Thanks for the email. How am I supposed to go on with my life?

Kinja'd!!! "Eury - AFRICA TWIN!!!!!!!" (eurylokhos)
04/09/2019 at 19:48 • Filed to: None

Kinja'd!!!0 Kinja'd!!! 22

Serious post time.

My 11 year old’s school sent an email out that there was a threat of a school shooting today. Then a follow up 5min later saying that the police determined that it isn’t a credible threat.

When m y son got off the bus today he told me that there was a fight in another 5th grade classroom where one of the kids got hurt and the police (they have 2 officers who work at the school full time) came in. Apparently they didn’t let the other kids back into the room afterwards and those kids went home without their books etc. The school didn’t address that with the other kids in the school, but I’d imagine that is how a rumor got started, and that ultimately ended up in the email from the Principal.

How are parents supposed to process this? I’m on my way to do my annual recurrent training for my airline where I’ll spend the next 3 days in sims and classrooms keeping my self, crew and my passengers from virtually dying. I can’t tell my wife that I want to keep him home forever, and I can’t have him see that our response to any threat is to run and hide.

Fuck. I feel nauseous.

Here’s a picture of Jake enjoying a ride in my 4Runner the other day for your time.

Kinja'd!!!

DISCUSSION (22)


Kinja'd!!! Spanfeller is a twat > Eury - AFRICA TWIN!!!!!!!
04/09/2019 at 20:08

Kinja'd!!!0

I think it’s irresponsible for schools to tell parents about threats of shootings. Extortion is one of the most common crimes here, and I can assure you that my college, high school, and elementary school all probably receive multiple threats per day but we only carried out fire, earthquake, and bomb threat drills on the required time frames. 

It’s imperative that school staff investigate the threats, but I don’t think alerting parents is necessary unless they’re willing to cancel school for every student.


Kinja'd!!! Eury - AFRICA TWIN!!!!!!! > Spanfeller is a twat
04/09/2019 at 20:12

Kinja'd!!!0

My wife also thinks they shouldn’t have told us. To a degree I agree with that, however, if my kid had come home and heard that there is a threat and it wasn’t addressed I’d start making noise to ensure it had been investigated. Of course there’s also the situation where something happens and they knew but didn’t say anything. I really don’t want to think about that, though. 


Kinja'd!!! For Sweden > Eury - AFRICA TWIN!!!!!!!
04/09/2019 at 20:13

Kinja'd!!!3

Your  school i s bad at communications


Kinja'd!!! Monkey B > Eury - AFRICA TWIN!!!!!!!
04/09/2019 at 20:16

Kinja'd!!!1

as a child of the 70's/80's...I’m still alive. I understand these times are different, but I have a 23 year old and a 16 year old. I’m also the step for 12 and 9 year olds and, because of my experiences, I can say it’s the majority of parents that can’t handle the threats.


Kinja'd!!! E90M3 > Eury - AFRICA TWIN!!!!!!!
04/09/2019 at 20:17

Kinja'd!!!1

Your dog has heterochromia, neat. 


Kinja'd!!! gettingoldercarguy > Spanfeller is a twat
04/09/2019 at 20:19

Kinja'd!!!1

Can you imagine the fallout if they don’t tell the parents, thu s robbing the parents of the opportunity to remove their child or hold them from school and then something does happen?  Warning the parents and keeping it in context is the best for all parties.


Kinja'd!!! Chuckles > Eury - AFRICA TWIN!!!!!!!
04/09/2019 at 20:20

Kinja'd!!!2

I know it’s not the same, but I can remember being in middle school when the Columbine shooting took place. Over the next few years, my school district had probably two dozen or so bomb threats. Most of them weren’t serious, just a note left in a bathroom or scribbled on a wall, but every time we had to evacuate and go stand outside for like an hour while they searched the school. The school had to treat each one seriously even if they figured it was just some kid trying to get out of an algebra test.

I guess what I'm saying is that for every credible threat, there are probably dozens of bullshit threats but the school has to take every one seriously. I know that's little consolation, but I don't know what else to say.


Kinja'd!!! Eury - AFRICA TWIN!!!!!!! > E90M3
04/09/2019 at 20:26

Kinja'd!!!2

His vision is extremely bad, but his eyes are beautiful. The bottom half of one eye is blue and the top half of the other is blue. He’s a sweet boy, although he sucks at catch. 


Kinja'd!!! Spanfeller is a twat > Eury - AFRICA TWIN!!!!!!!
04/09/2019 at 20:26

Kinja'd!!!0

If it serves as any sort of comfort, intentional school shootings are statistically extremely rare, and the chances of your child being injured in one are significantly lower than those.

I attended a very “controversial” K-12 school where the student body included the children of ambassadors, politicians, and many CEOs, despite all of that we never acted on threats received and I cannot recall a single case in which we were ever forced to take serious safety precautions (i.e.: metal detectors, internal investigations, bans on certain objects) . Many of those children w ere cocky assholes and they also had armed bodyguards.. but again, never heard a single shot fired during my entire education.


Kinja'd!!! Spanfeller is a twat > gettingoldercarguy
04/09/2019 at 20:32

Kinja'd!!!3

I think it would be extremely unwise to warn parents so much, since most threats are unfounded, I bet a majority of shootings occur without previous notice, and it would cause an incredible amount of absences.

Plus, if there’s a threat serious enough to warn parents, isn’t it also serious enough to just close the school? 


Kinja'd!!! facw > Chuckles
04/09/2019 at 20:36

Kinja'd!!!1

I’d imagine many dozens. School shootings aren’t common, and there are ~100,000 public schools in the US, and of course more private schools beyond that.


Kinja'd!!! Eury - AFRICA TWIN!!!!!!! > Spanfeller is a twat
04/09/2019 at 20:38

Kinja'd!!!0

I want to be clear, I don’t actually think my son is in any danger. My life is based on statistics and risk management and this is no different. That doesn’t change the fact that as a parent I worry about my child’s safety, whether that concern is rational or not .

Also, he goes to the same school I went to 30+ years ago. I knew kids who brought guns to school, and saw those guns . I always had a knife. At no point did I ever feel (or have I ever felt ) in danger. Weapons in NH are common.

Like I said, I don’t let that worry control me, I can rationalize that it isn’t reality. Doesn’t make the parental instincts any less real. Papa Bear wants to keep his cub safe. 


Kinja'd!!! facw > Eury - AFRICA TWIN!!!!!!!
04/09/2019 at 20:40

Kinja'd!!!1

I think a panicked email doesn’t help anyone. What action is required? If none, then wait, investigate, and then send a notification that there was a threat, it was taken seriously, and both the police and the school believe it non-credible.

Hiding the threat isn’t good, because parents will freak out that they were kept in the dark (though I don’t think my high school ever reported any of the bomb threats that happened there). But unless some immediate reaction is necessary, the school should be presenting a cautious face, but one that also acknowledges that such threats are almost always false alarms, and so shouldn’t be terrifying, especially if you can trust the school to be diligent about confirming that there’s really no threat.


Kinja'd!!! Spanfeller is a twat > Eury - AFRICA TWIN!!!!!!!
04/09/2019 at 20:41

Kinja'd!!!0

Of course, and it is fair and natural that you worry about your child... which is why the school administration  shouldn’t stress you out over what is -very much probably- nonsense.


Kinja'd!!! wafflesnfalafel > Eury - AFRICA TWIN!!!!!!!
04/09/2019 at 20:45

Kinja'd!!!2

innocence is bliss...

I am confident kids are overall safer now, (we had guns, knives, etc in our schools growing up, no seatbelts, no helmets, kids beat the tar out of each other in the back lot, had one of my friends blow his brains out in the bathroom in junior high with a hand gun ,) but now we know about all of it. Now parents  get the “opportunity” to make a choice....  


Kinja'd!!! gettingoldercarguy > Spanfeller is a twat
04/09/2019 at 21:03

Kinja'd!!!0

I disagree, as does my wife. If there’s something like that and we’re not told, we’d be furious. Furthermore, school shootings are still a rare occurrence, so that massive amount of school they would miss is debatable on the impact.

Try arguing this with either Sandy Hook out parkland parents.


Kinja'd!!! Spanfeller is a twat > gettingoldercarguy
04/09/2019 at 21:26

Kinja'd!!!0

Schools in the US receive upwards of 50 threats everyday...If parents were told about even a fraction of them, I can absolutely see absence rates go up, I could also see the possibility of more school shootings since the would-be attackers would be able to pick and chose the worst day to act on .

This also ignores how mentally taxing it would be both on the kids and the parents, or that most acts of violence don’t come with a threat, or that it’s not an effective way to defend from a possible attack (that would be raising the age to buy guns, or improving school security, mental health, etc) .


Kinja'd!!! nermal > Eury - AFRICA TWIN!!!!!!!
04/09/2019 at 21:46

Kinja'd!!!1

School shooter drills are no different than fire drills or tornado drills or global thermonuclear war drills.

Kids growing up today have things completely different (and in some ways easier and some more difficult) than the ones that grew up ten years ago or twenty years ago or their parents . That’s the same thing that’s happened for every kid, ever.

Don’t focus on shielding your kids from bad shit. Teach them how to handle themselves, others, and situations so that they are not completely caught off guard by bad shit. Easier said than done, naturally. 


Kinja'd!!! Highlander-Datsuns are Forever > Eury - AFRICA TWIN!!!!!!!
04/09/2019 at 22:11

Kinja'd!!!1

When something like this happens at our school the superintendent usually sends out a well thought out email after the fact with details.


Kinja'd!!! shop-teacher > Eury - AFRICA TWIN!!!!!!!
04/09/2019 at 22:20

Kinja'd!!!1

The chances of your son ever being in a school with a credible threat are miniscule. The chances of there being yet another threat when there has already been one, are even smaller.


Kinja'd!!! PS9 > Eury - AFRICA TWIN!!!!!!!
04/09/2019 at 23:53

Kinja'd!!!1

Shit like this is why aliens won't talk to us.


Kinja'd!!! Sovande > Spanfeller is a twat
04/10/2019 at 13:41

Kinja'd!!!0

Nope. I have a kid and I want to know if there is a threat on his school. Since when is school staff  the proper person to investigate such threats?