Don't make me use the pitchfork on you!

There was a special training this afternoon for all the teachers. Recently, there have been a couple of incidents where strangers have entered schools and attacked or threatened to attack students.

How have the schools responded? By making these pitchfork-looking-type things available in all schools. The training today was about how to best use this weapon (?) to defend ourselves and students against unwanted intruders.

First, we had professionals demonstrate how to use it properly.


I didn't understand everything that was being said, sometimes only catching bits and pieces. But I did understand him saying that its best to leave the defending to the male teachers. Should a female teacher come across someone who looks suspicious, she should run and find a male teacher who will then use the pitchfork to defend everyone.

Next, they asked for volunteers to try to use it on one of the teachers. So all the manly PE teachers happily went up to play act an intruder and 3 defenders...it was funny to watch.

I'm not sure how much more effective this pitchfork thing is over maybe using something more readily available like a chair or desk.