My 5 year old had his first lockdown drill in Kindergarten today.
He told me it wasn’t a fire drill – it was just in case an intruder comes into the school.
He said it casually, as if intruders coming into his school are something to be expected, like recess.
He said it was dark but he wasn’t scared at all, because he was wearing a glow-in-the-dark shirt.
He’s little so he doesn’t know that glow-in-the-dark shirts are useless against intruders.
He’s so little.
And the world is too big sometimes.
At least it’s too big for all of us who know why we need lockdown drills, but who wish with everything we’ve got that we didn’t.
When I took my child to have her school physical, the doctor examined her and pronounced her fit to attend public school. We weren’t finished, however. The doctor then gave my child a lesson that sounded almot Mission Impossibeish. He advised her to get up on a table and climb into the dropped ceiling tiles to hide there in case of a school shooting. Like it was nothing. Par for the course. This is her first year in public school as a high school freshman. We had previously homeschooled. She is doing so well and really loves going to school every day. Meanwhile, if I think of all the “what ifs” I start to freak out and just want to bring her home and keep her safe. I’m grateful that she is being “prepared” for the worst, but so so sad and scared that this is where we are. What happened? It feels like Im sending her to the front lines.