*This is only for my own documentation... what my kids are living through and how we are navigating challenging situations. My experience was far "less" than SIL L as she navigated the high school and voc kids and certainly people that live in the town next door and students/staff that were in the building.*
On Tuesday morning I was outside doing arrival duty as Marisa was in a meeting. When I came inside my RN said there was an active shooter at the high school in the town next door with tears in her eyes. The school that my dear friend Lynne is the school RN... original reports were that it was "mass casualty" and that 5 people had been shot... in that moment... when those were the things being "reported" it was all VERY REAL. I tracked down Marisa, grabbed her walkie talkie and her cellphone and our school went into a "hold in place". That is minimal movement throughout the school, classroom doors are shut, kids are wherever they are for the duration of the hold in place.
We frantically searched for more information, and my phone began ringing off the hook. I texted Lynne asking if she was safe and she said she was and to "please pray". Terrified doesn't begin to describe the emotions while keeping things calm and assuring parents that their babies were safe and we would rather they DIDN'T pick up their children to keep people off our campus but they could if they needed to.
Miss B was supposed to go on a field trip that morning, leaving at 9 and I could see her teacher on her chat message so I knew they had not left. The hold in place was across our district while we waited for further instruction from our central office.
It wasn't until 10:24 that we got word that the threat was not "real". By that time the SWAT teams had made their way through the high school, various local law enforcement and life flight was told to stand down.
Husband was supposed to pick up Miss B but I went straight to her when I left work for the day. She got in my car and immediately BURST into tears. I knew she would be disappointed about missing the field trip but she was so angry because they were told it was a "practice" hold in place. While I in COMPLETE agreement that no child should have been spoken to about what happened by anyone other than their parents I was SO UPSET to know the truth and that wasn't it. 5th graders are not dumb. They could NOT understand how a PRACTICE hold in place would trump a field trip. She had a few other disappointments that day and we chatted about what had really happened and had lots of hugs.
I made her favorite dinner and she snuggled up on the couch with White Christmas :)
It was such a traumatizing day for SO MANY and could have been SO much worse if it was the real thing but for what those kiddos and staff went through.... TRAUMA. TERROR. Not OK. And for that day... it WAS the worst.
