If you don't live in the DC area and/or don't watch the morning news, you might not know that my school has been the topic of conversation. Our new principal started last Monday, our first day back from break, and before she could go home the note below was discovered in one of the boys' bathrooms.
Classy guys. Way to start the year off with a bang. (Our head of security accidentally used that exact pun in our briefing the next day. He received nervous laughter and quickly apologized for the slip.) According to police, the threat was not credible. I still don't totally get the metrics of credible vs not credible, but I do believe it to be incredibly stupid.
As a staff we discussed lockdown procedures while simultaneously welcoming our new principal (a woman!) on board, and agreed to face the week like any other. Easy enough. A letter was sent home, extra police and security were called in for the week to make everyone feel safe, cameras were checked of who went into and out of that bathroom all day, and in my room, we kept on speaking Spanish. At least, attempting. It's amazing how much kids forget in two weeks.
Fast forward to Thursday night, similar snuggling happening, I think we were watching Train Wreck, when my school's number popped up on my phone. Another idiot wrote another threat on another wall in the school. Maybe the same idiot. In these situations, all idiots tend to blend together into one giant fear-mongering mammoth of an idiot. The proposed date, which our principal chose not to broadcast but the student rumor mill spread anyway, was Tuesday January 12th. Today. Some even said 1:20pm.
The local channels got wind and thanks to a slow news day, set up their cameras at 5am Friday and kept replaying the same information all morning long until even Mama H called to be sure she shouldn't be worried. Kids were getting pulled from class left and right. Parents were terrified. A coworker of mine asked what I would do if my boys were at a school where there'd been two threats of violence in one week. I told her I felt safe, but truthfully, I don't blame any parent trying to protect their kid. I don't like giving in to terrorists, though, and whoever is writing these stupid graffiti threats is trying to promote fear for sure. They might also have had a test scheduled for 6th period and were hoping to scam us into an early release?
Today the school felt a step closer to normal. The extra security were less visible and the office less flooded with nervous mothers. Still, one of my classes had a third of the kids absent. Just in case.
So as I snuggled in, thinking it was over, we could shed this layer of general anxiety - even those of us who never fully believed it was more than a teenage prank, but stayed a little on edge with darting eyes of alertness anyway - I was beyond annoyed to get yet another robocall from my principal stating yet another threat for yet another future date.
Tomorrow the kids will tell me the details - they always know first - and I'll remind them I've been trained to keep them safe. We'll stick with this frustrating cycle a little longer until one of these vandals gets caught. I'll keep assuming it's a dumb act by a kid who could really just use a hug, a (metaphorical) slap to the face, and a better understanding of the devastating effects of gun violence and inciting fear.
I mean, people, what ever happened to snow dances when you want a day off school? I could join in that effort. I'd salsa the heck out of some snow rhythms. I'd get my whole class going. For the love of human life and happiness, let's stop with the shooting threats and get back to the things I love about school. Like conjugating verbs in the preterite.
Wow, Nicole. That is crazy. I hope they figure out who is doing it very soon. Umm and I hope that you do a salsa to some snow rhythms anyway.
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