What should schoolchildren do if an active shooter arrives on their campus?
The British government has created a new cartoon book to teach children safety in the event of every parent’s worst nightmare.
Moggy’s Coming is a cartoon book which features the students of Mulberry School for Mice in the town of Goodcitizenham. The mice are taught what to do in the case of a cat arriving at school.
It teaches children to “run, hide, tell, treat” in the event of an active shooter.
Older children will be given more advanced classes including “teacher-led discussions about a shooter in a school” and basic medical training such as how to tie a tourniquet.
The book shows the mice receiving instructions from their teachers and running a drill. Then a cat does arrive and the children put their training into practice.
Hundreds of teachers in Birmingham have beent rained with the books in a pilot scheme. If it is successful it will be rolled out nationwide.
“We are passionate about making sure what we learnt the hard way in the military does get into the civilian community, to wider benefit,” Brigadier Tom Hodgetts of CitizenAid, which created the book, told The Times. “If there are indiscriminate attacks in public places, children are part of the public and they will be swept up. If we look at the allegories, they are not talking about terrorism, they are talking about if you are in a situation where somebody is trying to hurt you.”
CitizenAid created an app which helps members of the public know what to do in the case of an attack. The group brings military and medical expertise from its founding members and teaches vital skills to ordinary people.
“When there is a shooting, stabbing or bomb explosion the initial priority will be public safety,” citizenAID says on their website. “This can delay the time before the emergency services are able to reach the injured. citizenAID™ enables the general public to be effective in these situations before the emergency services are available to provide professional medical support.”
The group’s motto is “Be prepared not scared.”
It is sad that the security situation necessitates teaching children these skills. However, if lives can be saved through preventative education, that is by far preferable to the alternative.
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