A week or so ago Fuller's school held their yearly lock down and evacuation drill. I'm torn between feeling terrible that my kids live in a time when this is necessary, and being thankful that at least they're prepared. I'm not sure of the exact explanation the kids are given, but Fuller says it is practice so they know what to do if someone with a gun is in the school. Apparently the teacher locks the door and closes the curtain, and the students have to get on the floor and be silent, until they are told it's time to evacuate the building. Then they actually practice evacuating all 800 plus students to a church about a block away. As people who know Fuller I'm sure know, he is a worrier. I'm sure practicing for something like that has been weighing on his mind.
Then this morning there was a report of a gun on one of the elementary school buses, which put both Fuller and Grayson's school's into lock down. Grayson wasn't at school yet, so my neighbor Paige who drives him to school got to keep him for awhile, until the school was reopened. He apparently thought it was "cool". When I dropped Fuller off everything seemed normal, but apparently he stepped through the front door right as they were initiating the lock down. So, he was greeted by some grown up he didn't know yelling at him that the school was in lock down and he need to get to the detention room. I guess all the kids that were in the building, but not yet in their classes were sent there. He said there were around thirty students in there. So my worrier of a child got to spend the first 20-30 minutes of his day sitting silently on the floor, in a strange room with a bunch of kids he didn't know, with little information to put his mind at ease. Poor kid! I know it affected him because he was so out of sorts when I picked him up from school. He's too much of a big kid now though to have really let anyone know what was bugging him today.
Thankfully there really wasn't a gun. According to the letter they came home with, some kid had brought a rifle scope with them on the bus. So much trouble over something so stupid! I guess it's at least good to know that the school district and the police know how to act fast if there's ever a real emergency.
5 comments:
We had our first practice intruder drill last week. I was amazed at how well my students responded. We hadn't practiced at all, but they followed my directions quickly and were silent, so they've practiced enough in previous years that they know what to do. We've only had 2 real lock downs in my 18 years here.
Poor Fuller. That's awful. I think that we should let the school district know that as parents and from a student perspective, there needs to be more communication.
That was all so scary. I was uneasy about dropping Bailey off even when they did say it had all been cleared up. And poor Fuller! I'm sure it was WAY more scary for him to be stuck in the school not knowing for sure what was going on. Man, times they are a changin'!
Logan is a worrier too. Her old school had a couple of lock-downs that really shook her up and I think this one did too. I'm with you, at least they take these things seriously and if we are ever unforturnate enough, hopefully we'll be prepared.
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