A Plan
As I do most Wednesday mornings, I was in Riley's first grade class today, helping give individual spelling tests and creating spelling word lists for the children. Riley looks forward to me bringing him to school those mornings and walking him into class. He is my first speller of the morning and prides himself on being an excellent one. He absolutely adores school and loves learning. Every other morning when I put him onto the bus, I call to him to have a great day and he always responds, "I WILL!"
Even today, he will inevitably come home and afterward exclaim that he had a great day. He has no idea that he participated in a drill that drove a terrifying reality home to me. I was there when the school participated in a lock down drill.
I don't know if Riley had done one before, but it was certainly MY first lock down drill. Growing up in Southern California, we had regular fire and earthquake drills. We knew to get under our desks and cover our heads with our arms in case of an earthquake. We knew to line up quickly and evacuate onto the playing field in case of a fire. We did not have a plan of action for when someone with a gun chooses to invade our school and start shooting men, women and children without regard. I'm saddened, and was frankly a bit jarred to realize that my sweet baby doesn't even realize that he DOES have such a plan of action. It is to turn off all the lights, huddle together on the floor with his teacher and classmates in a corner away from the door and stay silent for several minutes. My heart was full of grief for the children, teachers, and families who have had to experience such terror for real, and that this is the new reality for schools in our day and age.
Those utterly innocent and naive little first graders were gathered together in the darkness, finding it difficult not to chuckle and whisper happily to each other, COMPLETELY unaware of the reason behind the drill. I couldn't help but picture in my mind's eye what it would feel like to really be experiencing an actual lock down. Don't get me wrong, I am SO GRATEFUL that the schools have thought through how best to protect our children and their teachers, but how disgraceful is it that our society has to even do such a thing? How far have we fallen that being shot in your elementary school is a real danger?
I can only pray that we might be so fortunate as to be able to give a safe and "normal" school experience to our children, and that they will have the opportunity to live their lives without the fear associated with such acts of terror. May my baby maintain his innocence as long as possible. Heaven help us to be able to protect ourselves from the evil that walks this earth, be able to combat it with the power of His Almighty Hand guiding us!
Even today, he will inevitably come home and afterward exclaim that he had a great day. He has no idea that he participated in a drill that drove a terrifying reality home to me. I was there when the school participated in a lock down drill.
I don't know if Riley had done one before, but it was certainly MY first lock down drill. Growing up in Southern California, we had regular fire and earthquake drills. We knew to get under our desks and cover our heads with our arms in case of an earthquake. We knew to line up quickly and evacuate onto the playing field in case of a fire. We did not have a plan of action for when someone with a gun chooses to invade our school and start shooting men, women and children without regard. I'm saddened, and was frankly a bit jarred to realize that my sweet baby doesn't even realize that he DOES have such a plan of action. It is to turn off all the lights, huddle together on the floor with his teacher and classmates in a corner away from the door and stay silent for several minutes. My heart was full of grief for the children, teachers, and families who have had to experience such terror for real, and that this is the new reality for schools in our day and age.
Those utterly innocent and naive little first graders were gathered together in the darkness, finding it difficult not to chuckle and whisper happily to each other, COMPLETELY unaware of the reason behind the drill. I couldn't help but picture in my mind's eye what it would feel like to really be experiencing an actual lock down. Don't get me wrong, I am SO GRATEFUL that the schools have thought through how best to protect our children and their teachers, but how disgraceful is it that our society has to even do such a thing? How far have we fallen that being shot in your elementary school is a real danger?
I can only pray that we might be so fortunate as to be able to give a safe and "normal" school experience to our children, and that they will have the opportunity to live their lives without the fear associated with such acts of terror. May my baby maintain his innocence as long as possible. Heaven help us to be able to protect ourselves from the evil that walks this earth, be able to combat it with the power of His Almighty Hand guiding us!
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