Pennsylvania school district arms teachers with rocks in case of shooter
March 25, 2018 by admin
Filed under Choosing Lingerie
Comments Off
A rural school district in Pennsylvania is arming teachers and students with buckets of rocks as a last resort should an armed intruder burst in, the superintendent said Friday.
Every classroom in the district about 90 miles northwest of Philadelphia has a 5-gallon bucket of river stones, said Blue Mountain School District Superintendent David Helsel.
“We always strive to find new ways to keep our students safe,” Helsel told The Associated Press in a telephone interview, adding that the rocks are one small part of the district’s overall security plan.
Throwing rocks is more effective than just crawling under desks and waiting, and it gives students and teachers a chance to defend themselves, he said. The district has about 2,700 students at three elementary schools, a middle school and a high school.
Staff and students in the Blue Mountain district have been trained in a program called “ALICE” which stands for alert, lockdown, inform, counter and evacuate. Helsel said the rocks are part of the “counter” portion of training, fighting back if the intruder makes his way into the classroom.
The buckets are kept in classroom closets.
Kenneth Trump, president of the Cleveland-based National School Safety and Security Services, a K-12 security consulting firm, calls the idea illogical and irrational and said it could possibly cost lives.
He said the efforts fill an emotional security need, but don’t actually enhance security.
One high school senior said he supports the plan, adding that throwing rocks is better than throwing books or pencils.
Parents also have been supportive of the measure, which was implemented in the fall.
“At this point, we have to get creative, we have to protect our kids first and foremost,” parent Dori Bornstein told WNEP-TV. “Throwing rocks, it’s an option.”
Share and Enjoy
Landmarks go dark for ‘Earth Hour’
March 25, 2018 by admin
Filed under Choosing Lingerie
Comments Off
Landmark buildings around the world went dark on Saturday in an international effort to draw attention to climate change.
In New York, the Empire Building’s lights were switched off. There was a similar sight in Paris, where the Eiffel Tower went dark. And in London, Big Ben, Piccadilly Circus and the London Eye had their lights turned off, according to The Associated Press.
The darkness lasted for an hour, and was intended to mark Earth Hour, an annual event intended to shine a light on climate change. The event began in Sydney, Australia in 2007, and has since spread around the world.
At 8:30 p.m. on Saturday, participants were encouraged to turn out their lights for an hour.
Marco Lambertini, the director general of the World Wildlife Fund, which helps coordinate Earth Hour, said that this year’s event is intended to draw attention to “the importance of biodiversity and nature.”
“This Earth Hour, we want to shine a light on the importance of biodiversity and nature,” he said in a statement. “Together, as individuals, businesses and governments, we must show the same determination to halt biodiversity and nature loss as we have shown on climate action to secure a healthy, thriving and living planet for all.”