Lesson in survival? Some say training teachers and kids to confront a gunman is going too far

Steven Elbow::

There was nervous laughter as the teachers waited, but it evaporated when the commotion broke out in the hallway. People were yelling, and someone blasted a deafening air horn in staccato bursts, meant to represent gunfire.

Five teachers in the barricaded classroom rushed to find cover while one brave soul held a strap affixed to the door handle to keep a would-be attacker out.

It was all for naught. The handle turned, the flimsy tables piled in front of the door gave way and the doorway was breached.

“Don’t just stand there. If I’m in the door, slam that door,” yelled the assailant, in reality a Sauk County emergency management official. “Slam my arm in it. Don’t let me stand here. I’m in the fatal funnel. Attack me.”