Lock Down

Remember when you were in school and while not wanting to question a good thing, you always wondered what teachers did during Teacher Inservice Days? Well I won't take all the wonder of it out for you, but I'll mention a part of what we did in our inservice today.

It's probably the greatest fear for most teachers; beyond the alarm clock didn't go off and I'm three hours late fear, or the surprise visit by your assistant principal evaluator when you're totally unprepared fear is the much more sobering (though much less likely) fear of a school shooting.

Every month we are mandated by law to practice a fire drill. Students know that when the last day of the month rolls around they better bring a jacket to class because there's more than likely going to be a fire drill. They roll their eyes and grumble about why we always have to do these stupid things. Since 1992 the number of deaths attributed to fires in schools: 0. Since 1992 the number of deaths and/or injuries attributed to school shootings: 500+. Sobering. Yet we don't have a drill for what students should do in such a situation at our school. We have a procedure, of course, but never practice a drill. Even the teachers can be fuzzy at times with what that procedure is. So today we learned a very eye opening lesson. Fortunately for us we were told about what was going to happen. Each of us went into the drill with the scenario filter. What I experienced was a small fraction of the adrenaline and fear that one would experience in reality.

All 115+ of us were placed into 4 classrooms down one wing of the building. We chatted and laughed like students would during a normal class period. Within 2 minutes the Lock Down alarm sounded at which point our "teacher" turned off the lights and we huddled away from the door in the dark. Shortly after we see masked men carrying many large (yet fake) guns outside our door. Yah, my heart was pounding a bit faster. We knew they were going to enter 2 of the 4 classrooms. Then a short and angry looking man wearing khaki pants, a baggy flannel shirt, panty hose over his face and a ski mask came in shouting at us, standing on desks, waving his gun around. He was demanding something that none of us knew how to get for him. He said he would start killing people one by one until his demands were met. Boom, one down. Boom, another, then another, then me...

Wow. I was completely struck by how fast my life could have ended. Just like that. I would not have been witness to the rest. And as I sat there thinking about how fast it all happened and how unfair it was, the masked man "killed" a few more and eventually ran out to, I presume, kill others. My coworkers sat, huddled, talking about what should be done next. Does someone go back to the door to turn out the lights? Should someone call the office and give them some information on the shooter? The office wasn't picking up. As it turned out they'd been the first ones hit. The entire drill lasted maybe 10-15 minutes ending with an armed officer opening our door and telling us it was clear. But at least 7 people were dead in my classroom alone. Several more in the room next door. How terrifying.

In the past we have never practiced Lock Downs because we never want students to become eye-rolling grumblers who don't take it seriously. But I recall a time, maybe 3 years ago, when the Lock Down alarm sounded. Students didn't know what it was. They fought with teachers about coming into the classrooms and getting out of the hallways quickly. None of us knew why it was going off and most of us really didn't know all that we needed to do. I knew to lock my door and turn off the lights, but we went so long without hearing anything from the administration that my students just kind of kept on working. We were eventually told that it went off by mistake and that there was no threat but how inappropriate was our reaction? We haven't had any alarms since then but it's looking like it could be something that we begin drilling with our students and I'm glad for it. Not so they can become indifferent to it but so that we can make our response, God forbid we should ever come to need it, appropriate and life-saving.