I need more eyes

I have school security concerns

We never knew where we would be on a given day: in a small hotel room surrounded by highly nefarious individuals or may be trapped in heavy traffic as rioters set fire to vehicles or driving like madmen in Baghdad traffic, shooting at the enemy following us. The Brits I was teamed with back in Iraq and I spent hours honing our weapons skills at the impromptu range, practicing our reactions to all kinds of "what-if" scenarios. We ceaselessly planned how we could use our vehicles to shield us as we tried to rescue a colleague who may have been shot on the road. We even contemplated what to do if we had to leave them there. As I went the other day to attend my elder daughter's middle-school orchestra recital, I thought of those what-if scenarios and subconsciously planned yet another one. 

The police are as useless as a nun at a sex orgy most of the times

As my daughter performed beautifully in the concert, I wondered if I could afford to spend time listening to her. I continually looked out the glass doors to see if a fucking gunman was walking in. I was busy scanning people seated around me for any unnatural movements. Under the guise of using my camera, I had already noted all entry and exit points in the big room if my family had to run for it. I was going through various scenarios on how I would stop the gunman as he walked in. In Iraq, I at least had a noise-maker (my 9mm Beretta semi-auto handgun). At my daughter's concert, I had nothing but a feeling of emptiness in my left hand. I tried to imagine a shooter's line of sight from the outside-in, how he would be holding his long gun, and how much freedom he would have to sweep the room due to folded bleachers right next to the doors. I was calculating what path I could follow to run at him while avoiding being in the line of fire. I was playing out the actions I could take once I had gripped his weapon. All of this effort just so I could stay in the room for the duration of the concert.

My gentle readers, I am not OK, and neither should you be if you have school-age children. I will write more about what steps parents could take to maximize their kids' security at school as we get close to school reopening after the summer vacations. We can feel helpless or take action; I hope we do the latter.