The son shrugs in boredom when he sees a police officer on a motorbike in front of his school on Wednesday morning. An officer is still standing in front of the entrance, a “double panic gate” that has been secured for a few years with iron bars the thickness of a baseball bat. A patrol car patrols up and down the street. “Is it the morning after, huh?” asks this boy, who just recently celebrated his 13th birthday, just before saying goodbye.
“Tomorrow after” means something must have happened the day before. In this case: shooting rampage at an elementary school in the US state of Texas; 19 children are dead and two adults. An 18-year-old perpetrator opened fire in a classroom full of fourth-graders. After a shootout with the police in the school building, he died, presumably shot by an officer.
The son knows that. You can’t keep that from a teenager who has a smartphone and is talking to friends. Even if he didn’t do that, a day later he would see the police officers in front of the school and know that it was “tomorrow after” again. Incidentally, this only occurs in the case of massacres with at least four dead or rampages in schools. As cynical as that may sound, that’s a good thing, because otherwise almost every day in the USA would be a “morning after”.
Many children in the USA know this because they are prepared for so-called Active shooter drills. According to the gun-critical organization Everytown for Gun Safety, these drills are now held at least once a year in 95 percent of schools. In California they are required by law. Of course, no child should need to know what to do in a killing spree; it should know how to kick a soccer ball or “The White Album” the beatles burps. In the US, however, many children as young as six know the code word for danger (it’s “lockdown” at this school) and the three basic rules of a shooting spree: Run. Hide. fight Run, hide, fight.
It didn’t have one until Monday Active shooter drill given at this school, because of the massacre at a Buffalo supermarket a week before; ten people were killed. The son’s run strategy: jump up onto the school roof and down the back. – Yes, that would probably break some bones, he says; but he hopes he can get to the police station from the school grounds despite the injuries. Hiding isn’t a problem either, always on the wall that a gunman can’t see from the door. Only: What is taught on the subject of “fight”, i.e. fighting?
The trainer’s advice on why you should even fight against someone who has one or more firearms: “If you know that running away and hiding won’t work, you can at least try it.” If someone knows that there is no escape, one should use scissors as a weapon, for example, to stop the perpetrator for as long as possible – so that as many schoolmates as possible survive. It is nothing but advice on what a child should do when they know they are going to die.