Keep schools open amid threats
Famously, the U.S. doesn't negotiate with terrorists. It would appear, however, that we do capitulate to their threats.
Throughout my years in school, right here in Horry County, a number of threats took us out, over the years, to the football field as we waited in the bleachers for the bomb squad to sweep campus.This was a generally enjoyable affair - the cutting of classes, the gathering of low-stakes drama, the eventual all-clear, and finally the return to normal.
Then Columbine happened, and we waited and watched from the bleachers with a little more concern, if just for a few months. But nothing else happened for years, luckily, restoring levity to bomb-threat days.
That was then, of course. Now there's been Newtown and Washington, Charleston and Colorado, Virginia and 9-11 and Paris and San Bernardino. Some of these attacks occurred in schools, and some in places of work and worship. Most all of them occurred in what we would consider, culturally, a sacred space - a place where people gather to love or learn.
No place is more sacred than schools, obviously, and that's why the recent trio of threats is petrifying. It's also, by the way, the reason we shouldn't take them so seriously that we end up terrorizing kids in the process of protecting them.
Take New York City schools, which, after last week receiving a threat, chose to keep their doors open. At the perceived recklessness people balked, understandably. It turned out to have been a smart move - the day was uneventful, and the threat-issuers had their bluff called, discouraging future threats.
The same can't be said for Los Angeles and Nashua, N.H. Both districts fell for hollow threats, upending the lives of families and teachers with nothing to show for it except the probability of more threats incoming. In L.A. alone, shuttering classes kept 640,000 students at home.
They should be fired, those administrators directly involved in the decision to close. Yes, I know. . . there was no right answer, judgment calls are tough, they were simply looking out for the children. I agree with all of those things, and feel for the people who have to make the choice.
And yet. Fear is an unsustainable basis for decision-making. I shudder to think what'd be if (when?) bad guys realize that a three-second email can stop our country in its tracks. What a boon to terrorists! Just by issuing a few scattered threats, they could suspend all American activity.
At that point, heaven forbid, the terrorists have no need for bombs or guns or, even, any actual plan to harm. When one can quiet the city of Los Angeles with a single phone call, that's an attack right there, and a successful one in the eyes of the bad guys.
Besides which, when have you ever heard of school violence that came with a warning? I can find no evidence of any recent school incident that was preceded by a threat. Curiously, it would appear that killers prefer not to extend the courtesy of announcing their intentions.
Right now it is a bad time to be school-age. No recess, not enough teachers, too much homework, yucky cafeteria food, Common Core, and now death threats, and administrators' bloated reactions to the threats.
The generation ascending is growing up with two conflicting dogmas: we are the world's policemen, and also, we are victims. We instigate war and then wage it with drones instead of men; we're ready to take on the terrorists until they threaten us directly, at which point we lock ourselves in our houses. We sings songs about living “in the land of the free and the home of the brave,” but we readily abandon liberty and courage when discomfort descends.
Hands wring and bellies ache about what kids are learning in school. The more enduring lessons are taught when threats succeed in closing schools, though.
Mande Wilkes is a local cultural critic. Contact her at m@mandewilkes.com.
This story was originally published December 28, 2015 at 7:30 AM with the headline "Keep schools open amid threats."