Actual conversation that took place between my 5-year-old and me as we were walking out of her school this afternoon:
ME: So how was school?
5-year-old: Good.
ME: What did you do?
5YO: We had a lockdown.
ME: [stopping in tracks and getting down to face kid] What?
5YO: We had a lockdown. But it was only a practice one.
ME: [incapable of disguising the horrified expression on my face] Are you kidding me? WHY did you have a lockdown?
5YO: In case any bad guys came to the school. We practiced lying on the floor so if the bad guys came looking for us, it would look like no one was there. [happily resumes walking to the car]
ME: [horrified, horrified, horrified.]
Um.... does this happen in schools in the USA and I just don't know about it? Because I have to tell you, the idea of my child being taught to lie on the ground, "in case bad guys came looking for her," makes me incredibly anxious. Aren't we still supposed to be lying to our children when they're 5 years old, and telling them that the world is a happy place? Don't we all follow the party line that "bad guys" are just make-believe characters in movies?
More importantly: is the concept of a "lockdown drill" a factor of our living in the often-volatile Middle East, or is it simply a part of the post-Columbine world??
Either way... UGH.
3 comments:
So...I just reposted on Facebook. And said this is eerily familiar of air raid drills a decade before we entered kindergarten. WHich makes me wonder why something I never experienced is familiar at all? Either way, good post. Alwys love the Camel Blog.
And no, it has been my experience in the recent, post-Columbine, period that this is NOT the norm in the US. The sad reality of what goes on everywhere else in the world. Something similar in place for high risk earthquake areas though.
Last year in Southern California my daughter told me the same thing. When I asked her why they had a lock down drill she told me the teacher said it was in case a bear comes and tries to open the door. We were not living anywhere near bear country!
Believe it or not, there are lockdown drills here in the U.S. too. I don't know of them going on at our local schools, but friends have talked about them in bigger cities (like NY and environs) and in border towns.
It's sad, right? And even sadder because it's also possibly necessary?
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