through high school.

My employer does offer an Active Shooter optional training course. It also includes a first aid part to it, but its basically how to control someone from bleeding out before paramedics arrive. So it's still coming from a pretty dark place.

I thought my employer did offer a general first aid training separately from this and apparently I was wrong. So yeah, it turns out I'm in the same position as the author of the article...that's depressing.

And also seems dumb, because I understand the fear and low probability/high risk that motivates the active shooter training. But the far more common scenario is something like carrying some old equipment around and it slips out of your hands and a metal edge cuts your arm. Or someone starts choking on a piece of popcorn and you have to help get it out. Both of which have happened at my job and where general first aid training is very helpful.

Edit: It turns out we have specific CPR/AED classes because we also have AED machines. But it costs money and you can't charge company training time for it, so its not really any different than going and getting a certification somewhere else.

>> So it's still coming from a pretty dark place.

I think it's worth remembering that the world can be a pretty dark place anyway, and being prepared for stuff can make it less dark. The training I did was basically a civilian adaptation of the TCCC course taught over a weekend, taught be ex-military PMC types, so I expected it to be a bit of a stretch to apply it to civilians. And yeah, it's pretty dark: we practiced dragging limp bodies out of a building while they played loud sounds of gun fire. We put chest seals on dead pigs.

But a lot of the videos they played to demonstrate various conditions that you could treat with an IFAK - the basic military first aid kit - were totally civilian situations. We went over car accidents, camping mishaps, failed suicides. And as someone who overthinks and worries about potential problems - can I just say how good it feels to go on a road trip or go camping with my kids and know "hey - I have a trauma kit in the back of the car and I know how to use it". As dark as all those things are, I'm far better able to help people going through those things than I was before.

It really sucks that school shootings are so common that they influence policy like this. But... I think school shootings shouldn't be the only reason. I think far more people should do things like go get the Red Cross First Aid / CPR / AED course and practice those skills every couple of years. And not just because of shootings.

Worked for a state agency (nothing enforcement, just dealing with state level stuffs), and we did have mandated lock-down drills once a year. Mostly I assume because we shared a state building with other depts. that might have been targeted, but I assume it was likely a state gov't thing.

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