Education: What kind of training should school staff undergo if they choose to carry firearms?

 “What kind of training should school staff undergo if they choose to carry firearms?”

The level of training required before a school staff member can voluntarily carry firearms at work should vary by their role in protecting the school students and staff against attack. The roles would be “Static Defenders” and “Active Responders”. Not all schools/districts would choose to have Active Responders - preferring to let Law Enforcement Officers perform that task without school staff assistance.

Most school staff who choose to be armed would be “static defenders” and should only have to meet the same training standard required of any other carrier in their state. If the state has carry permits, then staff should be allowed to carry at work simply by getting such a permit. In “Constitutional Carry” states, there is no training requirement.

Static Defenders:

The role of these staff members in the event of an attack would be the same as armed citizens in other workplaces - take cover and use the firearm to defend themself and others. If you take what is a pretty standard classroom response to an “armed intruder” event, and add an armed teacher, we get:

Standard: Alarm is raised, teachers lock building and classroom doors, close windows and blinds, turn off lights, and have students hide behind them in the classroom.

Armed teacher variant: All of the normal stuff, but the armed teacher/staff member takes covered position between door and where students are, draws firearm, and engages intruder when they break into the room. Intruder is in a “known fatal funnel”, intruder is probably backlit, intruder is at a range of less than 30 feet. Armed staff member is in a supported firing position, in cover and concealment.

This is just about the simplest self defense scenario imaginable, and closely matches the experience of going to a shooting range. The armed staff member knows where the target will be, is not shooting very far, and is likely to be in a physically comfortable position, with physical support.

At this basic level, the staff member could be carrying their firearm (concealed or open carry), or have it available in a locked container (ie: a safe) in their work area, and access it in this kind of situation. This would allow the staff member to have a rifle or shotgun to defend the room with, not just a handgun.

Active Responders:

If the school/district chooses to add a second category of armed staff - an “Active Responder” - who would move around the campus to seek out and engage the armed intruder as part of an active response team, staff who volunteered for that category should undergo additional tactical, marksmanship, and “shoot/no-shoot” scenario training, along with training at the school site alongside local law enforcement, as they would be teaming with LEOs to move around the campus to actively seek out the armed intruders.

The Active Responder role also requires that the staff member not be leaving a group of students undefended. This means that it is well suited to custodial staff, admin, or others who tend to not be working with groups of students. Custodians and admins also tend to have master key sets, allowing access to all buildings and rooms on campus. A classroom teacher could be part of the Active Responder team, but this would require a plan to ensure that their class was being defended by another staff member, allowing them to leave and join the Active Responder team. Active Responders would need radios and some sort of identification (ie: badges) could have rifles or shotguns in safes, body armor and helmets, and even special vests or smocks to put on over their clothing to help identify them.

Society/Politics: When your Quora answer is so good, Quora mods lock and "disappear" the whole thread.

 “What education or treatment would you undergo to remove your indoctrinated belief that guns have magical powers whereby guns are responsible for crime and can make people commit crime?”

The short answer: Find a responsible gun owner to take you to a range and fire some guns, and you will see that they are not magical, even though they can relieve stress and bring you smiles, laughter, and happy memories. It is natural to fear the unknown, and to ascribe magical powers to thinks we fear. The antidote to that is knowledge and experience.

My experience that led to that answer: I was raised by parents who were anti-gun. I was taught that guns turned people into killers - that if I had a gun, every time anyone annoyed me, I would not be able to keep myself from shooting them.

When I first went to the rifle range with ROTC, I was terrified that having a full-auto capable M-16 in my hands would, magically, turn me into a murderer.

I found out that this was not the case at all.

I purchased my first firearm 40 years ago, when I was 18, and have owned firearms since then. Plenty of people have annoyed me during that time, yet I have never murdered anyone, never killed anyone, and never harmed anyone with any of my firearms (okay, to be perfectly honest, I have given myself a painful case of “Garand thumb” once or twice, and cut my hand while working with an M-60 while in the Army - but have not harmed anyone other than myself).

One of the things that I have found to be a great stress-reliever is to go to the range and do some “gong therapy” - shooting at 8″ steel plates and hearing them ring when I hit them. I have many friends who also find a visit to the shooting range to be a great way to relieve stress.

Education: The myth of all students having FAPE rights respected

It is amazing how routine it is for school administrators to ignore the FAPE (Free and Appropriate Public Education) rights of dozens of reasonably well behaved children to accommodate one or two kids with severe behavior issues.

Those few then sabotage the learning opportunities of the rest, cause havoc, harm others, destroy school supplies and equipment, and create extra stress and workload for teachers.

Until the rights of ALL students are respected equally, the quality of education provided by the public K-12 education system will continue to deteriorate.

Hobby: WGA "The Damned" KS finally arrived!

 Back in 2023, I was excited to join in WGA's (Wargames Atlantic) kickstarter for their first wholly realized "Death Fields" faction/army - "The Damned".  After many delays and changes, I finally received my "15 box set" pledge (and the many, many bonus sprues).

My order included:
The Damned Infantry,
The Damned Female Infantry,
The Damned Heavy Weapons,
The Damned Command,
The Damned Artillery,
The Damned Beastmen,
The Damned Heavy Infantry,
The Damned Brutes (Ogres),
The Damned Cavalry,
The Damned Hounds & Handlers,
The Damned Mauler

As with all WGA sets, there are no assembly instructions included, so some kits can take a few tries to figure out.

I am in a temporary housing situation, with most of my things in storage, so have limited hobby supplies available, but am throwing together a few models - starting with the Maulers.

The Mauler went through several design changes over the course of the KS - and looks different than the originasl concept, but ended up being what it was supposed to be:  a basic, and somewhat modular APC that can be used for many purposes, in many miniatures collections.

The main options include "armored box troop transport", open topped troop transport, and flat bed transport (which could be a crago hauler, or have a gun mounted on the flatbed).

I chose to build each of my kits slightly differently -  "armored box" troop transports, open topped troop transport (similar to a WW2 half-track or a BTR-152), a flatbed gun platform (no gun on it yet), and a four-wheeled open topped variant..



 

The flatbed was the first one I built - due to inadvertently gluing on the wrong rear body option.

I also did not figure out until later that the ladder is designed to go on the rear, so I cut them down and used them on the side of the crew compartment.

I used a troop compartment overhead door as a maintenance hatch for the engine, and the weapons rack to add some flavor to the cargo area.

I then built a basic 'transport box'.

For the third, I placed the interior parts in the troop compartment - flooring, seats, and a weapons rack.

After painting the interior, I might add the cover, which I have built with the overhead doors open.

I then decided to try a four wheeled variant.   I decided to use the railings form the gun platform to create "grab bars" over the troop compartment.

I think I prefer the six-wheeled version.

I wish I had used the doors (top hatch doors for the troop compartment) on the rear, instead of the ramp, as it would give a "lighter"/leaner look to the open-topped transport, and allow teh tow hook to be added.   The doors are just slightly too wide to do this without carefully shaving them to fit.

Some assembly notes:
The seats fit better with the narrowest seat forward.
The cover is not actually symmetrical - it has a front and rear.  The rear fits in with the rear armor.  The floor of the troop comparntment also has a "front" and a "back".

While theMauler model is not perfect for all my light APC desires, I think that they are the most fun to build sci-fi gaming vehicle model since the orginal 40k Rhino. The basic pieces are simple to put together, and then there are many quick and easy options for standard (or personal) variations.

Education: Intervention needs to be timely

In February of 2010, I started screening and then teaching a reading intervention program for 1st grade students in the Walnut Creek School District who were “at risk” for falling behind in reading.

My intervention classes were held after the normal school day, rather than instead of other school activities. Each of my intervention classes had six students or less.

In some districts where I have worked in the past, "intervention" is for students whose skills are two or more years below grade level.

In Walnut Creek, the intervention program I was tasked with teaching was for students who showed skill deficiencies that put them at risk of ending the next year (i.e. in June of 2011) performing below grade level. This program was designed to make sure that they ended the 2009-2010 school year with the foundation skills to stay on track when they entered 2nd grade that fall.

I ran into all of the first graders who were part of my after school reading intervention classes when I was substituting at their intermediate school when they were in 6th grade.
All were reading fluently - all but one at the 6th grade level (and that one was a special education student, and was reading at a mid 5th grade level).

All of them remembered me, and told me how much they had loved reading with me.
Two of the parents saw me on parking lot duty at the intermediate school, got out of their cars and came over to thank me for the huge impact that the early intervention had for their kids.

I have worked in other districts where we regularly had kids entering upper grades - going to intermediate school - who have never had any such targeted reading intervention, despite the fact that they have been reading at a kindergarten or low first grade level year after year.

Far too many students are socially promoted to higher grades each year based on their physical age, without regard to whether they are prepared to succeed in their new grade. These students are being set up for failure – as are their classmates and their teachers. Their regular teachers had to try to teach the curriculum for their current grade - 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, etc. – as well as reaching back to try to teach two or more years of lower grade level skills.

Education: Why do we purposefully make Math hard for English Learners?

It's beyond sad that, at a time when many of our K-12 students are "English Language Learners" (kids whose primary language is not English - what used to be called "ESL" or "English as a Second Language") or who otherwise struggle with reading, that the move is to adopt a Math curriculum that is made up solely of word problems.

If you wanted to design a system that would cripple the education of those who struggle with reading - or just with the English language - you couldn't do a better job than this - making math as inaccessible to them as reading is.

And making the textbooks and resources bilingual in English and Spanish, or having Spanish speaking teachers still leaves out every "English Language Learner" whose home language is not Spanish.

Math is a language that is international when it uses numbers and symbols, but loses that strength when it focuses solely on word problems.

Education: How do you feel when your student can do what you can't?

 "How do you feel when one of your students is able to do something better or faster than you can?" they asked, thinking I'd feel bad if my students surpassed me.

"How do you feel when one of your students is able to do something better or faster than you can?" they asked, thinking I'd feel bad if my students surpassed me.

As an instructor, a teacher, a mentor, and a coach, I am always happy to have one of my "students" reach the point where they take what I have taught them and surpass me.

I have students who are able to achieve much more than I ever could - and I am filled with joy that I was able to be a part of their journey to that success.

I just wish it happened more often.

It's not about being smarter than the students - if you teach them all that you know about a subject, and they keep going, learning more and more, it shouldn't bruise your ego - in fact, it should affirm your choice to be a teacher, instructor, or coach because you have helped them to achieve greatness.