Guns Guns Guns Guns Guns Guns Guns Guns Guns Guns

Harbingers, 2018

cut & paste paper collage, part of a series of little collages

made from book pages and reading primers for "Zine in a Box" 

Since the Columbine school shootings in 1999, parents, school officials and politicians have struggled with how to protect and prepare schools against gun violence, and most schools now have regularly-scheduled active shooter drills.  Many of these programs rehearse simple lockdown procedures, but the "hardening schools" approach involves teaching kids "skills" -- how to jump out of classroom windows, barricade doors, fight back by throwing things like erasers and books at an attacker.  Sometimes the drills have added elements to make it seem more like a real attack, such as no advance notice or indication that it is only a drill, the sounds of gunfire coming from the school hallways, screams, fake blood, etc. This approach is coming under increasing attack because of the emotional trauma many kids are experiencing as a result of the realism in these kinds of drills, and a significant number of people even question the value of drills at all.  Some states like mine (Washington) are passing legislation to make it clear that realistic simulations of gun violence is not the best approach.

Whatever the approach, the situation is summed up nicely in a tweet from a teacher named Bill Ferriter (@plugusin), at 3:59 AM, on 25 May 2022:

During every school shooter drill for the past 20 years, I've promised my students that I would do whatever it takes to try and keep them safe if we were ever in that horrible position together.

It is America's greatest shame that those words ever need to come out of my mouth.

Thanks for your service, Bill.