Protecting Children from Terror
This device, which always sits beside the teachers' room at my school, was designed to enable teachers to protect students from school intruders with harmful intentions. There's at least one of these devices in every Japanese public school. By positioning it between themselves and the intruder so that the intruder is between the two prongs, and then pushing the intruder up against a wall, a teacher can prevent the intruder from harming or taking a child captive. This is one type of security system developed in response to a rash of intruder-committed school stabbings in Japan during recent times.I was amused (and perhaps slightly disturbed) to discover that Jared's primary school underwent intruder drills where a man with a fake knife chased the children around the gymnasium until the children backed away as instructed and this device was successfully used on him. When Jared told me about it, he added, "And the last time was SCARY because he almost got me!" Incidentally, this type of drill was discontinued because they were frightening the students. Who would've thunk?
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oh my goodness!! poor little kiddies!!
Thanks, Crystal. I wasn't even aware you read my blog. The knife thing does reminds me a little of their Setsubun celebration when they have the demon chase the kids around until they throw beans at it, so maybe it's at least a little culturally related.
Beck: Hee hee. I don't think Jared was scarred by it, but I wouldn't be surprised if some other kids had nightmares.
A "fake" knife? Interesting. I think I heard about this drill about a year or so ago. Jared was ok with it though? He's pretty immune to it from his schools days in the States then, is he? ;) Like, with the non-fake knives?
Jared wasn't old enough to go to school in the States before he came here, but I'm sure this is good training for if he ever goes to an inner-city high school. ;)
Well, that certainly backfired on me. Wasn't old enough. Righ, I forgot about that.
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