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Two masked men wearing hoodies and wielding handguns burst into the Pine Eagle Charter School in this tiny rural community on Friday. Students were at home for an in-service day, so the gunmen headed into a meeting room full of teachers and opened fire.

Someone figured out in a few seconds that the bullets were not drawing blood because they were blanks and the exercise was a drill, designed to test Pine Eagle's preparation for an assault by "active shooters" who were, in reality, members of the school staff. But those few seconds left everybody plenty scared.

Principal Cammie DeCastro said it became clear very quickly just how many of the school's 15 teachers would have survived. The answer: "Not many," she said.

Elementary teacher Morgan Gover, 31, said only two teachers would have lived to tell the tale. She admitted being scared, and also acknowledged she would have been among the casualties, having taken several fake direct hits from the shooters.

"I'll tell you, the whole situation was horrible," she said. "I got a couple in the front and a couple in the back."

The surprised staff had received training from the Union County Sheriff's Office on active shooter scenarios. They had been told they had some options, such as not rushing out of their classrooms when gunfire erupted, and locking and barricading their doors.

The district's Safety Committee and the School Board now will critically evaluate policies and procedures and decide what to do next, said DeCastro.

Armed teachers is one possible outcome, she said. Or the district may get armed and trained volunteers from the community to watch over the school in shifts, she said. Tougher doors and better locks are other options.

But thinking about active shooter scenarios is hard, she said.

"We are tender-hearted people who give hugs all day. We don't think like that." http://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/index.ssf/2013/04/gun
fire_and_moments_of_fear_as.html

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"So much for armed teachers!"

"You have a much greater chance of missing, shooting an innocent, and/or having your gun taken away from you than you have of actually shooting the shooter. 2 out of 15 (just to take this one for an example) is hardly anything to crow about, and having loaded guns in every classroom is just a dumb idea."

"This is why I am so against teachers being armed, even with training. They are not equipped emotionally to cope with this degree of added stress. Thank God these were blanks so no massacre occurred."

"As a retired teacher, I agree with your comment. It's usually those who have no idea what goes on in schools that make inane "suggestions" about everything having to do with them. That only two teachers survived this "readiness" exercise should tell those who are pushing for arming teachers something. My guess is that it won't because they are not inclined to listen."

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