Safety First!

[flonnebonne]

While walking back to the staff room after a class:

Mr. S: Did you know sixth period is cancelled today? We have a...hm, not a fire drill.
Me: Hm? Not a fire drill?
Mr. S: Well, the students will run away from a bad man in the gym. Like a drill. A police officer will dress up.
Me: Say what now?

This conversation gave me the impression that the students would be running around the gym en masse while some dubious guy in a ski mask chased after them while the teachers looked on and told them to infuse more terror into their screams. You know, like a proper drill.

Well, it turned out that it was only the student council who got to run away while everyone else just watched. Too bad. But the police officer had an awesome criminal outfit: red toque, sunglasses, surgical mask (the kind that Japanese people wear when they're sick), track suit, a lab coat over the track suit, a baseball bat (the end was padded so that he couldn't accidentally kill anyone), and the piece de resistance, a giant fake aluminum foil knife straight out of Otakon 6.

So here's what happened. The student council were sitting on their desks on stage while one of the teachers conducted a pretend class. When the "criminal" showed up, yelling "HORYAAAAAA~!!" and whacking his baseball on the ground, the teacher valiantly wrestled with him while the students valiantly knocked over their desks (presumably to hamper the bad guy) and ran away like Brave Brave Sir Robin himself. Hurrah! That'll stop the bad guys!

After that, some chick nattered on for half an hour about some stuff I couldn't understand, though I think the basic message was "run away, stupid." I was kind of too busy dreaming up excuses for not working on my blind_go* fic and mentally composing this LJ entry to bother listening to her. Oh, and she and her male assistant got a couple students to come up and help them demonstrate how to assault people who attack you.

I don't think this presentation at my school had anything to do with the Virginia Tech shootings, because apparently the police come and do this every year. But the timing is eerie.

*hey, does this count as a blind_go panic entry?

Comments

[love]

It does not count, but hee! I never thought of knocking over tables and chairs to hamper an attacker.

[flonnebonne]

I guess I'm not pan-icked enough! Oh ho ho! (I like pan)

I have to wonder whether those knocked-over chairs and desks might prevent the poor teacher from escaping as well...not that the poor guy ever had a chance.

[love]

*shakes head* Nope, pretty much giving himself up for dead. I hope they don't SERIOUSLY do that. T_T

[flonnebonne]

Well, considering what a quiet bunch the current student council is, I think they'd probably get taken hostage or something equally horrible if they stuck around for the perp to catch them. Now, my new crop of first year students could do some damage. They're short and genki, so a kick to the crotch could do some real damage. Or maybe a kancho, this is Japan after all.

[love]

Haha! I hope they get smart and do the kancho with pens or something. Pencils. Give him lead poisoning up the wazoo.

[love]

(Also, GROAN.)

[kindofspark.livejournal.com]

This sounds terribly funny in a crazy way. ^^ I didn't know there were drills like this.

[flonnebonne]

Neither did I, until I was painfully disabused of the notion yesterday. -_-

[usagivindaloo.livejournal.com]

Oh god, I remember those drills. XD I remember the first time I went to one, I had no idea what it was going to be... best drill ever, IMHO. ^_^

[flonnebonne]

I think it would have been more fun if I'd had absolutely no warning, and if I hadn't run into the cop while he was in costume before the drill. Spoilers!