The teenagers were smiling and joking around for the camera. They were also covered with fake blood, playing victims in a simulated live-shooter training drill at Toledo Early College.
Parents and other adults reacted with fury when the photos of the youths seemingly clowning around while portraying school-shooting victims popped up on social media earlier this month.
The photos, they complained to Toledo Public Schools officials, were “disturbing” and inappropriate.
Someone removed the offending photos from social media, and the school district apologized.
But then students themselves chimed in via comments on news stories about the controversy. They wanted to know, if you think that photos of kids smiling for Facebook pics at a live-shooter drill are disturbing, what do you make of the fact that such training is even necessary?
The young people make a good point.
The safety drill was a cooperative effort among TPS, the University of Toledo, Toledo police, and the Toledo Fire And Rescue Department.
It allowed first responders, school officials, and, yes, some student participants to get the valuable training they unfortunately need in this day and age.
“We take the safety and security of our students and staff very seriously,” a district spokesman said.
The community, of course, expects no less, which is why the district is being responsible to schedule the kinds of training in which these students participated.
Unlike their parents and grandparents, these students go to class every day with the very real fear that someone may shoot them while they are at school. It’s appalling.
No, it is probably not appropriate to joke around during a live-shooter drill. But it also is probably too much to expect that teenagers can remain serious and somber for any prolonged period of time.
Expecting them to face the real threat of a school shooting is too much as well.
First Published September 19, 2019, 4:00 a.m.
