It's all in the spin

[Hawkmoon]

http://coed.com/2017/09/21/angela-mcqueen-photos-hero-teacher-mattoon-high-school-tackles-shooter-student-gunman/

Summary: Kid starts out to shoot up the school, female math and phys ed teacher takes him out. After the female teacher had neutralized the shooter and taken him to the ground, the cavalry arrived.

And therein lies my gripe. The principal had good things to say about the teacher, so did the chief of police, but the aw-thaw-rih-tays just can't allow us to think that ordinary mortals can contain active shooters. Nosirree Bob, that there's a job for the POH-lice.

Branson [Chief of Police]told reporters, “The school resource officer was nearby, he also helped subdue the individual, but I’ve got to tell you, but it was the school employee who took this on. I can’t tell you how impressed I am with her.”

Spot on. But ...

The state’s attorney for Coles County, Brian Brower, told reporters, “I would also like to echo the commendations that Chief Branson said, the dedication, the action of the school employees [note the plural], in particular the teacher, and the reaction by all law enforcement took this tragedy and contained it.”

Yeah, right. I wonder how many police officers it took to watch the kid being frog marched out of the building after the female teacher had done the heavy lifting. Why can't Mr. Brower just give credit where credit is due? It wasn't a concerted law enforcement effort that contained this situation, it was a lone, female teacher. Deal with it.

[RoadKingLarry]

[duh]
Because they don't want the idea that people can actually be responsible for their own safety getting into the mainstream.
[/duh]

[Perd Hapley]

I'll defer to the people who were on the scene, rather than the peanut gallery. For all we know, the teacher might not have been able to keep control of the situation. Besides, is the Chief not supposed to praise the cop who ran toward the gunfire? Should he just ignore his contribution? The Chief singled out the teacher for special praise. Seems fair to me.

[230RN]

This business of "we don't recommend that you take the law into  your own hands" gets to me almost as bad as "this isn't the Wild West anymore, you know."

The first is just "boilerplate," I guess they have to say that for some reason, but as to the second, yes, we have returned to the Wild West.  Or at least the "Wild South of the Border."

Congrats and thanks to the teacher for the object lesson.

[Hawkmoon]

I'll defer to the people who were on the scene, rather than the peanut gallery. For all we know, the teacher might not have been able to keep control of the situation. Besides, is the Chief not supposed to praise the cop who ran toward the gunfire? Should he just ignore his contribution? The Chief singled out the teacher for special praise. Seems fair to me.

I think the Chief's comment was perfectly appropriate. Which is why I wrote "Spot on" in response. It's the prosecutor's comment that rankled.

[Perd Hapley]

I think the Chief's comment was perfectly appropriate. Which is why I wrote "Spot on" in response. It's the prosecutor's comment that rankled.

Oh, I missed the distinction there. But the prosecutor said almost the same thing. It amounts to, "they did a great job, especially the teacher."

[Hawkmoon]

Oh, I missed the distinction there. But the prosecutor said almost the same thing.

Except for "... and the reaction by all law enforcement." The school resource officer is also law enforcement, not a school employee, and he was the only one who arrived in time to help tidy up any "containing." The only reacting and containing "all" [other] law enforcement did was to show up after the fact and mill around, looking official.

[Perd Hapley]

Except for "... and the reaction by all law enforcement." The school resource officer is also law enforcement, not a school employee, and he was the only one who arrived in time to help tidy up any "containing." The only reacting and containing "all" [other] law enforcement did was to show up after the fact and mill around, looking official.

You're reading too much into the innocuous, boilerplate formality of thanking first responders, and saying everyone did a wonderful job, which is what they always say in these situations. If they neglected to mention the teacher at all, there might be some ground for complaint. But they both singled her out for praise.

Besides, the "milling around" probably also included checking for other threats (like those other shooters that always seem to be rumored about), getting medics to the people who needed them, maybe even police personally rendering first aid. Also, keep in mind that the teacher was wrestling with an armed, teen-aged male. For all we know, from our safe distance, she may have desperately needed the help of the resource officer.

[lee n. field]

A little bit on that incident: http://www.gunssavelife.com/mattoon-high-school-shooting-really-happened/

Comments on the Book of Faces page where I saw this are interesting:

Trevis Overocker As horrible as this incident is, and no excuse for the perp, the bully also needs to be handled.

John Kinsel It was more than bullied. One prior incident required the boy to be hospitalized. Granted a bar of soap in a gym sock upside her head would have been better, but the kid was not going back to the hospital again, and the school wasn't doing squat.

Travis Janes Thats not his name on the scanner thats my sons name. And he was not at school that day becouse he was beat up the day before .MHS HAS A HUGE PROBLEM

These things don't happen in a vacuum.

[Hawkmoon]

A little bit on that incident: http://www.gunssavelife.com/mattoon-high-school-shooting-really-happened/

Comments on the Book of Faces page where I saw this are interesting:

These things don't happen in a vacuum.

I find it enlightening (in a depressing way) that the author of that article doesn't seem to have any problem with the fact that the shooter had been bullied to the point of believing that a gun was the only way for him to feel safe. Public schools have a problem with bullying, and they won't deal with it. My adopted daughter was bulled when she started at our local high school. The school maintains that it never happened. At the time, I was friendly with the woman who ran the adult ed program and who was a teacher (remedial reading, I think) at the school. She told me (privately and off the record) that she was quite certain my daughter was telling the truth, because the same thing had happened to her son. And, even though she was a teacher there, the school also maintained in the case of her son that it never happened.

They can't (or won't) control it, and they don't want to admit that they can't (or won't) control it -- so they just pretend it doesn't happen. End of problem. No paperwork, no messy reports to write or forms to fill out. It's all strawberries and cream -- until one of the victims retaliates with a gun. Then the school authorities innocently claim they have no idea what might have precipitated such an incident.

Lyin' bastards.

[zxcvbob]

The bullies and the school administrators are secretly on the same side.  (I know I've mentioned that before)  The bullies help maintain order.  Or something :/

[Boomhauer]

The bullies and the school administrators are secretly on the same side.  (I know I've mentioned that before)  The bullies help maintain order.  Or something :/

From what I saw when I was in school admitting that there was bully problems did two things...force action by administrators and it also embarrassed the administration by admitting that there was less than perfection in their little kingdom

In my experience with government employment it was a consistent theme that saving face was a very high priority vs admitting problems, even when said problems threatened public safety

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

[RoadKingLarry]

Granted it's been a few years now but I had the "pleasure" of being "the new kid" at 8 different schools by the time I started 8th grade, 4 in one year (dad was Air Force).
I was on the receiving end of bullying more than a few times as a youngster. Fighting back against bullying was in my experience a worse offense than being a bully as far as the schools were concerned.
I have seen little over the years to make me think things have changed much.

[Hawkmoon]

Like Dirty Harry said, "A man's got to know his limits." Everyone has a limit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isfn4OxCPQs