Drills

Every Tuesday morning I volunteer in Sarah's class and help with reading.  Yesterday was no exception, except when I got there the kids were still on the carpet.  I waited patiently for them to finish their lesson and go back to their desks like I always do, except after five minutes the teacher came over to let me know that they weren't going to start reading for a bit.  There was going to be a lockdown drill.

The kids were aware of the drill so they weren't nervous or scared, and at that age they are probably so oblivious to the reasons you have a lockdown that they wouldn't be scare anyway, it was just business as usual.  Finally the principal came over the loud speaker letting the kids know that it was time for the drill.  The part I found amusing was that she said how they were going to have the drill and that when they heard her say the following - and she said a couple rhyming sentences about hiding and being safe - that they knew it was time to get in position.  I understand that they are trying to make it light, but if someone bursts into the school with an automatic weapon I'm pretty sure the principal isn't going to have time to say her little rhyme to alert the kids to lock their doors and get in place.

On one of my volunteer days after Sandy Hook I looked around the room to see exactly where you would put 25 kids in case of trouble and there aren't really any hiding places in Sarah's classroom.  I read stories about teachers hiding kids in cabinets and bathrooms, but they don't have that in her room.  However, the way you enter the classroom there is some space along the wall where you would not be able to see the kids from the window in the door.  So that is where they lined up, on the floor, with the lights out.  They sat there for about 10 minutes and were unbelievably quiet and well behaved while the principal ran throughout the school to make sure that everybody's rooms were locked from the inside and nobody could get in from the hallway.

When it was over it was no big deal, the kids went back to reading time and probably forgot about it by the end of the day.  I was glad that I was there to witness it and know what they will do if something were to happen.  All I could think about while sitting there, and also while discussing it with Charlie later that night, was that we didn't have to go through this kind of stuff when we were kids.  The only drills we had were fire and tornado drills, drills having to do with natural disasters that nobody had any control of, not drills that addressed crazy wackadoos that want to intentionally hurt my children.

I guess for them it's just growing up in this complicated society that we live in, but I hope their innocence can stay intact for just a little bit longer.