kfwyre's recent activity
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Comment on Texas school shooting kills nineteen children, two adults in ~news
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Comment on Texas school shooting kills nineteen children, two adults in ~news
kfwyre LinkAmid protests, NRA meets in Texas after school massacreAmid protests, NRA meets in Texas after school massacre
The National Rifle Association began its annual convention in Houston on Friday, three days after a gunman killed 19 students and two teachers at an elementary school on the other side of the state, renewing the national debate over gun violence.
Former President Donald Trump and other Republican leaders were scheduled to speak at the event. Leaders of the gun rights lobbying group planned to “reflect on” — and deflect any blame for — the school shooting in Uvalde. Protesters angry about gun violence demonstrated outside, including some holding crosses with photos of the Uvalde shooting victims.
Some scheduled speakers and performers backed out of the event, including several Texas lawmakers and “American Pie” singer Don McLean, who said “it would be disrespectful” to go ahead with his act after the country’s latest mass shooting. Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said Friday morning that he had decided not to speak at an event breakfast after “prayerful consideration and discussion with NRA officials.”
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Comment on Texas school shooting kills nineteen children, two adults in ~news
kfwyre LinkWaiting to confront Texas school shooter was ‘the wrong decision,’ police admit along with string of other failuresPolice admitted to a stunning string of failures — including driving right by the gunman — in responding to the Texas school shooting while children were being massacred inside, with the head of the state's Department of Public Safety saying the time for making excuses about the botched response was over.
The Friday news conference came after days of confusion, inconsistencies and a muddled timeline of law enforcement's response to the rampage at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.
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Comment on Texas school shooting kills nineteen children, two adults in ~news
kfwyre LinkHusband of slain Uvalde teacher dies of heart attack after visiting memorial at schoolHusband of slain Uvalde teacher dies of heart attack after visiting memorial at school
In a tweet, a family member confirmed that Joe Garcia, Irma Garcia’s husband of 24 years, “passed away due to grief.” They were high school sweethearts and parents to four children.
Martinez told The New York Times Joe Garcia visited his wife’s memorial Thursday morning to drop off flowers. When he returned home, he “pretty much just fell over,” he said.
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Comment on Texas school shooting kills nineteen children, two adults in ~news
kfwyre (edited )Link ParentThey actually talk about this extensively in our teacher-only trainings, as it’s a common concern (and one I had, and still have to some extent). Back when the Columbine shooting happened, many of...They actually talk about this extensively in our teacher-only trainings, as it’s a common concern (and one I had, and still have to some extent). Back when the Columbine shooting happened, many of the fatalities were in the library, where kids were locked down. The common wisdom at the time was to stay in place and in school because, well, what else would you do?
The library itself had exits directly to the outdoors and the students had sufficient warning in the library that the shooting was occurring. If the ones who had locked down in the library had used that exit, they likely would have made it out alive, but their training at the time taught them to do the opposite and stay in one spot.
Many schools are big and have many exits, as well as lots of places that are difficult to secure. If students have a high likelihood of making it to an exit (or even creating one, like going out a first-floor window), we encourage them to do so. My school takes a good two-three minutes to walk across, so if a shooting is on the opposite side, I likely have a minute or two to try to get my kids outside, where they can run as far away as possible. If it’s closer, that’s where the judgment call comes in, and there’s no singular right answer.
Locking down also comes with its own trade offs. When they call the lockdown, and there are two students in the hallway coming back from the bathroom, what do they do? Do I let them into my room? What if I don’t know the students? What if one of them could be the shooter? But if they aren’t, and we lock them out of all of our rooms, have we left them in harm’s way — stuck in a hallway with long sight lines and nowhere to run? Yes, I’d be protecting more kids in my room by locking them in there, but I’d also be removing a chance at safety for those elsewhere. What if the kids in the room adjoined to mine need to flee theirs, but they can’t get through the door to our class because I blocked it?
Also, how can you tell when a lockdown has ended? When the police come? When an all clear is announced? Can you trust that? What if it’s part of the plan? What if it’s happening under duress? After the Oxford High School shooting a video went viral where a sheriff attempted to clear a classroom and was mistaken for the shooter. I actually thought it was a video of the shooter himself until I looked it up right now and saw the fact check. I highly recommend watching the video, as it captures the intensity of a moment like that. The officer says the word “bro” and the students see that as a “tell” that he’s a peer, not an adult, and they run. It’s chilling, and even though it turns out he wasn’t the shooter, the students had no way of knowing that at the time.
Running can certainly be risky, but the best safety one can get in moments like that is distance from the shooter, and lockdowns often keep kids closer to him.
As for the idea of multiple shooters, that’s definitely a concern. The last training I did they talked about this and showed data on it. The vast majority of school shootings are from a single gunman — events like the Columbine shooting where there were two are very rare.
The ongoing concern at this point is that the people who are likely to be active shooters have now been trained in these protocols and will just work around them. I won’t talk about the myriad ways in which that’s possible (one example is already identified above: impersonating an officer), but suffice it to say that a motivated person could easily find flaws with our current plans, even though I do believe our current plans are more effective than they were before.
The hard pill to swallow about all of this is that our plans do not ensure safety — they simply minimize harm. The run/hide/fight strategy only happens after a threat has manifested. It will reduce the number of victims in aggregate but not guarantee any individual person’s safety. The better solution is to not have the threat manifest in the first place via preventative measures. Some of those have been put in place (for example, my school has a very strict entry policy), but many lie outside of our purview, and our country has shown us time and again that it is uninterested in exploring those potential solutions.
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Comment on Texas school shooting kills nineteen children, two adults in ~news
kfwyre Link ParentThis was a beautiful comfort. You, too, are a light. Thank you for shining for me at a moment when I’m struggling to.This was a beautiful comfort. You, too, are a light. Thank you for shining for me at a moment when I’m struggling to.
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Comment on Texas school shooting kills nineteen children, two adults in ~news
kfwyre LinkI had a whole thing typed out and then Safari froze and I lost it. That’s probably for the best, to be honest. I’m not in a good place right now. I spent a lot of time crying in the shower this...I had a whole thing typed out and then Safari froze and I lost it. That’s probably for the best, to be honest. I’m not in a good place right now. I spent a lot of time crying in the shower this evening.
The short of what I wanted to get across is this: as a teacher, it feels like every school shooting takes a part of my soul that I never get back. To this day, nearly ten years later, I still cannot look at the list of names of the victims of Sandy Hook without immediately crying. There are so many, and they were so young.
If they were still here, they would be graduating from high school soon.
I wonder if, in ten years, I’ll cry when I see the names from the Uvalde shooting or if my soul will have been fully taken from me by then, chunk by chunk, from the massacres of kids that will inevitably keep happening. Children bring a glorious and incomparable light to the world, and, instead of protecting that, we’re allowing the darkness to extinguish it, over and over again, in the most horrific of ways.
It doesn’t have to be this way — it shouldn’t be this way — but so much of my soul is missing that I lack the ability to believe that anything else is even possible. There’s a hollowness where a hope should be.
The kids from Uvalde were about to start their summer break. It was two days away.
Where there should have been only light, we let in darkness.
And it extinguished the light.
Again.
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Comment on Texas school shooting kills nineteen children, two adults in ~news
kfwyre (edited )Link ParentActive shooter drills are quite a bit different than lockdown drills. I used to run those as a teacher too. Lockdown drills were generally a matter of locking the door, turning off the lights, and...Active shooter drills are quite a bit different than lockdown drills. I used to run those as a teacher too.
Lockdown drills were generally a matter of locking the door, turning off the lights, and either going under desks or out of sight of doors/windows until an all clear is called.
Active shooter drills are much more involved and instead focus on taking the best course of action relative to the situation, essentially boiling down to run/hide/fight. We teach the kids that if the shooting isn’t near you, you should run out of the building and get away. If it is nearby and running would be potentially dangerous, try hiding instead. This is like locking down but also includes things like barricading doors with desks and furniture. The last resort is fighting back. If you are in imminent danger, do whatever you can including hitting the shooter, throwing textbooks at his face, etc.
We actually practice the different elements with kids, usually in a simulated “shooting” involving calls over the intercom that announce “gunfire” in a specific area of the school. Once a year I either run out of my class with my students to the nearest exit or we practice barricading our classroom and grabbing makeshift weapons while waiting to see if our doors get breached. Which course of action we take depends on where the “shooting” is announced to be in the school during the drill, and I usually don’t even know that in advance (they want us practicing on-the-fly decision-making as well).
I’ve also done some more involved teacher-only trainings. For example: our local police department came to our school and fired blanks at different parts of our building so that teachers could hear what gunshots would sound like from our rooms. In another we had an actor that played a shooter with a prop gun and made his way through the school firing plastic pellets at teachers and breaking his way into classrooms.
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Comment on Texas school shooting kills nineteen children, two adults in ~news
kfwyre Link ParentAfter the Sandy Hook shooting back in 2012, active shooter drills started to get instituted in schools across the country. My first one as a teacher was in 2013, and I've done at least one every...After the Sandy Hook shooting back in 2012, active shooter drills started to get instituted in schools across the country. My first one as a teacher was in 2013, and I've done at least one every year since (sometimes more).
They are now required in 40 states and are used in 95% of schools. Nothing says "we as a country have given up on this issue" like actively teaching children nationwide that being indiscriminately shot at school is a very real possibility that they should prepare for.
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Texas school shooting kills nineteen children, two adults
36 votes -
Autoheart - Lent (2013)
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Comment on Weekly coronavirus-related chat, questions, and minor updates - week of May 16 in ~health.coronavirus
kfwyre LinkUS residents can order another set of 8 free COVID tests through the USPS. (Direct link to the order page) Also, I haven’t been following things as closely as I used to. Is there any evidence that...US residents can order another set of 8 free COVID tests through the USPS. (Direct link to the order page)
Also, I haven’t been following things as closely as I used to. Is there any evidence that the current rise in cases is linked to fading immunity from prior infection/vaccines?
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Comment on Ten dead in Buffalo supermarket shooting in ~news
kfwyre LinkI hate that I feel so inured to these events that I meet their horror with a sort of defeated numbness, but then I read about the victims and there’s always a detail that punches right through...I hate that I feel so inured to these events that I meet their horror with a sort of defeated numbness, but then I read about the victims and there’s always a detail that punches right through that wall into the part of me that’s deeply, profoundly hurt — the part that the numbness is trying to protect and hide away. This was that detail for me:
Kamilah added that her grandmother — who was also her downstairs neighbor — was building a "beautiful relationship" with her 17-month-old baby, who would knock on her door for a hug or kiss every time they came and went.
"I just try to walk so fast in and out the house now, so that she doesn't try to stop," she said tearfully.
Fuck. I don’t have words.
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Comment on You're not losing fat because you're eating too much — even when you don't think you are in ~health
kfwyre Link ParentIn March 2020 my job went remote, so I no longer had a commute. I stopped eating fast food entirely in part because I was afraid of COVID but also because I no longer had the opportunity to get it...In March 2020 my job went remote, so I no longer had a commute. I stopped eating fast food entirely in part because I was afraid of COVID but also because I no longer had the opportunity to get it on my way to/from work.
In August 2020, I returned to work for the first time. After the first day of work, as I passed by a fast food place in my car on the way home, I felt like I'd been momentarily possessed, as my arms nearly turned the car into its drive thru involuntarily. I genuinely had to fight the urge within myself. The pull I felt wasn't because I was hungry -- it was because the food was something satisfying and I'd had the shittiest day I'd had in a long time.
To this day, years later, I still fight that pull regularly. Some days the pull is completely absent, whereas others it feels like a tide that I'm powerless to swim against. Sometimes I win my battle, but more often than I care to admit, I lose.
Even though I'm fully aware that (1) getting a fast food is a coping mechanism for me, (2) the food isn't actually that good, and (3) I genuinely feel better in my own body when I eat better; I still, more often than I care to admit, (a) find my car in a drive thru as if driven by someone else, (b) ordering garbage food against my better judgement, (c) with full awareness that I am doing so.
It's surreal.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
kfwyre LinkGunfire Reborn I started playing this with a friend on Saturday morning. By Sunday evening, my husband and two more friends had also picked up the game. I'd put in a full 15 hours across only two...I started playing this with a friend on Saturday morning. By Sunday evening, my husband and two more friends had also picked up the game.
I'd put in a full 15 hours across only two days. It is powerfully addictive.
The game is an FPS roguelite. Feels a bit like Borderlands meets Rogue Legacy. It's playable solo, but it shines much brighter with other players because you can trade drops and get a lot better interplay between abilities and elements.
This is going to be our multiplayer game of choice for quite a while. The talent tree grind is both long and satisfying.
Also, bonus points for being a multiplayer game that works on Linux via Proton. I'm running it flawlessly on Proton 7.0-2, and I'm able to connect and play with my friends on Windows machines. I have had two crashes when trying to join a lobby (nothing during actual gameplay though, so I've never lost a run), but it's unclear if those crashes are due to Proton or are the fault of the game itself.
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Comment on Raymond Scott - Portofino 1 (1962) in ~music
kfwyre LinkThis song is a delight. Also WAY ahead of its time.This song is a delight. Also WAY ahead of its time.
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Jukebox the Ghost - Everybody Knows (2012)
5 votes -
What’s a subculture you’re part of, and what insights can you give to outsiders about it?
What’s a subculture you’re part of, and what insights can you give to outsiders about it? What’s important that people outside the subculture know? What are some common misconceptions they have?...
What’s a subculture you’re part of, and what insights can you give to outsiders about it?
What’s important that people outside the subculture know? What are some common misconceptions they have?
How and why did you get involved with it? In what ways is it meaningful to you?
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Comment on Give me your party music! in ~music
kfwyre LinkThese aren’t exactly in line with what you’ve posted but both have incredible feel-good party energy to me: Alex Newell - Kill the Lights SOPHIE - ImmaterialThese aren’t exactly in line with what you’ve posted but both have incredible feel-good party energy to me:
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Comment on Weekly coronavirus-related chat, questions, and minor updates - week of May 9 in ~health.coronavirus
kfwyre Link ParentTwo more positives in my classes today. My local area is definitely in the middle of an uptick right now.Two more positives in my classes today. My local area is definitely in the middle of an uptick right now.
House Democrat introduces bill calling to withhold pay for Congress after mass shootings