Rehearsing for death:

[riversedge]

Chilling.



It's time to stop rehearsing our deaths & start screaming #momsdemand http://wpo.st/h6je0 #gunsense


Rehearsing for death: A pre-K teacher on the trouble with lockdown drills



What can we do about all these school shootings?, teachers ask each other. Lock the doors, we’re told, and assume the worst is coming. (Michael A. Schwarz/For the Washington Post)


By Launa Hall October 28, 2014

Launa Hall is a teacher in Arlington, Va., and is working on a collection of essays about teaching.

‘Remember that activity when we all get in the closet and pretend we’re not even there, so our principal can’t find us?” I choose my words carefully as I prep my pre-kindergarten students for the lockdown drill scheduled for that afternoon. These drills have become routine at Arlington elementary schools, and at schools across the country. After the latest school shooting, on Oct. 24 in Washington state, schools will no doubt be running through drills yet again. What can we do about all these shootings?, teachers ask each other. Lock the doors, we’re told, and assume the worst is coming.

When you’re guiding 4- and 5-year-olds through a drill, your choice of words can mean everything. “Activity,” not “game,” because we laugh during games, and I can’t risk introducing laughter. I don’t say “police,” because some little kids find police officers scary, and I can’t risk introducing tears. Instead, even though our principal isn’t there this day, I want them to picture his kind but purposeful face when they hear the police officers and administrators hustling down the hallway, testing the doorknob of each room. I don’t say “quiet,” because I can’t risk them shushing one another while they are crammed together, practically sitting in each other’s laps. And because it’s not quiet that’s required for this drill, but rather complete silence. As silent as children who aren’t there at all.



...............


............And even though I know better, even though I could reason my way around this drill, I fall headfirst into the scenario that this whole theatrical production has invited me to play out. Okay, this is it. So, who am I? Am I the one who dies valiantly tackling the shooter? Am I the quick-thinking teacher who saves several hidden children, telling the shooter they’re in the auditorium, before I am shot? Am I the teacher who sprawls into a body shield with all my best intentions but succeeds only in dying along with my charges? My inner voice, as clear as an actual voice in that silence, reminds me: You’re a mom. Hide. You have children of your own. I turn back to the closet....................



.............Instead of controlling guns and inconveniencing those who would use them, we are rounding up and silencing a generation of schoolchildren, and terrifying those who care for them. We are giving away precious time to teach and learn while we cower in fear.

It’s time to stop rehearsing our deaths and start screaming.

[Hoyt]

1. This is the way it will be until gun owners act responsibly and do the right thing for society.

I don't see any indication gun owners are ready to do that. Their gunz are more important than school kids.

[Nitram]

2. When I was in elementary school we filed into the hallway to prepare...

...for a nuclear attack during the Cuban missile crisis. Knelt down facing the wall and kissed our asses goodbye.