A Florida middle school principal has been suspended after an unannounced lockdown drill terrorized students and parents. The genius idea was the brainchild of Jacquelyn Moore of Winter Haven’s Jewett Middle Academy Magnet School. The drill, which led to students sending panicked texts to their parents without knowing that it was fake shines a light on the ongoing transformation of the at one time land of the free and home of the brave into the new and malevolent garrison state of The Homeland. I get it that in our sicker by the day society that school shootings are now a grim reality and that drills are prudent but the failure to notify students and their parents was irresponsible and brought about unnecessary trauma.
The Washington Post reported on the actual drill per the story “‘I thought he was going to shoot me.’ Unsuspecting middle school students terrified by active shooter drill”:
Police officers in Florida surprised students, teachers and parents Thursday with an active shooter drill. And by “active shooter drill,” we mean that a Winter Haven middle school went into lockdown as two armed police officers burst into classrooms, guns drawn, leaving the unsuspecting children terrified — and their parents furious.
According to Fox affiliate WTVT, officials at Jewett Middle Academy e-mailed parents to inform them of the drill, after it took place. By that point, WTVT reports, cellphones were already filling up with texts from frightened students, who thought there was a real shooter in the school.
“Unfortunately, no one gets an advanced notice of real life emergencies,” Polk County Public Schools spokesman Jason Gearey said in an e-mailed statement to The Washington Post. “We don’t want students to be scared, but we need them to be safe.”
The ghastly underlying theme for justifying the post 9/11 police state – the need to be “safe” is constantly trumpeted as civil liberties are choked off by the government and the national security state continues to spread like a mutant strain of kudzu. If it isn’t the militarizing of local police it’s the ongoing warrantless surveillance along with data-mining and storage directed at tens of millions of innocent American citizens. The reform of the out of control American Stasi was just sunk by the corrupt Congress that shamelessly invoked images of ISIS militants hiding in closets and under beds. Granted that the “reform” was tepid at best but it continues to show how effectively that the government is using what could technically be labeled as terrorism in order to bolster their oppressive programs.
The drill at Jewett Middle Academy is just more of the same hogwash that Americans need to surrender their freedoms to remain free which is so Orwellian that old George himself must be spinning in his grave. The decision to suspend Moore was reported by the website of Tampa Bay’s Bay News 9 in the story “Principal suspended after controversial 'active shooter' drill at Winter Haven school”:
Changes have been made in the wake of last week's school lockdown controversy in Winter Haven.
Polk School Superintendent Kathryn LeRoy has put new rules in place and she has suspended the principal of the school.
Winter Haven police conducted a lockdown drill at Jewett Middle Academy Magnet School last week. During the drill an officer pulled out his loaded handgun in front of students in a classroom. Another officer had an AR-15. That scared some students and upset some parents.
At a school board meeting Tuesday evening LeRoy announced that she was suspending principal Jacquelyn Moore while an internal investigation continues.
"Obviously, the school administration at Jewett Middle Academy Magnet, which was responsible for the coordination of this drill, exhibited a lack of good judgment and did not have a clear understanding of how the drill should be conducted," said LeRoy.
She is also putting formal rules in place for future law enforcement drills at schools. No weapons will be carried during the drills. Parents will be sent messages about the drills when they start. School staff will also be located at the entrance of school to answer any parent questions. Staff will also take phone calls to answer any parent questions.
It is not arguable that the world is an increasingly dangerous place but do we really want to live in a society where our children are indoctrinated to accept heavily armed government goons acting with impunity? Be mindful that there is now an entire generation that has never known what it is to live in a free country as their formative years have taken place in the post 9/11 Homeland police state of fear, terror and government overreach. This bodes ill for the future of traditional America and shows that Orwell was an optimist.
Be mindful that Homeland is a derivative of the German term Heimat and the similarities are striking indeed.
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