My Son's School Went On Lockdown Twice In A Week

Twice in a week's time, my son's high school went into lockdown because of gun incidents.

Taken from the book "Lucy Practices a Lockdown"

THE FIRST INCIDENT:

As a parent, I found out the same way that most parents do when a gun incident happens at their kid's school:  I got a panicked text from my son:  

There's a lockdown don't come to school it's not a drill I love you

It was 11:00 AM on Friday, 1/11. I texted back that I loved him and to be safe, then immediately stopped what I was doing at work to let my wife know and to consult the news.

What I soon learned was that the incident that precipitated the lockdown had been over for almost a half hour. Unable to get to his phone, my son had spent all that time laying on the floor in his teacher's office, the door barricaded and lights off, with other scared children, some crying, some frantically texting their parents, while they waited to find out what their fate was. 

A particular signal had come over the intercom. It was brief "so it wouldn't alert the shooter," as my son explained. Then, as the teacher barricaded the door, turned off the light, and they all took cover, administrators put his high school, and two other schools next door, into lockdown.

HERE is the news story I first read. It explained that a man had gone to the middle school right next to my son's high school for a "custody dispute," that the man had been shot and killed by officers, and that no students were harmed. According to the official Eugene Police Department release:

"At 10:27 a.m. today, January 11, Eugene Police responded to a custodial dispute involving an adult male at Cascade Middle School, 1525 Echo Hollow Road," Eugene Police said. "As officers were escorting the male from the school, he produced a firearm and a struggle ensued. During the struggle the subject was shot by police and is now deceased. This occurred outside of the school."

The man who was shot was named Charlie Landeros, age 30. The shooting happened right outside the main doors to the middle school. From what I understand, the man's daughter witnessed the whole thing.

I was relieved to know that my son wasn't in danger. And the lockdown soon ended.  Meanwhile, concerned parents had shown up to take their children, having gotten the call about their kids and wondering how they would be traumatized, particularly the children at the middle school, some of whom heard the shots. One 11 year old boy described the fearful moments:

"I was getting out of second period and I was sitting on a bench and I got up to go to my locker to put my binder away to go to third period when I [heard] the announcement … and I ran to the library and went under the computer lab desks," he said. "I was kind of scared because some of the people that were with me also underneath the desk were talking about they actually did hear gunshots and were down where it all started. 

"I wasn't thinking you know, about getting shot. I was just … thinking about my family and … that stuff because my tablet was in my locker and I couldn't text anyone and that kind of scared me a little. 

"I was relieved because when I pulled up my messages there were a couple texts from my mom and she was asking if I was OK," Josiah said. "I'm feeling good safe since I'm finally out of school."

My son told me that when the lockdown was over, and he went into the corridors with the other students, there were "a lot of red faces" from people crying. He had trouble that night, needing some quiet time to reflect and a bit of extra attention, unable to watch shows that involved any tense situations, but otherwise handled it pretty well. But I'm certain there were many children far more disturbed by the event, particularly younger kids.

Thankfully, the schools reacted exactly as they had practiced.  I'm thankful the shooting happened outside the doors of the school, too.

The police haven't issued any further public report yet. Like most schools these days, who unfortunately have to prepare for this situation due to the increase in shootings at schools nationwide, there were cameras at the front door that almost certainly recorded the event.  The family of the shot man have demanded to view them. The Civil Liberties Defense Center, which released a statement and memorium for Landeros, suggested that the shooting was not justified (they refer to it as a "homicide") and suspecting racial bias, calling for a "transparent, unbiased and thorough" investigation. 

But here's the crux of the problem: Landeros apparently showed up to the school with a concealed handgun. It is important to note that, in Oregon, it is not illegal to have a concealed handgun on the grounds of public schools if you have a conceal carry permit. The school board of a district can choose to disallow hidden guns of staff members and faculty, if they wish, but not for visiting parents. I don't know if Landeros had a permit. But this needs to change.  This case is a very good example why it's a bad idea. Landeros showed up to a dispute, likely in an anxious state of mind. I don't know why police were called, or why he was being escorted by police out of the building. Was it because they knew he had a gun? I don't know at this time. But it's a dangerous situation made potentially deadly by the presence of a loaded firearm -- and deadly it was.

Pro-gun nutcases like to spout that school shootings wouldn't happen if only citizens could arm themselves. But it is precisely BECAUSE a citizen was armed that the event happened in the first place.


THE SECOND INCIDENT:

Only three school days later, on Wednesday, 1/16, my son texted me again:

We are having another lockdown there is a suspicious person on campus we are safe in the our classrooms and the police are here to help

With no mention of guns this time, I was less worried. UNTIL I read a news article a few minutes later that stated:

"a report of a person, possibly a student, who might have had a handgun on campus"

My heart sank. Once again, students barricaded themselves in classrooms, this time for almost an hour, as police searched the grounds, with my son's high school on lockdown and three other middle and elementary schools on lockout (where the exterior doors are locked but students are not barricaded and hiding in rooms). A student had seen the person with a handgun "in his waistband" and notified school staff, who then initiated the lockdown. The person with the gun was never found. Was it a student? Was it another adult with dubious intent? Will they come back to the school, armed?


According to a Washington Post study released in December of last year, 4 million children (!) in America had to endure lockdowns in the 2017-2018 school year.  FOUR MILLION!  There was a time when children hid under desks in "duck and cover" drills, afraid of nuclear bombs from far away. But today, the threats are within our own communities.

From the article:

More than 4.1 million students endured at least one lockdown in the 2017-2018 school year alone, according to a first-of-its-kind analysis by The Washington Post that included a review of 20,000 news stories and data from school districts in 31 of the country’s largest cities. 

The number of students affected eclipsed the populations of Maine, Rhode Island, Delaware and Vermont combined. But the total figure is likely much higher because many school districts — including in Detroit and Chicago — do not track them and hundreds never make the news, particularly when they happen at urban schools attended primarily by children of color. 

Still, on a typical day last school year, at least 16 campuses locked down, with nine related to gun violence or the threat of it. The Post’s final tally of lockdowns exceeded 6,200.

Jesus. If these horrifying statistics don't alarm us, what will?? School lockdown drills are now at least as common as fire drills. Sadly, our society is so overflowing with guns and violence, it has become necessary. There are even books you can buy for your children that try to lessen the trauma of lockdowns and lockdown drills, like "Lucy Practices a Lockdown" and "The Lockdown Drill."

But look at the cost to our children of all these lockdowns! From that same article:

The sudden order to hunker down can overwhelm students, who have wept and soiled themselves, written farewell messages to family members and wills explaining what should be done with their bicycles and PlayStations. The terror can feel especially acute right after school shootings like the one in Parkland, Fla., when kids are inundated with details from massacres that have taken the lives of students just like them.

 Kids just like mine. And just like yours.

Year after year, madmen and armed children go into schools and commit murder, suicide, and mass shootings, and still our national leaders have done nothing to change it other than to offer empty condolences.

Sure, we can turn our schools into armed fortresses, and every other public space, but is that really the kind of place we want for our children?  The only solution is to do more to keep guns out of the wrong hands and to fight the NRA's "guns everywhere" profiteering agenda.

It's time for change, for the sake of our children, to create a new trajectory for our communities.


UPDATE: HERE is a very good and detailed write-up on Charles Landeros and his motivations and pro-gun extremisim.

Sculpture: The Last Lockdown.

Sculpting by Manuel Oliver whose son Joaquin, 17, was killed in the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

The sculpture is called "The Last Lockdown" and is made by 3D printing. More information HERE.

The figures were created using 3D printers, an intentional reference to the debate over guns potentially being
3D printed. The desks are real school desks.
“We want you to feel unsettled,” the project’s co-creator Sean Leonard said. 

Arm Teachers In Florida? Parkland School Board Says No. One Teacher Disagreed - And Had A Gun Accident

After the Parkland shooting, there was tremendous pressure on the Florida Governor Rick Scott to take action.  He signed into law a bill called the "Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act" which raised the age to buy all firearms to 21, imposed a three-day waiting period for most gun purchases, provides new mental health programs for schools, and restricted access to guns from people who show signs of mental illness or violence.

But, in a nod to the NRA and President Trump's call to arm teachers, the act also now allows Florida schools to choose to arm their teachers and staff.  It's a provision that is vocally opposed by teaching organizations, child advocacy groups, Florida school students, and even the families of school shooting victims. 

Nevermind that no school shooting was ever stopped by an armed civilian who wasn't law enforcement. And, as I've pointed out in a prior post, at least 23 incidents have been CAUSED on school grounds by armed individuals, including guards, who were supposed to be the sort the NRA claims will protect our children.

The Parkland school district isn't playing along -- the very school district where the shooting occurred -- and is refusing to arm their staff:

“I have not met one teacher or one student who is in favor of arming teachers in Broward County,” board member Laurie Levinson said. 

The school board instead wants the allotted money from the bill to go toward armed school resource officers, CBS Miami reported. 

“We should definitely launch a campaign to persuade the governor, for those districts who do not want to arm their employees, that they give us the money to keep kids safe in other ways,” board member Robin Bartleman said.

(And they aren't the only Florida school board to reject the notion).

Well, actually, there was one teacher at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School who was open to the idea of packing heat on campus.  Science teacher Sean Simpson supported his students in their calls to bring tighter gun regulations, but he also stated about arming teachers: 

"I know there are some of us that are willing to take the training if it was offered and probably be another line of defense."

He was on campus when the shots rang out and the shooter killed 17 and injured 15. So why aren't the gun nuts trumpeting his assertion to arm himself on campus?  Probably because he promptly had an accident with his loaded gun:

[Simpson] told deputies he accidentally left the gun in a stall at the bathroom at the Deerfield Beach Pier during a visit to the beach Sunday. While going back to retrieve it, he heard a gunshot and once back inside the bathroom, saw 69-year-old Joseph Spataro holding the gun.  

He left his loaded gun unattended in a public bathroom and a homeless man found it and fired it "to see if it was loaded." Luckily no one was injured. Oopsie! So much for that NRA poster child!  According to responding deputies:

"There was a reasonable likelihood that the firearm could have ended up in the hands of a child or the discharge of the firearm could have wounded another person or child."

Imagine if he had left that gun in the school bathroom instead!  It's happened before, again, and again, and again.

Both Simpson and the homeless person are facing charges, but so far Simpson hasn't lost his job as a teacher.  I can only wonder what his students are thinking of him as they deal with their shooting-induced PTSD.  At least they can rest assured that neither he nor any of the other teachers will be allowed to carry on campus!

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A List Of Incidents Caused By Legal Gun Owners On School Grounds

-- THIS POST IS UPDATED AS NEW INCIDENTS ARE FOUND --

Every time there's a school shooting, the NRA and pro-gun forces come out of the woodwork again to say that schools, as "gun free zones," are targets for shooters, and that arming teachers and school staff is the only way to insure safety.  It's the myth of the "conceal carry hero" made into a school drama.

This lunacy came to a peak after the Sandy Hook shooting, when, after shameless silence, the NRA's Wayne LaPierre stepped up to the microphone and shocked the world by actually suggesting arming all schools, a move that was soundly rejected as insanity by nearly every national organization representing parents, teachers, and law enforcement, as well as the citizens of Newtown, and has no merit with any historical context, including when it failed to stop the Columbine shooting. Since then, the idea has been floated many times, including by various GOP legislators, extremist gun groups, and even President Trump after the massacre at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. States like Florida, Tennessee, and Mississippi have introduced bills to follow through with this. And a handful of school systems have decided to do it, including here in Oregon. Legislators have even tried to encourage armed vigilantes to prowl school grounds in return for tax credits.

Two different studies (HERE and HERE) have shown that armed guards in schools make students feel less secure, possibly affecting their academic performance. Not that student perceptions really matter to the pro-gun forces trying to make these decisions.

But could they be right? An analysis by Everytown found that there was an average of two school shootings at K-12 schools every month between 2013-2015. A more recent examination for 2018 by Everytown found an average of one school shooting every 63 hours. With all those school shootings, shouldn't there, by now, have been some good examples where armed civilians other than police have stopped a school shooting? 

Well, no, actually. There has never been a school shooting stopped by an armed teacher or a citizen conceal-carry owner. The closest case I ever found was of a school staff member (and Army reservist commander) who went out to their car and got a gun, but the shooting was over by that point, the shooter was out of ammo and was driving out of the parking lot (the only reason he was stopped was that the shooter crashed his car, allowing the staff member to get to him and hold him under arrest).

However, there HAVE been plenty of cases where gun owners, legally carrying guns on school grounds, have CAUSED incidents on campus, including incidents that wound children, other adults, or themselves.

Here is a list of those incidents that I have found, which will be updated as I find more.  So far, it is up to TWENTY SEVEN incidents, resulting in the wounding of five children and five adults. Sixteen incidents were caused by police officers or security guards.

• August 19, 2019: The district transportation director in Sparta, Ohio, who was allowed to carry a loaded, concealed handgun on campus as part of the district's conceal carry plan meant to "protect" students, left her gun in her desk unattended for around 30 minutes while she went to the bathroom and the nearby high school. A first grader found the loaded gun and pointed it at another student. No charges were filed and no one was fired, though the director was removed from the conceal carry program and was suspended without pay for three days.
• October 5, 2018:  A security guard at Somerset Academy Bay School in Kendall, FL, left his loaded gun in the bathroom. A fifth-grade child found the gun and immediately notified administrators at the school office. The guard was fired, but no charges were filed.
• May 23, 2018:  A parent visiting a classroom an Early Childhood Center in Pittsburgh, PA, when a 3-year old reached into her purse and pulled out her loaded handgun. Luckily, the child was stopped before pulling the trigger. The woman was charged with possessing a weapon on school property and four counts of recklessly endangering another person.
• April 18, 2018:  A parent visiting a school in Gladstone, Oregon, for a volleyball tournament left their loaded revolver in a bathroom stall. Luckily, a coach found the gun before any children, and turned it in to police. The owner had a conceal carry permit.
• April 4, 2018:  A county sheriff left his loaded backup handgun in the stall of a middle school gym bathroom in Shepherd, Michigan. A sixth-grade boy found the gun and reported it. Luckily, the gun was not handled.
• March 13, 2018:  A teacher and reserve police officer was giving a class on gun safety in his high school classroom in Seaside, CA, when he unintentionally fired his gun toward the ceiling. Bullet fragments wounded a 17-year old boy in the neck. Other students were injured by debris falling from the ceiling.
• March 13, 2018:  A school resource officer unintentionally discharged his handgun inside an Alexandria, VA, middle school. Luckily no one was injured.
• February 28, 2018: A high school social studies teacher in Dalton, Georgia, barricaded himself in a classroom and fired a shot from a handgun. Luckily, no one was injured, and he was taken into custody. He had a history of mental problems and violent behavior that had led, at one time, of having his guns removed.
• February 5, 2018: A police officer was at an elementary school in Maplewood, MN, "building relationships" with 3rd and 4th graders when one little boy reached over and pulled the trigger on the officer's holstered handgun. The gun fired into the floor. Luckily, no one was injured.
• September 13, 2016:  A school teacher at Cumberland Christian School, in Chambersburg, PA, left a loaded, unsecured handgun on a toilet in a bathroom. Four children, ages 6 to 8, went in the bathroom before one of the children reported the gun. Luckily, none of them fired the gun.
• February 19, 2015:  A school resource officer at Western Wayne School District in Pennsylvania unintentionally fired his handgun in the school.  Luckily, no one was injured.
• September 11, 2014:  A teacher was in the bathroom of a school in Taylorsville, Utah, when she unintentionally shot herself in the leg with her own handgun.
• January 18, 2014:  An armed security guard left his weapon unattended in the bathroom, fully accessible to K-8 students, despite being a retired police weapons instructor.
• January 18, 2014: Two police officers serving as school resource officers decided to clean their guns while on the grounds of an Akron, Ohio, high school. One of them unintentionally discharged his gun. Luckily, no one was injured.
• October 24, 2013:  A police officer left his loaded AR-15 assault rifle strapped to his motorcycle while visiting an elementary school.  A boy pulled the trigger, firing the weapon and leading to a shrapnel injury of three kids.
• August 24, 2013:  A SWAT police officer was giving a presentation at an elementary school in Lodi, California, when a 6-8 year old boy fired the officer's holstered gun, hitting the officer in the leg.
• May 15, 2013:  A Winchester, PA, police officer boarded a special needs school bus to calm a student. After the officer sat next to him, the child reached over and pulled the trigger on the officer's handgun, discharging a round into the bus seat and floor. Luckily, no one was injured.
• May 14, 2013:  A school staffer with a conceal carry permit was offering a ride to a student, in the parking lot of a high school in Aurora, Colorado, when he unintentionally fired his legally concealed handgun, hitting the student in the leg.
• April 16, 2013: A Boy Scout troop leader, who was also a retired police officer and conceal carry permit holder, dropped a fanny pack containing his gun while attending a scout meeting inside a Des Plains, Illinois, grade school. The gun discharged, striking him in the leg. No one else was injured.
• March 6, 2013:  A recently-started armed resource officer program at schools in Highland, New York, was suspended after one of the security guards unintentionally fired his weapon in school.  Children were present, but luckily no one was injured.
• March 1, 2013:  During a conceal carry training class, on school grounds, which was part of a new program to arm school staff, a school maintenance worker who was a student in the class unintentionally fired his weapon, wounding himself in the leg.
• January 17, 2013:  A charter school in Lapeer, Michigan, decided to start having an armed guard on campus.  Three days after hiring a guard, the man left his weapon in a school bathroom where kids could have found it.
• October 8, 2012:  A man with a concealed handgun visited an elementary school classroom in Moore, Oklahoma, to help the teacher with her computer.  His gun fell out and he left without it, only realizing it was missing after the media reported it.  Small children were present in the room at the time.
• March 22, 2012:  A volunteer track coach at John Mall High School in Walsenburg, Colorado, unintentionally shot himself in the leg with his new .40 caliber Glock handgun, nearly bleeding to death.  He was in his vehicle in the parking lot of the school sports complex.
• December 8, 2011:  A janitor with a conceal carry permit was working on ceiling tiles in a preschool classroom in Waterbury, Connecticut, when he took off his gun belt.  He then left the loaded gun in the classroom and forgot about it. Monday morning, teachers came in the room and found the gun, only moments before 3- and 4-year olds entered the room.
• September 12, 2011:  An armed security guard, patrolling schools at night in Salem, Oregon, unintentionally lost his loaded firearm somewhere during his rounds.  The gun was never found.
• May 12, 2011:  A school resource officer was cleaning his gun, while in the school building, and unintentionally fired the gun. The round went through the wall and into the nurse's room where there were two student, the nurse, and another adult. Luckily, no one was injured.

[By the way, this list doesn't include shootings by adults who are simply behaving badly on school grounds, such as arguments in the parking lot, like this one, this one, or this one, or shootings by children who bring guns to school. The list would be FAR longer. Instead, this list just focuses on "law-abiding" school staff, teachers, security, or anyone else who might be expected to protect kids with their guns, as the NRA argues.]

I urge you to save this list. The next time you hear a pro-gun supporter suggest that guns in school is a good idea, whether it is from a legislator, school board, or some gun guy off the street, please show them this list and challenge them to show you a comparable list of incidents that support their side. They'll come up with crickets. 

February 28, 2018, Dalton, GA

And you might also remind them that school shootings have been stopped by school staff... unarmed.  Like this one, who said "If I had had a gun on me, we'd have all been dead." There's also this one and this one. 

The idea of arming school teachers and staff is wrongheaded and flies in the face of the facts and common sense. Instead of turning our classrooms into guardrooms and our schools into fortresses, let's work to keep guns out of the wrong hands in the first place with better, common sense gun regulations.


ADDENDUM (5/7/18): A related article citing 30 incidents by armed adults at schools, collected from the Gun Violence Archive.

The Stoneman Douglas High School Drama Club Performs "Shine"

On February 21, one week after the mass shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, a town hall meeting was held to discuss the issues of gun violence reduction and how they related to the shooting.

It was an emotion-charged event, where students and teachers confronted legislators and the NRA, face to face, on the issues.

At the end of the event, though, was this moving musical tribute, where members of the Stoneman Douglas High Schooll Drama Club, some of whom lost friends during the shooting, performed an original musical performance, entitled "Shine"....




"You're not gonna knock us down / We'll get back up again / You may have hurt us but I promise we are stronger and / We're not gonna let you win / We're putting up a fight / You may have brought the dark / But together we will shine a light," the chorus says.

It is chilling and amazing. If only we didn't have to have events like this, so that memorial songs like this wouldn't be needed anymore.

School Lockdown Drills Are This Generation's "Duck And Cover"

Yesterday my 10 year old daughter had another Lockdown Drill at her school.

An email announcement went out to us parents from the Principal, a few days before.  From the email:

During our drill on Friday, an intercom announcement will inform staff and students that the drill will begin. Staff will then be asked to secure their classrooms. Teachers will lock classroom doors, close the blinds, move students away from the windows, turn out the lights, and ask students to remain quiet. The drill will last about three minutes, at which point another announcement will be made that the drill is over.

And when the time came during class, the teacher locked the door and turned off the lights, and the kids had to huddle in the corner, absolutely quiet and still while they imagined an armed madman walking the halls of their school.  The teacher explained to them that, if the windows above them were shot out, it would be a harmless shower of safety glass cubes that could not cut them.  Then, he practiced walking quickly and orderly out the back door of the classroom, across the school grounds, and to a staging area in the neighborhood across the street.

The last time my daughter's school had a lockdown drill, she was in an after-school activity with a mixed-age class of kids, mostly younger than her.  Many of them were confused and started to cry, traumatized by the image in their mind of an armed lunatic coming toward their room.

This is the new normal in America.  It is practiced in my daughter's school at least as many times a year as fire drills, and more even than earthquake drills.  My 11 year old son had a drill in his school the week before.

But as traumatizing as this is, it is an increasingly-necessary precaution taken by schools.  Since our federal politicians continue to do nothing at all to keep guns out of the hands of murderous madmen, schools are left to pick up the difference, preparing their staff and students to fight for their lives or hide in darkened corners, or to follow the NRA's suggestion, highly-opposed, to make an armed camp out of our children's learning environment (which hasn't turned out so well for some schools).

Just this last week in the town of Springfield, Oregon, not far from where I live, Riverbend Elementary had to go into lockdown.  Police had gotten a tip that a convicted felon, high on meth and suicidal, was armed with a gun and headed to his child's school.  The school responded with the lockdown.  Luckily, police intercepted the man.  He was armed with three firearms in his car.

Two days later, in Salem, Oregon, three schools went into lockdown for 45 minutes, including South Salem High, Howard Street Charter Middle School, and Bush Elementary schools, when there was a shooting in the streets nearby.  One man was injured in the shooting.

A few days before that, two schools in Portland, Grant High School and nearby Beverly Cleary School, went on lockdown when two men were openly carrying semi-automatic assault rifles next to the schools.  

And, of course, we can't forget the Umpqua Community College shooting a couple weeks ago.

From Everytown's interactive map of school shootings
since 2013 (HERE).

Remember the "Duck and Cover" movement of the 1950's and '60's?  A whole generation of school children were asked to imagine a nuclear bomb hitting their little American towns and cities.  They were told that, if there was a big flash or a little warning, they were to immediately take cover under their desks and wait for an all-clear signal.  In their minds, they could imagine a nuclear bomb exploding and a massive fireball washing over their schools, burning them alive.  Nowadays, it's not a specter of a giant bomb killing them, but a more personal, and realistic killer walking their halls.  It's happened 150 times since 2013!  See an interactive map of them here.  And school shootings are increasing.

The Trace did a study of lockdowns and found an astonishing 100 school lockdowns (not drills!) in just a two-week period.  From the article:

[A]t least 100 lockdowns made the news during those two weeks. That’s an average of about 10 lockdowns due to a potential threat per school day. Of the 10 school days tracked, only one was incident-free."

And that's just the ones reported by media, that they could find with their searches.

Video capture from the ALICE training video shown to students.

School systems are now making videos and programs to teach students and faculty how to respond in the event of an active shooter incident.  One video, from an Ohio school system, even suggests that the students attack the shooter if they come in the room.  See it HERE.  It teaches the ALICE program (which stands for "Alert-Lockdown-Inform-Counter-Evacuate"), which is being taught in a number of schools and colleges around the nation.  The video, which is shown to students, shows a man with a handgun enter a classroom and the teen students attacking and swarming over the man, holding him down, all the while stating, "If it is necessary to counter the aggressor's attack, you may be able to distract and disrupt the aggressor's plan by putting him on the defensive and possibly even disarming him by swarming him into submission until police arrive." One student gets shot and goes down before the other students dogpile the shooter.

That's right, they are recommending that child students attack the shooter if cornered.

It's not enough now that school kids have to worry about grades, homework, tests, relationships, sports, and all the usual things that kids have to think about.  Now we are asking them to think about cold-blooded killers stalking their halls, and potentially having to fight them to the death!

This has to end.  The answer isn't to arm every teacher, faculty, or even students, as the gun lobby has suggested, or to turn our schools into fortresses.  The answer is to keep from arming the lunatics in the first place.  And the only way to do that is to pass sensible gun laws, such as universal background checks (like the one enacted this year in Oregon), better mental health reporting to the background check system, child access prevention (CAP) laws to keep guns out of the hands of school kids, and a renewed ban on assault rifles and high-capacity ammo magazines.

Perhaps, if we pass such laws, lockdown drills at our schools will become a nightmare of the past, like "Duck and Cover" became, and we will find a new trajectory for our schools and communities away from gun violence.


ADDENDUM (10/21/15):  One pre-K school teacher from Virginia describes what it is like during a lockdown drill with her small students, trying to convey urgency without inciting fear or alarm, and the mental considerations that she has to endure as part of the process.  From the article "Rehearsing for death: A pre-K teacher on the trouble with lockdown drills":
:

Instead of controlling guns and inconveniencing those who would use them, we are rounding up and silencing a generation of schoolchildren, and terrifying those who care for them. We are giving away precious time to teach and learn while we cower in fear.

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His Brother Used His Assault Rifle To Shoot Up A School, Now He Wants The Weapon And Ammo Back

(UPDATED, see at bottom)

Back in June of last year, there was yet another school shooting to horrify the nation, this time in my home state of Oregon, which I blogged about at the time.

A 15-year old boy, Jared Padgett, had gotten his brother's assault rifle, high-capacity ammo

14 year old victim, Emilio Hoffman (source)

magazines, and ballistics vest, and his father's handgun, then went to his school, Reynolds High School in Troutdale, Oregon.  He hid the weapons in a guitar case, calmly rode the school bus to school, then entered the gym building locker room and started shooting, killing an innocent 14-year old boy, Emilio Hoffman, and wounding a PE teacher, Todd Rispler.  A lockdown and police response ensued.  When guards showed up to shoot it out with Padgett, he fled to a bathroom and shot himself to death.

(Another boy, unrelated to Padgett and the shooting, was found to have a gun on campus, too, after police searched the grounds!  And just to add yet another gun crime to the event, a man showed up looking for his young sister, illegally armed with a concealed handgun).

Once again, the city, state, and nation were horrified, and demanded answers to how Jared had been armed with a high-powered firearm and why he committed this act.

Naturally, the police confiscated the guns, hundreds of rounds of remaining ammo, and other materials as evidence.

Now, the brother of the shooter, Lucas Padgett, wants his assault rifle, ammo, vest, and other materials back!  From an article:

15 year old shooter, Jared Padgett (source)

On Aug. 13, Lucas Padgett filed a motion requesting a judge order the City of Troutdale and State of Oregon to return property that he claims is still being held. 

Lucas Padgett writes in court documents that he is the “lawful owner” of the following property:

• One (1) Daniel Defense Armament DDM4 Carbine Rifle Serial No. (Redacted);

• Eight (8) 30 Rounds Magpul Magazines;

• Several hundred rounds of ammunition;

The assault rifle used in the shooting

• One (1) ‘plate carrier’ vest;

• One (1) United States Army issued ‘laundry bag.”

He writes that “on or about June 10, 2014 my above…property was stolen or otherwise converted by law enforcement.” Lucas Padgett claims that the items seized are no longer needed “for evidentiary purposes.” 

“These items belong to me, I have never been charged with any offense connected herewith,” Lucas Padgett writes. “I am entitled to their return and there is no legal impediment to my possession of said property.”

Now...   if a member of your family had recently shot up a school with an assault rifle, killed another student and wounded a teacher, then killed himself, would you demand the murder weapons back??  

Lucas Padgett, owner of murder weapon (source)

Sick, sick, sick.

He has no shame.

Does Lucas have a claim?  Yes, if the police have no further need for the weapons and other materials for the purpose of evidence, there is no reason to charge him with a crime, and Lucas Padgett is legally allowed to own firearms, then likely he has the right to get them back.  From the same article:

The Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office in Nov. 2014 announced it would not pursue criminal charges against Lucas Padgett or his father despite the fact that Jared Padgett had taken the weapons and ammunition from the Padgett residence. 

Investigators determined that both Lucas Padgett and his father had taken steps to secure and lock their firearms. In court filings, Multnomah County Senior Deputy District Attorney Brian Davidson wrote in 2014 that “the State would not be able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that either Michael (father) or Lucas (brother) Padgett were aware of and consciously disregarded a substantial and unjustifiable risk of serious physical injury to another person.” 

Davidson on Thursday said that even though the statue of limitations have not expired, there has been no discussion on re-considering file criminal charges against any member of the Padgett family. 

According to Sali, “at some point, either when the statue runs (out) or when there is no longer a plausible basis to say that the investigation is on-going, they have to give those back.”

And today a Judge agreed, saying that the city has 45 days to prove the items are needed as evidence, or return them as requested.

Legal rights aside, the demand to get the murder weapon and ammo back is a good indicator of the family and its "values."

After the shooting, the family of the shooter released a statement, saying they were "horrified and distraught" and that they had tried to instill good values in Jared, but they didn't take any responsibility for Jared's behavior:

“We are at a loss as to how and why this tragedy unfolded,” he said. 

“The values that we have taught our children are love in Jesus Christ, compassion, forgiveness and patience. These are all natural attributes we observed within Jared daily.”

I question those so-called "values" that they taught Jared and Lucas.  According to Jared's diary, he was on mission to "cleanse the world of sinners" as a fundamentalist Mormon.  The parents had just gone through a messy divorce and were fighting over custody.  Jared was described as "conceited at times" and had angry outbursts.  What's more, he (and I'm guessing the rest of his family) "loved guns," showed off the family guns and ammo to friends,  would "play around with knives more than anything else" and regularly went target shooting, including a couple weeks before the shooting.

Gee, with all that in mind, how could the family be "at a loss as to how and why this tragedy unfolded"?  Hardly a picture of the "family values" from the family statement.

But is the brother in any way responsible for the shooting or the motives or thoughts behind his brother?  I mean, it wasn't him who pulled the trigger, right?

Well, let's take a closer look at how the guns and ammo were stored.  According to an article, "Investigators determined that both Lucas Padgett and his father had taken steps to secure and lock their firearms."  But is that really true?

According to an article:

[Father] Michael Padgett told police that he kept his guns and knives in the closet of his bedroom, and he usually locks the door from the inside and closes it. Anyone seeking access would need a key to open the bedroom door, and he said his son Jared did not have the key. 

"I don't consider it any, umm, anything irresponsible on where they're at, how we store 'em, what the training has been, so on and so forth,'' Michael Padgett told detectives. "He's not a kid that gets into that stuff.'' 

I care to differ.  Clearly he was "a kid that gets into stuff" since he got into it and then killed a boy with it!

The AR-15 rifle that Padgett used in the school shooting, police determined, had been locked in a Pelican-brand gun case in the bedroom that Jared Padgett shared with his older brother, Lucas Padgett.

Okay, but where were the keys to the room and closets?  From that article:

Michael Padgett told investigators that Lucas Padgett had put a key on his father's key ring that was for one of two locks on the Pelican rifle case. ... 

Lucas Padgett told investigators he kept a Master lock on the Pelican case, and kept the case in his closet. He said he kept the key to the Master lock on his house and car key ring, which he sometimes leaves on his desk or hangs in the kitchen, the records show. He said he kept the key to a second lock on the case on his dad's key ring, the records show. 

When detectives asked him how he stored other ammunition in his closet, Lucas Padgett at one point said, "It's irrelevant." 

"It's irrelevant?'' state police detective Patti Rhodes asked in response. 

"Yeah, it's uh ... irrelevant,'' Lucas Padgett replied. 

"It might not be irrelevant,'' Portland police Det. Brett Hawkinson told Lucas Padgett. 

Lucas Padgett told police that he had 24 magazines of ammunition in total, including the two that were missing. 

Asked if his younger brother knew he had the rifle with loaded magazines inside the Pelican case, Lucas Padgett said yes. 

"Has he opened it before?'' the state police detective asked. 

"Yes,'' Lucas Padgett said.

No, it's not irrelevant.  It's completely relevant.  Only a complete moron leaves the ammo with the weapon in a home with an unstable kid.

And the keys were just laying or hanging around?  What good is locking something when you leave the keys out?

The family refused to allow police to enter the house to examine the locks until nearly 5 months (!) after the shooting.  At that time:

[Investigator] Ober found the bedroom door did have a basic lock on it "that could be unlocked from the outside with the use of a rudimentary key.'' The lock was functioning, Ober found. 

Investigators found that although Lucas Padgett failed to prevent his younger brother from gaining access to his rifle, the evidence showed that Lucas Padgett kept his rifle in a "locked container.'' 

Lucas Padgett could not be found to have violated Multnomah County code for endangering a child by preventing access to a loaded or unloaded firearm, because the firearm had been kept in a locked container, the district attorney's office found. 

For similar reasons, prosecutors said they would not bring charges against Jared's father, since they believe the father had his handgun locked in his bedroom.

But even if there had been locks on the father's door or the rifle case, clearly they either failed to engage the locks or they left the keys where the boy could get them.  In either case, it is negligence on the part of the father and brother...

... and they refuse to take responsibility for it.

And now the brother wants his murderous gun and ammo back.  What a sick person.  What a sick gun culture we have, that he's clearly part of.  And what a sick nation we are to allow assault rifles and high-capacity magazines to be in a person's possession at all, especially around children.

UPDATE (10/21/15):  In an agreement with Padgett, the City of Troutdale paid Padgett nearly $4000 to purchase the gun and all other evidence!  I guess it really is about the money to the brother of this murderer.  According to another article:

City officials said they reached out to Lucas Padgett and reached this “compromise that would be acceptable to all involved and help continue the healing process of this terrible tragedy.” 

At some point in the future, city officials said they would request an order for final disposition of Padgett’s property.

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