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Had to laugh at those pictures of kids under their desks like that was going to protect them from a blast.

Permit me the privilege of enlightening you a bit.

The whole 'duck and cover' drill was NEVER intended to protect school kids from the effects of a direct nuclear blast, nobody in their right mind was suggesting that.

The object of 'duck and cover' was to shield the kids from the shards of flying glass and debris that would surely be arriving after the blast wave from a nuclear detonation miles away hit their school, breaking and imploding the windows INTO their classrooms.

Those sturdy metal & wood desks would have provided at least some minimal protection from such injuries, plus it kept the kids down below the window line as well.

We were doing 'duck and cover' drills in my elementary school during the Cuban missile crisis, and I'm here to tell you that it was far better to be mentally and physically prepared for such an event, even as grade school kids. We understood the potential risks, and so did our teachers and families. Parents in my school district sent in extra provisions (cookies, crackers, Hawaiian Punch, etc.) should it become necessary for the kids to live at the schools post-strike due to radiation fallout.

We need that same level of preparation returned to our public schools today.

“Had to laugh at those pictures of kids under their desks like that was going to protect them from a blast.”

Actually it probably will. When you look at the areas of circles you see that the ‘shock wave’ area of a nuclear blast is far larger by area than the ‘everything vaporizes’. The most likely danger when a bomb goes off is flying glass. Hiding under your desk is not a bad way to avoid some of that. The truth is that even for big bombs if you are a few miles away it is not the ‘skin burning off apocalypse’ that you see in Hollywood. There is a reason those shelters are called ‘fallout’ shelters and not ‘blast’ shelters. Hide in your basement two weeks until the main dust cloud goes away and you have a fairly decent chance of survival.