http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26329893/

This link is to an article about a school shooting in Tennessee today. It really could be any school in the U.S.

Read the article, and I want to point out a couple things.

First, a student with a cell phone ran outside to call mom. A perfectly normal and understandable reaction, but in those circumstances, potentially disastrous. A very real problem with school shootings, aside from the obvious, is that when officials are trying to establish order, provide first aid, account for students, secure the scene, etc., they are having to deal with panicked parents rushing on campus to rescue their kids.

Students don't need cell phones. Teachers should be the only ones making phone calls in an emergency.

Second, the article said that there were students trying to run into the room where the shooting occurred because they were afraid they were missing a fight.

They were running towards a shooter. That is scary. I have kids in school. I know they are drawn to a fight like a moth to a flame, but what a nightmare. I can't imagine the horror of learning that my child was shot because he wanted to see a fight.

This is the from the article.
Matthews said he thought it was a fake at first but then realized the shooting was real.

“I took off running and ran outside and called my mom,” Matthews said.

Students in the cafeteria began crying and scrambling to leave, while others tried to get in the room, thinking they had missed a fight, witnesses said. Students began to gather around the victim, said freshman Jared Wohlford, 14. “Everybody started running out real fast saying, ’He got shot,”’ he said.