Beyond Sandy Hook The Hypocrisy of a Tragedy By Mark “Six” James I suspect more children across the U.S. were kissed good night and tucked into bed by frightened, but very relieved, parents the night of Newtown’s fatal Friday. Fear tramples over our sense of security as easily as Hannibal the Great conquered Rome after intensely studying his enemies weaknesses. Until Hannibal’s surprise attack, Rome falsely believed it was abundantly fortified. It was unimaginable to the locals that the innocents in their safe place could experience ravishing death and destruction. After all, they lived in Romewhere things like that didn’t happen. Sound familiar? The tragedy in Newtown, CT serves as yet another reminder that there are people among us who have a level of determination and focus on destruction that most of us find unimaginable. Although it is hard to conceive that anyone would harm innocent children, Newtown is proof that it happens. Twenty elementary school children and six school personnel deliberately killed by a shooter in a town described by many as a place where “things like this don’t happen.” .
In many schools across the nation responsibility continues to be replaced by rhetoric and apathy. What’s needed today in schools across America are rational protective risk reduction strategies. Amid the fear, frustration, confusion, anger, anxiety, vulnerability, and plethora of other emotions rational adults feel around incidents such as the Sandy Hook school massacre, how many have demanded a survival program be put in place as a protective measure against active shooters? As a protection specialist, I urge responsible adults to view active shooter survival programs in the same light as school fire protection programs. In the last 50 years no child has died in a fire at school. Rational adults finally demanded multi-layered safety enhancements after a rash of fire related deaths. Consequently, the power of smoke detectors, water sprinkler systems, fire extinguishers, clearly identified exit routes, and routine fire drills were combined to help prevent loss of life in schools.