Sign of the times?

We lived in Inverness at one time and I would walk to the playgroup my son attended through houses lived in mostly by army families. As we passed through one day there was a soldier crouching down hiding with a large rifle . I just walked by and nothing was said. I took it it was some training exercise. I would not do that now .

If the sirens sounded

We lived in East Berkshire for 15 years, not far from Broadmoor. Every Monday at 10.00m they would test the sirens.
We went househunting there and were told that happened weekly. If the sirens went out, stay in and lock the doors - the school would look after the children.

We had regular bomb drills at work too.

Nanna8 that must have been worrying, not a drill but a real life situation.

Poor things, let's hope they don't have bad nightmare about what could have been.
My DiL is American, she's pleased my Granddaughter is been educated in UK. She said Children where she's from are able to buy School Backpacks that have "Bullet proof "areas! Frightening.

We lived in East Berkshire for 15 years, not far from Broadmoor. Every Monday at 10.00m they would test the sirens.

If they went off at any other time we knew there had been an escape. Most escapees were low risk patients, close to release, some walked out because they did not want to be released and hoped an escape would mean they would be kept there. They usually escaped away from the village towards the nearest town and railway station, but usually ended up knocking on a door the next village on and asking for a cup of tea. The houseowner would ring the police who would just come round and collect them.

I can only remember one dangerous one . A man got out early one morning, so all the schools closed. It was a stiffling hot day as we were in the middlee of a heatwave and as most escapees were not violent or dangerous when we got home as we had a secure fence around the garden, I allowed the children into the garden, with strict insructions to come in if they heard anyone the the other side of the hedge. I was also keeping a very close eye on them.

12 hours after the escape it was announced that the escapee was a child rapist. I was furious as were other parents who had done much the same with me. If we had known, we would have stayed in doors even if we stifled. he was free for about 2 days, but did no one any harm.

Dunblane has left a terrible scar

I remember bomb scares being pretty common back in the 70s. As the youngest in our dept, if there was a phone call re a bomb scare, I'd be the one sent down four flights to stairs to find out it if was a real one or not from the management huddled round the back door. Luckily, there never was a real bomb and I didn't exactly rush back upstairs to tell the staff that.

I remember being taught duck and cover in school.
Nuclear bombs were the worry then.
Illegal drugs are the scourge of the world, and an easy way to undermine a country.

I suppose in World War 2 there were bombs but in peacetime you don’t expect this sort of thing. It is a big school with 1,200 pupils so that means all that lot were under their desks. Horrible.

Every term, in France, there are terrorist drills. There are two types both held in silence, invasion when children hide in the classroom under their desks maybe for half an hour and the gas attack when they have to go to a designated area for an hour or so.
When I was in China the children had earthquake drill, there again they go under the desks.

I've experienced that in my teaching days. We were always having drills just in case, with various designated safe places to evacuate pupils to in case of evacuation.

It does seem to be worse, maybe because everything is more widely reported.

However, working in schools in London in the 70s we had bomb practice as well as fire practice, because of the IRA threat.
And in Brixton we once cleared the school because of the man with the machete.

So not necessarily a sign of the times.

Oh dear what a horrible thing for them even if they did think it was fun its a worry for you. we had someone wandering about with a rifle a couple of weeks ago and then the small Tesco was ram raided in the night in a quiet residential street.