(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
Top Comments: My Son’s School Was Swatted Today Edition [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags']
Date: 2023-05-22
NOT my son’s school, although many classes did in fact barricade the doors and shelter in place
At 2pm this afternoon, I had just parked and was walking into my orthopedist’s office to find out what I’d done to my left knee that made it hurt so much when my phone dinged with a new text message. It was from my son’s school: “There has been a report of an active shooter in [building]. Police are on site. Please check your email for further updates.”
My heart stopped. What I wanted to do was turn around, get into the car, and drive to his school ten miles away. What I KNEW was that wasn’t possible or practical, and so I went into my doctor’s office and explained to everyone I was a little scattered and was keeping my phone on. Spoiler, I have an MCL strain and will be fine. I also texted Mr. Brillig and K1, a school counselor working twenty minutes from K2’s school, a private Catholic school for boys grades 6-12. Mr. Brillig reassured me that K2’s last two classes were in a different building across the street from the one named.
Over the next half hour news reports began appearing, and then at 2:30 K2 called on a friend’s phone (he left all his stuff in the classroom) to let me know he was OK. By the time I was out of the doctor’s office, we knew that all the boys were safe, no shooter was found, the only shot fired was ‘accidentally discharged’ from a cop’s gun (how the HELL does someone ‘accidentally discharge’ a weapon?? Yes, there’s an investigation) and that this likely had been a swatting attack. For those who don’t know what that is:
Swatting is a criminal harassment tactic of deceiving an emergency service (via such means as hoaxing an emergency services dispatcher) into sending a police or emergency service response team to another person's address. This is triggered by false reporting of a serious law enforcement emergency.
I drove to the shopping center near the school, where some boys had fled when the alert had gone out and the rest were being bussed over for pickup after being brought out from the classrooms they had barricaded themselves in. I’d been in an adrenaline rush since that first text, and now added a heaping serving of relief topped with a giant spoonful of white-hot anger that someone thought it would be funny to phone in a hoax locating the ‘active shooter’ in the Middle School Building. The same middle school mourning the loss earlier this year of a 6th grader who along with his mother was shot and killed by his father before that man turned the gun on himself.
I got to the parking lot and waited with many other anxious parents. After a half hour or so, the bus containing my son arrived and I ran to meet him. He allowed a hug (he IS 17, after all) and we got into the car to head home. I asked him what his experience was. Here’s what he told me, paraphrased:
When we got the announcement that there was an active shooter my teacher told us to evacuate, and so we ran out of the building and into the woods. We got to the houses by the field, and there was a man with a gun saying he’d protect us and also that he’d kill the [expletive] who did this. And then eventually they brought us over to where we got the bus to the shopping center.
I asked him about the man with the gun. He said ‘contextual clues’ showed it was a good guy, and y’know, I’m not gonna second guess my son after a traumatic experience but I DID email the Headmaster about my concerns of a random person with a gun. I got a phone call from him both asking for more info and also letting me know it might have been local off-duty officers living nearby responding. I’m still not happy but I AM glad my son was thinking and aware of his situation.
As I type this six hours later, so many thoughts are running through my mind. I’m grateful that every boy and staff member at my son’s school is safely at home with loved ones tonight. I’m acutely aware that hundreds… thousands of others cannot say the same because their families have been ripped apart by gun violence. I’m angry that the person who phoned in this swatting deliberately targeted the middle school, likely because it would inflict the most trauma. I’m thankful that this school community is close-knit and that the Administration genuinely cares about our sons.
And I’m remembering the face and voice of a middle school boy walking with his parent in that shopping center lot. I honestly cannot remember if it was his mother or father because I was focused on the boy. He said “I was so scared” and his voice utterly broke on those four words. Is this the boy that Republicans want to learn to administer first aid if his classmates get shot? Would he have been any LESS scared if his teacher was armed? Will he be able to sleep tonight? Will his parents?
Will I?
And in case it hasn’t been said enough… it’s the guns. It’s the fucking guns. Even when it’s a hoax, it’s the guns. Because they don’t even have to be present to inflict terror on everyone. It’s. The. Guns.
I don’t have a cute segue to tonight’s Tops, so just hop over the Story Break and afterwards, join me in the comments. I will ask that you please not google and then link to any reports of this; I’ve intentionally NOT named the school.
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/5/22/2170813/-Top-Comments-My-Son-s-School-Was-Swatted-Today-Edition
Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/