It's been almost two years since my last entry... a year of online learning and a semester of pandemic, masked in person learning and we are back to school lockouts, holds and bomb threats. Yesterday during 4th hour we got an all call to evacuate the school and go to the mall food court. My kids were in the photo lab, so they opened the garage and high tailed out. Since they were all seniors, most tried to leave in their cars. A few made it out with their cars but some were stopped and told to walk to the mall with the rest of us. Eventually about 80% of our students left the mall area for home or other places while we were waiting for K-9 units to search the school area. I would not call the situation stressful. It was almost fun-- definitely weird.
This morning during first hour we were told to "HOLD" which is just keeping kids in our class until things could be cleared up. There were rumors of a student with a weapon, other rumors of just another 911 call with a bogus bomb threat. I am still not clear what the issue was but a few of my kids were freaking out. One called her mom and asked to be picked up. I was not too concerned personally but there is something about the repetition of stress. I had just talked to my Monday morning students about my taking time off to see my daughter next week before she is sent to the Baltic Sea to be a presence. While the war in Ukraine is not directly affecting us, it is an added stress, especially the nuclear possibilities. One of my animators added a picture of Putin to his "the end" scene and instead of just writing the end, he wrote "the end is near." I thought it was funny, but it also told me the kids are thinking about it. So to get a bomb threat right after talking about war, it starts to add up. Then today!? After this morning's HOLD, the day seemed to back to normal but there was anxiety in the air.
I welcomed my 6th hour class today, not having talked to them yesterday and talked about all the happenings; and then LOCKOUT was called over the PA. I assumed that meant to go outside, so I sent my kids out. NO! It was the opposite. Oops. Luckily I am part of team. Grace and Josh rushed about and went into LOCKDOWN mode. We all hid in the computer lab while Josh implemented what felt like a fairly tense situation-- no talking and certainly no laughing. I pulled the safety protocols off the wall and started to read the difference between a lockout and a lockdown... basically it's about where the danger is. A lockout allows classes to go on as normal with danger being outside of the building. Lockdown means there danger INSIDE the building-- scary. Wanting clarification, I sent an email to a secretary asking if my kids could come out of lockdown mode and was given the okay. I read an official email from admin to my students and told them they could go back to my room (which is full of windows covered with shades), but assured them that if they wanted to stay in the computer lab (which is windowless) with Josh, they could. I had kids under tables on the floor fairly stressed out. A few decided to stay with Josh. He proceeded to teach. My students continued to ask questions about using the bathroom and leaving early since some did not have a 7th hour. The answer was no, no one could leave in a lockout. I got an email from a student who had been caught in the bathroom when the lockout was called and asked if he could come to class. I forwarded the email to the same secretary and was given a thumbs up. Yes, but make it fast. I emailed him that I would wait for him by the door. I saw him run down the hall and he was relieved to be in class in what felt like a fairly normal atmosphere.
Normal!? We were back to school, in masks but feeling like the pandemic was finally behind us. I've been exposed to countless students and have yet to get sick (at least I have not been aware of being sick if I ever did get COVID). Things were starting to feel normal. Madison lifted it's mask mandate just today! We'll be in masks at school until after spring break for sure but maybe by April, it will really be back to normal? But what is normal? Normal means back to lockdowns, lockouts and evacuations... I now know the difference.
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