Kids Terrified As Cops Enter School With Guns Blazing—But It Was a Practice Drill

Students at Jewett Middle Academy in Winter
Haven, Florida, dove under their desks and texted their parents in
terror when armed police swarmed into the school, brandishing their
weapons. The cops had neglected to warn the teachers and kids that
there was no emergency: they were in the midst of an active shooter
drill. According
to Fox 13 News in Tampa Bay:

Lauren Marionneaux, a seventh-grade student at Jewett Middle
Academy, said it was about 9 a.m. Thursday when the
principal announced the school was going on lockdown.

Students huddled into classrooms waiting for further
instructions. Instead, they started hearing voices in the
hallway.

“A lot of people started getting scared because we thought it
was a real drill,” Lauren said. “We actually thought that someone
was going to come in there and kill us.”

Two police officers burst into Lauren’s classroom with their
guns drawn — one carrying, what Winter Haven police said, was an
AR-15 rifle.

Just doing their job… they said. After the mayhem, the school
released a statement explaining that police drills like this are
considered the best possible way to really test preparedness:
“Parents, students and staff are typically not notified about
lockdown drills. For example, we do not give advanced notice of
fire drills in order to evaluate how safety procedures work…”

Of course, the authorities neglected to notice that no one
sets the school on fire to create more realistic fire
drills. Nor do they drag in giant wind machines to replicate the
feel of an impending tornado.

The fear that teachers
might suffer heart attacks, that kids might experience psychotic
breakdowns, that someone with his own weapon might shoot real
bullets in defense—none of that seemed to occur to our
peacekeepers. Nor did the notion that distraught parents might race
frantically to the school, endangering anyone in their path.

No, these cops were so focused on the most horrific, least
likely crime that nothing else mattered.

But now it does. In response to the apparently bewildering
blowback, the Winter Haven police say they have re-evaluated their
M.O. and now plan to practice lockdowns without weapons.

No word on whether they’ll play audio tapes of gunshot sounds,
ambulances, and bloodcurdling screams.