Shooting Occurred Because Women Ran The School

[m0drnmoonlight]

First of all, like many here have said, the idiot who wrote this didn't even bother researching the topic. Sandy Hook is K-4, so the oldest kids there would be like 9 and 10, not 12. Also, some of the earliest Associated Press stories featured the quote from a MALE teacher about a MALE custodian running through hallways, warning everyone that a shooter was in the building. Learn how to use google, you dumb fuck (the writer, not you guys).

I am so fucking disgusted. I have never seen such absolute bullshit written in the wake of a mass shooting before. I don't remember this after Tucson or Columbine or Aurora. Is it because the majority of the victims are children, so the idiot conservatives and fundies can trot out the "This is akin to abortion" argument? Or since it was at a school, "because it was a public school, God punished them" and "women are weak and can't fend off a shooter, so that's why they all died"? Absolutely fucking disgusting.

Guess what - my elementary school principal was a man. He was very quiet and mild-mannered and would join a music ensemble of teachers at the holidays and play Christmas carols for us on the tuba. He also cared very deeply for his students and I could see him going at the gunman like the very brave principal at Sandy Hook did. But men are not bullet-proof and he would have probably met the same demise.

And very good point earlier about the "well why didn't they throw stuff at him?" argument. Is this an action movie? Would the janitor heroically fling his mop bucket at the shooter and when he tries to fire back, his gun locks and then one of the teachers puts him in a headlock and end scene? I read this article on Jezebel and they were wondering whether this woman was advocating having the kids throw crayons at him.

My sister's a music teacher in Connecticut (not at this school, thank god - she's up by Hartford) and she's tougher than some men I know. She would definitely go to bat for her kids (as horrible as it is, imagining it), but you know? Teachers shouldn't have to be worrying about this. School is supposed to be a safe place, dammit. My sister and other teachers and educators and students shouldn't have to go to school everyday, wondering if a gunman is going to burst in and spray them with bullets.

And I'm guessing "reading specialist" was put in quotes because she thinks it's a bullshit profession. It reminds me of Sharron Angle referring to autism as "autism," complete with air quotes.

[StarrieEyedKat]

I am honestly seeing red right now. Honestly.

I'm having to resist the honest to god urge to grab my laptop and smash it against the table. This article is one of the most offensive things I've ever read, and that's saying a LOT.

[ADoyle90815]

I'm having to resist the honest to god urge to grab my laptop and smash it against the table. This article is one of the most offensive things I've ever read, and that's saying a LOT.

I agree. :angry-cussingblack: :angry-fire: :angry-screaming: :angry-banghead:

[m0drnmoonlight]

I'm having to resist the honest to god urge to grab my laptop and smash it against the table. This article is one of the most offensive things I've ever read, and that's saying a LOT.

God, same here! It's victim-blaming at its worst! "Well the teachers were all women, of course everyone died!"

[lilah]

Yes victim blaming with a side of too many action movies where dumbasses think gunfights are just like in the movies so if only there were more manly men toting guns we'd would not have these tragedies. Never mind that victims in these situations were ambushed, or that return fire could have killed more victims. Nevermind that saying we needed Rambo in the classroom to save the day completely negates the heroism of the victims. It's a revenge fantasy pure and simple.

[Peas n carrots]

My elementary school principal was gay, but he would likely be deemed "too fruity" by Charlotte Allen.

My dad is a teacher and I'm pretty sure bullet proof as well. The thing is, he would have done exactly the same thing as those teachers....he would make sure his students were safe and secure first and foremost. He is smart enough to know that going up against a guy with a gun only guarantees getting cut down. I'm sure more students would have been killed if these teachers in Newtown didn't try to hide them first instead of rushing the shooter.

Is there no such thing as using logic anymore?

[Hane]

The stupidity and inaccuracy of Allen's article makes me see red for all the reasons everyone else has already mentioned, but let me mention another thing:

Public school teachers here in Connecticut are very well paid (my sister, daughter, and many of my friends and relatives are teachers). Two male friends of mine decided to make career changes into teaching, and were hired by elementary schools almost immediately, because elementary schools are actively trying to boost their level of male teachers, because they want to have positive male role models for children growing up in households that may not have any.

[m0drnmoonlight]

I'm also surprised this woman wants to know where all the men are in an elementary school. Her ilk seem the type to think that a male elementary school teacher is either:

a. gay

b. a pedophile

c. both

[Austin]

My husband teaches in a K-6 now (fifth grade) and it's about 60/40 women to men there. When he taught eighth grade, there were years where it was nearly evenly split. Just depends on the school.

And a lot of people think that middle school or high school teachers make more than a first grade teacher, for instance. In public schools, they don't generally. Everybody with five years' experience and a certain degree of education makes the same, no matter what grade they teach.

[JesusFightClub]

I am a woman. I've fired guns. I don't celebrate my moral courage :oops: , but physical courage I do have. I'd be as likely to fire a gun in this situation as to dress as a kangaroo.

I have fired the gun the attacker used. It would be utterly stupid to take a gun into a primary school classroom. That would be FUCKING STUPID. Especially a gun of that calibre and that size.

What you can do is what those brave women did which is protect the children in your charge. I have so much respect for them.

[Lillybee]

She continues her theory here

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/1 ... -argument/

[shesinsane]

Holy crap, it's so obvious! Since "Women are less aggressive by instinct, and they are typically trained to be nice", only women should be allowed to possess guns! No female has ever shot up a school*, there's all the proof you need. :D

*Brenda Ann Spencer was more than 30 years ago and Charlotte Allen has inspired me not to rely on facts to make my point.

[GolightlyGrrl]

I can think of one place that was a plethora of the menz, and still children weren't safe. Two words, Charlotte-Penn State

Oh, make that three words-Penn State, bitch.

[ems]

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/12/19/1361521/top-conservative-publication-newtown-happened-because-women-ran-the-school/

Wow, soooooo much is wrong with this.

I suppose, though, that if there had been male teachers and administrators at the school, she would have said they were rejecting their God-given male roles.

And these teachers are too feminine to be heroic, and yet they want to arm them?

[ems]

Wait.

"There was not a single adult male on the school premises when the shooting occurred. In this school of 450 students, a sizeable number of whom were undoubtedly 11- and 12-year-old boys (it was a K–6 school), all the personnel — the teachers, the principal, the assistant principal, the school psychologist, the “reading specialist†— were female. There didn’t even seem to be a male janitor to heave his bucket at Adam Lanza’s knees."

From http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/12 ... oting?lite:

"A custodian warned of the gunman by running through the halls, said 4th-grade teacher Theodore Varga. 'He said, "Guys! Get down! Hide!"" Varga said. 'So he was actually a hero.'"

That could be Kevin Anzellotti, Head Custodian as per the Sandy Hook School website. And the quoted teacher, Theodore Varga? He's totally a dude as well. See? http://myschooldesk.net/newtown/teacher ... mid.118648

The dumbasses at National Review should learn to Google. Not that theirs was a valid theory even if it were true. But now they look even more stupid. Guess it's too much to hope they're a misguided version of The Onion?

said 4th-grade teacher Theodore Varga

Also this. Theodore sure sounds like a male name to me.

[JesusFightClub]

I have fired the gun he held. I would like to point out that "beefy male teachers" and "husky schoolboys" are about as much defence against it as no defence at all.

Rushing somebody with a gun works if the person is wavering. It doesn't work if the person's determined. In fact, as the poor (and very brave) principal found out, it's a fantastic way to get yourself killed.

People don't know fuck all about guns or what motivates attackers. They just like to pontificate. "If the people there all had penises, everyone would be safe!" "If 12 year old boys were braver, everyone would be safe!" "If a teacher had been able, in the middle of a scene of panic, to execute a perfect headshot [a shot a trained firearms copper would attempt precisely never in the scenario in the middle of the room, let alone a teacher with basic weapons training] everything would be alright! Why couldn't they? They had vaginas, is why!"

I'm sorry for keep ranting on. It's that I feel this misunderstanding is dangerous and misogynistic. It puts my teeth on edge.

It's like people being boastful about something they know nothing about. Firing back against a gunman is effective in certain circumstances. None of these are in a kid's classroom.

I like guns. I've fired a few. I am planning to join a gun club in the New Year. If I thought guns were the answer to everything, not only would I know even less fucking shit about guns, I'd be even more of a stupid fucking idiot than I am naturally. ;)

My brother's mate's little cousin died in Dunblane. I've seen the reports. I don't think an armed teacher could have done anything except make it worse.

[gardenvarietycitizen]

Rushing somebody with a gun works if the person is wavering. It doesn't work if the person's determined. In fact, as the poor (and very brave) principal found out, it's a fantastic way to get yourself killed.

That's what I don't get about this whole argument - the principal, AS A WOMAN, DID in fact rush the shooter in a last ditch futile burst of heroism. So how would her having a penis have changed anything at all?

Unless what they really mean to say is that any male principal would surely have been packing heat himself (and I don't for one second believe that) I just don't see how they find any sense at all in this argument.

[starfish]

In addition to being wrong about no men working at the school, Charlotte Allen was also wrong that there

were no other men at the school. There was a man there---his name was Adam Lanza.