I just saw the news about the high school in Alabama hit by the tornado. Eight students dead...

Tornados scare the bleep out of me. They pop up with little warning and destroy everything in their path.

I don't know how their parents will handle it. I have one prayer to God every night and that is to take me before taking my girls. I can handle anything else He wants to throw my way.

-Blast

Discuss survival topics when you are done hugging. They don't all come home.

Five local kids 12-15 yr old being driven by the 15 year old lacked the driving skills to be on an icy road during a blinding snow story at 7:30 in the morning.

All five lacked the skills to get out of a sinking car.

http://www.2news.tv/news/6108941.html

The cold and the cars claim many locally.

Wow, what a terrible story...

So, are seatbelt cutters and window punches allowed in schools? I'm guessing not.

As for teaching my girls we started long ago on "hugging a tree" if lost, not to play near pools unattended, not to talk to strangers (unless lost), etc... I need to add escaping a submerged car.

I think Texas has a law that says young drivers can't have anyone under 19 in the car with them or something like that. It came about after a lot of crashes similar to the one you posted.

-Blast

The need for seatbelt cutters is very limited. The seat belt latch is not known to fail.

Getting trapped in a car is real. Electronic door locks need to be understood. Who can get in and out of their doors. Does the driver have a master lock switched on. Has your family practiced getting out of all of the doors?

Getting trapped by a window is real. With the demise of the window crank, many people do not know how to lower the window of a friends car in a panic. Does the driver have a master window lock switched on?

These five children 12-15 years old drowned because they did not know how to open all of the windows and doors.

Ponder,

Good point about the seatbelt latch. That just leaves doors/windows as the block. I wonder if any company sells window punches disguised as lipstick so my girls could carry it under the zero-tolerance school radar...

-Blast

I grieve for the kids and their families as well.

As much as we prepare, we can't prepare for everything and it's strictly up to luck, God, Karma, Murphy's inattention, etc.

Preparing as best we can only enables us to be better able to take advantage of opportunities when they happen and to minimize the hazards as much as possible.

Mythbusters did a episode on escaping from a submerged/ing car that was pretty cool.

They tested both manual and electric windows while submerged.

Oddly, the electric windows still had power but the pressure on the glass from as little as two feet or so of water was more than the little motor could handle. The manual crank was useless.

The only thing that consistently worked (other than not driving into water) was the rescue hammer and punches.

I already have a storm whistle and small flashlight on a wristcoil in my beloved's car that lives on the gear shift. I'm planning to add a rescuequick to it as well.

FYI: I have had a seatbelt latch jam on me on an older car.

Granted it was only once out of thousands of times its sucessfully released, but it's that one time while you're under water or on fire that'll get you.

I'm planning on putting a rescuequick on my key ring and daughters keyring as well. I figure the school will call me if it's discovered and a problem.

Better to beg forgivness than ask permission.

They pretty much know I'm an overprotective and paranoid father anyway. "That's just Joe, he's a little odd"

You can get away with a lot when people think you're a little off.

Yep, I have that base covered.


-Blast

I saw one at brookstone's yesterday small and had a key ring on it. It did have the seatbelt cutter though.

"So, are seatbelt cutters and window punches allowed in schools? I'm guessing not."

Homeschool your kids. It solves more problems than it creates. No psychos, no incompetent teachers, no peer pressure from a**holes that were raised by the same, no drugs, no alcohol, no politically correct curriculum, you're more likely to know where your kids are (down by the creek catching frogs) and who they're with (not the local meth pusher) . But most of all, you're in charge of their education. Very quietly, private schools are now prefering to hire homeschooled teachers instead of those 'educated' by the government.

There are all kinds of places to help you homeschool, probably even near you. Over a million kids are homeschooled now, all over America (it's legal in all states), and the number is growing daily. The average parent can educate better than the average public school.

There is a woman by the name of Linda Schrock Taylor who is a public schoolteacher, and she has homeschooled her son for years, after school. What does that tell you? She has a fascinating series of eye-opening essays on American public schools at http://www.lewrockwell.com/taylor/taylor-arch.html

Sue

I do hug my daughters close, often. I have exposed (protectively) them to the world so that they do understand what happens. I have taught one survival skills (the oldest is severely handicapped). The oldest is still wise in the ways of the world.

I am proud of them, they both attend college. The oldest one wasn't expected to live ten minutes but she just celebrated her 21st birthday and has more than halfway completed her second (romance) novel. The younger is an honor student at a university away from home, and she takes care of herself and her business.

As everyone here is aware, You never know what can happen, so I do make sure that my kids know that I love them and cherish them, constantly!

Susan,

DW and I are STRONGLY looking at homeschooling. DD1 is 3.5 and can already read phonetically. The main reason we have for not homeschooling is the schools around us are actually pretty good.

My current plan is to "home-supplement" the public school education and then yanking them out at the first sign of troubles.

Thanks for the link.
-Blast