Michigan Middle School Terrorized..by Cops?!

Wow, this sucks. I appreciate the need to conduct drills, but this is taking the concept entirely too far. It's bad enough when storm troopers in riot gear show up at a school in response to a real problem, but it's ten times worse when they charge in with weapons and riot gear, line all the students up against the wall, check their pockets, and suspend classes as a form of training.

www.foxnews.com...

Police in the western Michigan community of Wyoming entered two classrooms at Lee Middle and High School on Thursday and announced there was a threat to the school, The Grand Rapids Press reported.

Students, who were unaware police were conducting a drill, were taken from the classroom into the halls, patted down by officers and asked what they had in their pockets, the newspaper said.

"Some of these kids were so scared, they just about wet their pants," said Marge Bradshaw, a parent with four children in Godfrey-Lee Schools. "I think it's pure wrong that the students and parents were not informed of this."

This is wrong for so many reasons..I'm just going to attempt to list some off the top of my head, and we'll go from there. Feel free to disagree, of course, but here goes.

Cops are always complaining about the adversarial relationship between the police and the citizens. Stunts like this only exacerbate the situation and make children fear and despise the cops, when they ought to have a trusting, friendly relationship.

The school is not a training ground for the PD. School is a place for learning, and it's incredibly hard to learn anything when armed men are running about screaming orders at the students.

Stress is bad enough for kids, without the added worry of having a bunch of cops running rampant through the halls, brandishing rifles. Schools already feel like prisons, this is just the added touch, adding terror and uncertainty to the mix. Most kids have a hard enough time staying calm and concentrating on their studies, without police drills taking place in the classroom.

I'm done for now, this is seriously depressing.

I can't think of a single good reason to put kids in public school these days. These parents are either completely negligent, or they simply have no choice. Usually it's more of the former than the latter, because everyone wants to live beyond their means, and they want all the luxuries that American culture promotes. That comfort is clearly more important than the wellbeing of the children. Expedience at all costs, right?


[edit on 28-10-2006 by WyrdeOne]

Wow... Makes you wonder what they were thinking when they decided this course of action.

A school safety drill that included police officers in riot gear with weapons has caused concern among some parents who say it was too realistic and frightened some students.

----

"Some of these kids were so scared, they just about wet their pants," said Marge Bradshaw, a parent with four children in Godfrey-Lee Schools. "I think it's pure wrong that the students and parents were not informed of this."

--

Officers wore protective gear, including vests and helmets, and carried rifles that were unloaded and marked with colored tape to indicate they were not live weapons, the newspaper said.

Marked with colored tape to indicate they were not live weapons? Well I'm sure most of the kids acknowledged this colored tape. Thats surely enough to justify entering the school with what appears to be a loaded rifle.

The principle says it was not to scare the children. What the hell did he think it was going to do?

Posted by WyrdeOne
Cops are always complaining about the adversarial relationship between the police and the citizens. Stunts like this only exacerbate the situation and make children fear and despise the cops, when they ought to have a trusting, friendly relationship.

This is a serious issue. Too often we hear of the youth being scared of the law, rather than embracing of it. Sure some of it is immaturity in the child, but there is a case to be made. The law should be something we can turn to rather than looking over our shoulder at it.

I can't even begin to comprehend how unnecessary this episode was. What did it do? Reinforce that we should tremble when in the presence of the law?

It seems that having the children focusing on their studies is in the back of the administrations minds these days. An event like this is not something their going to get passed very quickly.

thats about 30 miles from me and in my town in the last month or so a cop car,
high scool room and football feild have been set on fire.but the cops going that far is VARY uncalld forwhen the cops do stuff like that in the long run it can hurt
how kids percive them and the kids will learn to hate the police and intern create more vilance

www.woodtv.com...

www.woodtv.com...

[edit on 28-10-2006 by slayerfan]

So if a kid can tell what a tape around a rifle means they get a prize?? uh and how many people send their kids to school to have the stormtroopers scare them half to death??


This way people grow to hate the jack boot of tyranny and learn to fight it from underground...


God bless the underground when it does rise, because those in the jack boots cannot be allowed to carry on forever!

So which do we think is more likely:

a) It was an operation performed specifically as a 'test' to determine what sort of reaction that kind of treatment will generate, both during and after the incident? How 'ready' we are for martial law.

b) The people educating our children are really stupid enough to think it was good idea.

Sadly...both seem plausible to me. :/

Bucket Man

Wow, you know after reading that, all I can think is, Thank god
I live in one of the most, if not the most, liberal state in the
country.


This kind of thing is so totally and completely uncalled for it's
not even funny.

I wonder what would have happened if they'd had resistance.

I wonder that myself iori...

Would they have used mace and stun guns to quell the student uprising?

I'm waiting for it...

A week or two ago there was a riot at a California school, involving something like 500 students. When the cops showed up to disperse the crowd, they got pelted with rocks and bottles.

I guess Wyoming isn't quite there yet...

Originally posted by WyrdeOne
Would they have used mace and stun guns to quell the student uprising?

If they did that, I'm thinking there would be a whole lot of public
outcry, and a boatload of suits filed against the police department
and the school.

Or maybe I put to much hope into people.

Originally posted by WyrdeOne

This is wrong for so many reasons..I'm just going to attempt to list some off the top of my head, and we'll go from there. Feel free to disagree, of course, but here goes.

Cops are always complaining about the adversarial relationship between the police and the citizens. Stunts like this only exacerbate the situation and make children fear and despise the cops, when they ought to have a trusting, friendly relationship.

The school is not a training ground for the PD. School is a place for learning, and it's incredibly hard to learn anything when armed men are running about screaming orders at the students.
[edit on 28-10-2006 by WyrdeOne]

If we read the entire article we can see it was not the "cops" that misled or hid the training from parents/students. They thought they had been informed .. the Sheriff sys the purpose was to show how they would evacuate in a serious situation, not to "assualt the classroom".

But Wyoming Police Chief James Carmody said his officers were not aware students and parents were not told. He said his department will mandate that parents be notified ahead of time in the future.

"The purpose was to show how we will evacuate the classroom, not to assault the classroom," Carmody said.

Below is the excerpt from the idiot principal who felt it was better that the students be in the dark about the days events.

Principal David Britten said students were not told ahead of time to make the drill as realistic as possible. Teachers were informed moments before it took place, he said.

"I think this is the best way to do it," Britten said. "We're not looking to scare anyone, but we want a sense of urgency."

Obviously a bad decision. Unlike some others I don't believe there is a conspiracy here involving the police trying to gauge how well the populace would respond to a police state. The principal should have to make some huge apologies to parents and change his policy to mandate parental notification.

I can understand the debate wether or not the local school should be part of a police "training" event when students are present. I'm kind of on the line on that issue ... ideally it would be done during school breaks or weekends ... the police could train to be prepared to have to enter a school setting and isolate an active shooter while protecting as many students as possible. But I can also see the benefit to the students in understanding what roles they need to play in an active shooter/hostage situation to help save themselves. Just like they teach most kids nowadays about building a barricade against the door and sheltering in place. But for this to work the students need to be aware this is a drill that is supposed to be showing them how exactly they will be evacuated in an emergency. Otherwise their fear has overridden most of their memories and all the have taken away from this is that some scary guys ran in, started yelling and shoving people against walls and then led them out of the school.

I wonder what kind of defense a student would have had if they had been found with some drugs or illegal matter on them? This wasn't a legal detenion ... they thought they were being detained by police but in reality it was training ... there would be no probable cause for contact.

So basically my opinion is that yes, this was wrong, very wrong. Parents and students should've been notified in advance. But it was the principal that committed the error and not the Sheriff. I think they learned their lesson ... the sad thing is they'll probably never do another one of these drills because of the backlash from this.

I don't think 'evacuate' is synonomous with 'interogate' - and that's what this appears to be. They lined students up against the wall and asked them questions.

That sounds more like a drug sweep than any kind of evacuation.

Generally the idea in an evacuation is to get people away from a threat, not gather them into a group in the halls in order to ask them questions.

If this was an evacuation, it was not well executed.

This was a drill for the inevitable occasion when some prankster calls the cops and tells them little johnny has a handgun. Then the cops go in, line everyone up, and strip search them. Just because something is perfectly legal, doesn't make it right. And, just because something is illegal, doesn't make it wrong.

This is pathetic!!! Theres no reason for this none. Everyone needs to know this happen and then there needs to be something seriously done to the police government there, People this needs to stop!!! We as parents cannot allow this to go on. We just cant. I'm so upset here and it wasn't even my kids. But it doesn't need to be to be upset over this. I cant SCREAM loud enough this aint right!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's a great drill. I hope they are going to do it in more schools.

The only students who would be scared are the ones who have something to hide or the kids with liberal parents.

All I know is that you couldn't pay me enough to put my kids in public school, with the way things are going - I'm not about to entrust their education and their safety to the same government that can't even keep the potholes filled. :shk:

Originally posted by tjsteeler
That's a great drill. I hope they are going to do it in more schools.

The only students who would be scared are the ones who have something to hide or the kids with liberal parents.

WRONG, WRONG, WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!! I have nothing to hide... I'm not a liberal parent you are judgemantal of the parents. Who are you that you want the government to treat your child this way?

Officers wore protective gear, including vests and helmets, and carried rifles that were unloaded and marked with colored tape to indicate they were not live weapons, the newspaper said.

I'm not so much surprised of this situation (to numb the masses), but here is the problem, cops dressed like soldiers "helmets." If one adds the camo and black boots then it adds more attitude toward us. Over the years they have slowly gone from hats to helmets, camo ect... numbing the masses

Cops dressed like an urban army, storming a school should wake some sheep I would hope?
I wonder if they had any those heavy swat armoured vehicles encircle the school?

I'm so upset here. I know I've already said this. I'm just venting. I'm mad as He** here. You don't mess with the kids. Man I'm pissed. I'm just sooooo mad!!!! I'm so angering!!!!

One thing that seems to bge omitted from this discusion is why EXACTLY this occured. Police typically dont typically train in schools you know. So what is happening here? Why are the police training in public schools anyway?

What was the purpose of this to school function?

this is very strange for a number of reasons. A rinky dink town is not going to have the resources, by itself, to equip its forces with riot gear etc. This makes me think that there are higher forces from the government at play here.

More parents should be outraged and lawsuits possibly need to be filled against the school system as well as the police. Public schools are NOT anti-terrorist training centers.

Another thing that sort of startles me is how easily everyone cooperated. I know they are just kids and maybe my area is a bit different, but there would be definate resitance in a situation like this where I live.

Still this is a troubling event and reeks of higher government involvement.

Ok this might get people mad at me here. But I'm started to think their getting ready to try and take us over. Don't know why. Don't have the answeres you have to ask our government that question. This is not normal.... This is not right. And yes Lawsuits, Lawsuits, Lawsuits..... Can't be enough of them....I'm still mad..

Originally posted by XphilesPhan
One thing that seems to bge omitted from this discusion is why EXACTLY this occured. Police typically dont typically train in schools you know. So what is happening here? Why are the police training in public schools anyway?

Thats what I was wondering when I saw this. perhaps there is some greater threat than school shootings at the moment, perhaps the threat of a Beslan like attack that could happen soon. lets face it, a small group could get the equipment they need to do that in america with the gun laws there (Correct me if i'm wrong).

Thats just my thoughts on this.

Originally posted by tjsteeler
That's a great drill. I hope they are going to do it in more schools.

The only students who would be scared are the ones who have something to hide or the kids with liberal parents.

im sorry but I wish thare was a way below fote