Fire drills give way to lockdown exercises (AP/CNN)

[eppur_se_muova]

Wednesday, April 5, 2006; Posted: 11:01 a.m. EDT (15:01 GMT)
***
Across the country, many schools hold lockdown drills because of terrorism fears and school shootings like the one at Columbine High School in Colorado in 1999 that left 15 people dead. But Minnesota could apparently become the first state to require such exercises.

A proposal before the Minnesota Legislature would mandate at least five lockdown drills a year. To free up time, the number of required fire drills would be reduced from nine to five.

"There haven't been any kids killed in school fires in Minnesota because we've done a good job with fire safety equipment, with fire drills and so on," said Democratic state Senator John Marty, a sponsor of the bill. "Unfortunately, times have changed in such a way that we have lots of other threats."

Last month offered a fresh reminder of the danger, with the first anniversary of a rampage at Red Lake High School in Minnesota that left a teacher, a security guard and six students dead, including the teenage gunman.
***
more: http://www.cnn.com/2006/EDUCATION/04/05/school.lockdowns.ap/index.html

[disgruntled_goat]

1. dear citizens

be afraid!

sincerely,
your govt.

p.s. dont think that!

[dogday]

2. I can remember hiding under my schooldesk

in case of a nuclear attack... Which was funny because I don't think the desk would of helped my ass one damn bit, but at the time, I thought I would be safe.. Funny the things that kids think....

[tatertop]

3. Big Brother getting mileage out of the biggest lie ever told

terror and, more importantly, the FEAR of terror,
and more importantly, blinding hatred for the 'terrorist'

[valerief]

4. But there's that big pot of tax revenue gold at the end of the

terrorist rainbow. Well, the gold is for a select few to use as they damn well please.

[VelmaD]

5. So...we've reduced the number of kids killed in fires...

thanks to fire drills...so we're gonna cut back on the number of fire drills we do. :eyes: