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Yesterday afternoon Hershey as well as all schools in the Lafayette area were under a lockdown because someone called and made a threat to harm an unspecified school. Of course we take that seriously - keeping kids safe is the highest priority.
But, when this happens, we end up losing teaching time, kids are frightened, parents are alarmed, the school is inundated with phone calls and emails, police are scrambled and sent out...
The threat turned out to not be credible. Which is a good thing. A very good thing.
But at the same time, my students lost an entire afternoon of learning. When the lockdown was announced, we were with our reading buddies and so I had no access to my materials, computer, or anything else. After we were allowed to come out of our safe spots but still were unable to leave the classrooms, we popped in The Polar Express for the kids to watch and made them popcorn. It was a great distraction and took their minds off the frightening aspects of being under a lockdown, but it wasn't very educational.
Harming children (or adults or animals, etc.) makes no sense to me. I cannot comprehend any reason why someone would do such a thing. And yet it happens, and lives are lost. And even more disturbing, sometimes children are the focus, the target.
My inability to understand it doesn't change the fact that it happens. And so we prepare and we practice. We were ready yesterday, even though we were not in our own classroom. Everyone is fine, at least outwardly.
I can only pray that that will continue to be so, and no idiot will harm these children.
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