Lockdown drills
Shelter-in-place drills
Like most schools in the US, the staff and students at the elementary school where I work practice all of these drills.
We diligently, quietly, and respectfully practice.
We are 600+ students and over 100 staff members.
We range in age from 5 years to 70+ years old and represent a spectrum of abilities.
We practice where to go in an emergency; where the 'safest’ part of the classroom or other gathering areas is located.
We huddle together, in silence, when sheltering in place.
We report via laptop if anyone is missing. We report via laptop where we are.
We deal with blocked exits so we know what to do if that happens during a fire.
We stand outside in silence as teacher-by-teacher reports their class status via walkies.
We must pass a series of clearances on a regular basis: an FBI clearance, a state police background check, a child abuse history clearance, and an arrest/conviction certification report.
We know that anyone entering the building must first ring a doorbell at the school entrance where a camera sees who is there.
We ask the visitor questions and for legal identification before granting entry.
We practice lining up by class all the time. This keeps things organized but the subtext is safety where we can quickly account for every child if we are anywhere else but the classroom in an emergency
We practice, practice, practice for all of this.
We comply with these safety procedures because we value the safety of our children and those who care for them.
We teach and reinforce safety every day.
Yet we fail these same people because the world of guns and danger is real and woven in a hideous relationship with elected officials and money compromising the best intentions of a safe school environment.
When are we going to turn the tables and make access to assault weapons difficult?
Our country is horrifically unique in the world when it comes to our fetish for assault weapons and unfettered access to them.
When you turn 18, an assault weapon can be yours. Just like that. Why? This is not sportsmanship. This is a weapon for mass murder.
These very assault weapons make a 4th-grade victim unrecognizable and require parents to supply DNA samples on the worst day of their lives.
We watch as the collectors of ‘donations’ from the gun lobby/NRA/various political action committees for gun rights in Texas send their soulless 'thoughts and prayers' to the elementary school families.
We watch as a Texas senator, Texas governor, and a former president plan to speak at an NRA convention on Friday.
The Robb Elementary School shooting was the 30th such mass shootings in 2022.
We are 145 days into 2022.
In nearly a quarter of those days, a mass shooting took place.
Brady United lists the elected officials who accept NRA money to support their elections.
It is a non-profit gun control group created after then-President Reagan’s press secretary, Jim Brady, was among those shot in an attempt on the president’s life in 1981. He was permanently disabled and his death in 2012 was correctly ruled a homicide due to those injuries.
We are strangled by wildly distorted views of gun control instead of liberated and united by sensible limits to what firearm access should be. Step one: ban the sale of assault weapons.
The answer is NOT more guns. Too many guns have placed us right here.
Meanwhile, the smallest, most vulnerable of us practice.
The smallest, most vulnerable of us look to the adults and we fail them.
Until this country deals with the unchallenged access to assault rifles, mass shootings are not a matter of if, but when.
