Yesterday we had someone call up the school and issue a bomb threat, saying there was a bomb in a locker. I can write this because we had to do a press release, so I think it's public knowledge. Pretty scary--we went on shutdown and kept all the kids in their classrooms until the bomb-sniffing dogs went through and ascertained that no bombs indeed existed. Nobody had any idea what was going on. Fortunately it was during my lunch, so I didn't have to attempt to keep 27 kids calm and off their cell phones.
Why did we keep the kids inside, you ask? Several reasons:
1) Making that sort of announcement would have incited panic in our 1700 students. Keeping everyone calm is easier when it's in smaller groups.
2) It's part of our shutdown plan.
3) It kept the kids out of the dogs' way so they could do an efficient search.
4) (and this scared the bejeebers out of me) In Paducah, KY, within the past year or so, someone issued a bomb threat. When they evacuated the kids, snipers in the woods began taking shots at the kids. I'm not kidding. What sick people. So, we felt it best to keep the kids inside, as we knew of no imminent threat. The police showed up immediately; I feel they would have told us to evacuate had they thought it necessary.
Needless to say, today felt a little weird. I let the kids talk about it; they felt fairly rattled too, though they tried not to show it. You know, I experienced fights in the Buffalo city schools; we went on lockdown for that often enough that it wasn't a huge deal, but this felt a lot different because it was so much bigger. I think kids knew about it--I wonder if they'll find who did it.
Anyway, it gave us an extra day to input 1st quarter grades. That's my weak attempt at humor, heh heh. I smile like a lunatic when I'm extremely nervous (it's totally a muscle thing, not deliberate or even voluntary), so I had a Joker-like rictus grin on for about an hour yesterday. Ech.
I'm glad nothing happened. Really, really glad. I'm off to pet my dog and hug my husband.
3 comments:
While I'm obviously extremely grateful that the threat turned out to be nothing, I'm dying with laughter at the thought of your involuntary joker smile!
Oh Babe, as someone who was recently involved in a lock-down herself, I know how nerve racking it is! I didn't feel normal again for several days. Give yourself time to let go of all that stress. Hugs to favorite Dogs and Men are a good way to go! Love you, girl.
When I was in 8th grade, there was a bomb threat at our school. They made us sit on buses in the parking lot while the bomb-sniffing pooches did their thing. Those were pre-Columbine, pre-9/11 days, though. The idea that it might be real never even occurred to us. Turned out, the threat was made by two of my classmates who thought it would be funny. (They also ended up getting elected senior class Pres & VP--go figure). ~J
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