Commenters on the AJC Get Schooled blog praised the calm response of Antoinette Tuff, bookkeeper at Ronald E. McNair Discovery Learning Academy, to an armed intruder at the school last week. They also applauded the police response. However, they have a lot of questions about the alleged intruder. Here is a sampling of blog comments:
Dr.Knowledge: Whatever else comes of this discussion, thanks to the cops who responded so quickly and without regard for their own safety to a dangerous situation that thankfully ended well.
Ernest: This is a reminder that we have many great employees in our schools. Ms. Antoinette Tuff is the obvious hero, but there were many others in the schoolhouse who quietly worked to ensure the children and teachers were safe. This is very reassuring. As others have said, we should all be thankful this incident ended without anyone being physically hurt. It remains to be seen what, if any, emotional scars come from this.
Guest: One thing we can learn is, there is no use having to buzz people into school if you allow others to piggyback with them. Each person needs to be allowed in separately and watch for people trying to sneak in.
Class80: We should be thanking our lucky stars (and the brave woman at the school who talked the shooter into surrendering) that this did not end in bloodshed. However, there are many lessons to be learned from this incident. This shooter had a previous arrest for making terrorist threats. What were those threats? To shoot up a school? Yet he was only given probation, and then apparently not checked on very well. Where did he get the guns, and how?
Chamblee: I know my daughter had her DeKalb elementary school go on "lockdown," and she was pulled off the playground and taken back into the school yesterday. If I went to her school today, I could get on her playground through an unlocked gate in a three-foot fence that backs up to plenty of woods for cover. If I wanted to get to the gym and trailers behind her school and encounter any students going back and forth between the main, tightly locked building, I could do so by walking up five steps from a road behind the school quite easily, not even a gate.
Milton: The guy is crazy just like Adam Lanza, but hey, you libs want to integrate everyone into society, so crap like this will continue until we realize that people like this do not need to be in society unless you are willing to accept the consequences.
Astro: The lesson I take out of this is that every school needs a few more Antoinette Tuffs — people who can think on their feet and not panic or can improvise a solution like she did. Well, Antoinette, we're lucky to have you.
SB: Why is it that when a white person commits a crime, they're a crazed lone wolf, but when a minority commits a crime, they are a reflection of their entire race/religion?
