Safe Inside

 

The state approved all my paperwork but I hadn’t finished all the trainings. The two other new hires were still waiting for their background checks.  So I was allowed into my classroom and on the hallway. I could see the students but still not talk with them. They didn’t look like scary monsters. They looked like kids.  I hadn’t taught full time for over ten years and the newborn I had as a teacher was now starting high school and the same age as these young ones.

I listened to the radio I found in the room and organized the markers by colors. Later I realized that was stupid and bagged up 10 markers at a time so I could hand them out and easily count them once they returned.  However, I got to see all the supplies and stuff the previous teachers had purchased and get to know the room. The other teacher got thrown in and never did catch up on that front.

As I happily prepped the room, the radio brought some terrifying news. A fugitive with a gun is on the run.  He could be nearby or hours away. No one knew where he was. He was armed and dangerous.  Soon I got a notification from my children’s schools - they were on lockdown. They didn’t tell the students but wouldn’t let anyone in or out to protect them.

It dawned on me that I was perfectly safe. So were all the students. No one could come in without being buzzed into the out door door. Then they had to go through a metal detector to be let into a sally port. The word comes from boat canals but it’s the same concept - open one door (let the water flow in) or wait to make sure whoever is supposed to be there, then and only then, open the other door to go in or out.  Later one student would try to run away. He could only go up and down the hallway.

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