Quickies: Hidden Agenda Dept.

     Every so often, one is hauled into the light:

     As the school year meanders to a close, now is a good time for education departments across the land to make policy changes for the next year. One urgent step should be ending the insane lockdown drills our kids have to practice in their schools and tightening school security instead.

     In New York City, the Department of Education implemented General Response Protocols that mandate that all public schools have four lockdown drills, in addition to fire drills, per year.

     These “soft-lockdown” drills, ostensibly to prepare kids for a potential school shooter, require kids to hide in their classroom, sometimes in a closet, and remain quiet and out of view.

     It would be one thing to prepare teachers and school staff for this kind of rare emergency. But having children hide in a closet and practice being quiet is at best a waste of time and at worst a way to emotionally scar the children we’re trying to shield.

     Karol Markowitz, who wrote the above, has a very good point. Children are impressionable, and the younger they are, the more deeply the impression strikes home. The drills contribute nothing to their safety, yet terrify them that their lives could be ended at any moment – and possibly by a classmate, at that.

     So what’s the point? Sarah Hoyt has an idea:

     BUILDING SUPPORT FOR ELIMINATING OUR 2ND AMENDMENT IS THE POINT.

     Why, yes. How did we miss that? You can’t get a job in the New York City schools if you’re known to be a gun owner or shooting enthusiast. The propaganda about “gun violence,” as if guns roam the streets on their own seeking helpless targets, is unending. And of course New York City’s laws make it impossible to own a gun of any sort unless you’re both wealthy and politically connected. Never mind that those laws have had no perceptible effect on the rate of criminal violence perpetrated with a firearm.

     But there’s a lot of pressure on American municipalities to honor the right to keep and bear arms. It started with the Heller decision and has mounted ever since. Rational minds have grasped that there’s a negative correlation between the frequency of handgun ownership and the murder rate. There’s even a case pending before the Supreme Court that specifically addresses the Big Apple’s draconian anti-firearms laws. So the anti-gunners are panicked.

     But if they could just inculcate their prejudice against personal weapons ownership in the impressionable young…and perhaps by propagandizing them, sway their parents!

     I’ve said before that sending your child to a “public” school has become an act of child abuse. This is only one aspect of the thing. Think it over, and make your decisions accordingly.