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Rasha locks the shooter in the classroom with the children which apparently helped the police shoot him down. How does that make sense that Rasha is considered a hero after this? Who would lock an armed man in a classroom with children and think that's a good idea? And yet when the conservative news station in the book mentioned this, we're supposed to believe their insensitive whereas I think they were right that while Rasha's choice may have worked well in her favor, it doesn't seem realistic to me.

I understand why she was then considered a hero: because by locking him in, she reduced the potential number of victims (rather than if he had been able to assault children in all the other classrooms as well). However, I agree that it is a hard choice and that choosing between the lives of 300 children and the 20 of the children in that particular classroom is perhaps not the choice I would have made, had I been put in a similar situation. Either way it's a tough choice, and it luckily worked out very well in the book, where the shooter chose to fiddle with the lock rather than shoot the children that were available to him. It may be unrealistic in the book, but the situation is even more difficult in real life and I know some people who might have chosen the same course that Rasha did.

I can't imagine doing that, but I also can't imagine what it would be like to be in that situation at all. I doubt there would be lots of great options available to choose from.

If it were me, I would have locked him in an empty room so nobody would be hurt. I haven't read this book yet, but by the question here, we have a school shooting going on and a girl had to make a quick decision, so she put him in a classroom full of kids. I mean, your mind goes into fight-or-flight mode and you don't know what to think.

CLM1978 wrote: ↑14 May 2018, 12:28 If it were me, I would have locked him in an empty room so nobody would be hurt. I haven't read this book yet, but by the question here, we have a school shooting going on and a girl had to make a quick decision, so she put him in a classroom full of kids. I mean, your mind goes into fight-or-flight mode and you don't know what to think.

If I remember correctly, he was already in the classroom when Rasha was going down the hall. She knew the doors locked from the outside, so by closing the door, she could lock him in. It wasn't like she lured him into the room or anything like that. it was either lock him in THAT room, or give him access to the building.

I had a hard time with accepting her decision too. Fortunately, things work out however the author wants when it's a work of fiction. If the kids in that room had been killed, I don't think she would have been labeled a hero.

When I read it, I thought that it was an odd choice. While it did work out well for Rasha and others in the end, I felt like running into another room and alerting others that there was a shooter would have made more sense. If it's like other schools, the classrooms would have gone into lockdown once people knew that there was a shooter on-campus. That also would have saved lives. Plus, it seemed a little weird that the classroom locked from the outside and that she had time to lock the door before the shooter realized what had happened.

I was also perplexed by Rasha's choice. Did she really have enough time to think that she was saving lives by locking the shooter in? What if the shooter had just decided to kill every single student in that room instead of messing with the lock? What if it had turned into a hostage situation? Seemed like Rasha wad just trying to keep herself safe... Not that she was being selfish, but rather her self-preservation instincts kicked in.

That's a very good point of view! Why add insult to injury? It certainly is one of the worst case scenarios written.

Currently in schools, students are being taught to counter an attacker. So in reality the kids would be throwing things at the shooter and climbing out the window to escape. Truth is stranger than fiction.

I think Rasha made a very good choice to shut the shooter in a classroom. By doing so, she reduced the number of casualties. At the district that I work at as a sub, the district staff was taught to take a bat and swing it at the attacker as hard as they could, because you never know.

I'm on the fence about this one. While I feel that this might have worked well in the book, in real life it would be incredibly controversial. On one hand, we have a woman possibly saving countless lives. On the other hand, we have a woman locking an armed shooter in a classroom with children. I think if I had to pick I would say she did the right thing by locking him in.

The good of the many over the good of the few. While she locked a few children in with a shooter, she also saved the rest of the school from being subjected to being in danger. She also deliberately slammed the door so that he knew he was locked in and was more distracted with trying to escape than injuring anyone else. She made a difficult decision in a terrifying situation, and I believe should be considered a hero.

I completely think she made the right choice. I think it would be very hard to do that in the heat of the moment though. No one wants to live with the guilt of lives on their hands. That's why people would rather let the shooter go around the whole school shooting up people and blame it on him rather than take the responsibility on themselves of f=the fewer lives locked in the room.

Locking the shooter in the room was probably the best choice Rasha could have made given the circumstances, but if I were in that situation, I don't think I could have taken the risk that the shooter would kill the classroom. Rather than locking the shooter in immediately, I would have run into the room and shut the door behind me, locking us both in. At least then, I could die knowing that I did everything I could to stop the children from getting hurt.

In the fantasy world of the book, it seemed to miraculously work. In a real-life situation, it would be a very irresponsible decision.