Elementary school lock down

I thought it was a drill.

It wasn't.

I was at school volunteering today.  I came around the corner, saw our principal running and yelling that it was a lock down.  I might add that Mr. B- is absolutely not typically a runner.  The PTA moms that were popping popcorn couldn't hear him or the announcement over the PA, so I grabbed them up and we went to the tutoring room.  (Turns out that it was their assigned room for lock down drills.) 

The door didn't lock.

We ran out, around a few corners and tried the PTA closet.

It didn't lock.

The librarian had just locked the door as she was looking at us through the window, so she let us in. 

We were talking about how it was the third drill, then I heard a child running down the hall screaming. 

"Are they baiting us?" I asked the librarian.

"It sounds like A-.  No, I don't think that they are considering who it is.  They did the last time, though." 

After about 10 minutes, the lock down was canceled.  I went to the hall and saw Mr. B- and Mr. D- (our janitor) watching a girl screaming as she started down the hall at me.  I just stood there and looked at Mr. B-.  "Am I supposed to stop her?"  He didn't answer so I just left her be. 

She probably would have beaten the snot out of me.

Apparently, she has some well known behavioral issues.  They have been working on a behavioral IEP for her, but the father won't sign off on it.  Considering that they just needed to lock down an entire elementary school with 530 students, staff and parent volunteers, I'm thinking that he might have no choice at this point.  An emergency call was placed to bring the district behavioral specialist in immediately.  The father did come.  (I should add that none of this was information that was given to me by the principal at all.  I was told most of it by someone familiar with the family situation.)

Everything went seamlessly and the entire school was locked down in a minute or less.  I talked to K- when we got to the car.  She said that she didn't think it was a drill because Mrs. S- was running around the room dropping shades, locking the door and shoving a piece of paper under the door.  The kids were "doing the calendar" so surprisingly, they were where they needed to be for the lock down anyhow. 

Still, I drove away and cried.  It upset me finding out that it was real, but thankful that the principal called it as he saw that it was necessary.  I'm in tears to say that this is the world that we've come to and that my child didn't find it upsetting.  It is a way of life in school systems and I find that truly sad.

This is my second post for the day.  Read on.

A prayer request:

My cousin Jenny is due to have a baby girl in a few weeks.  She has been hospitalized for high blood pressure.  I pray that she and her precious baby girl are fine.