First of all, I have to speak for both Amanda and myself and
say that our hearts are broken after yesterday’s news. Sandy Hook Elementary underwent an
unthinkable tragedy; one that no adult or child should ever have to experience. After hearing the story, you have to sit back
and really look at the world we live in today.
President Obama said it best when he said that we have been through this
too many times.
The unimaginable happened yesterday in Newtown,
Connecticut. Upon hearing the news, I
thought that could be any of us. While
Amanda and I were at BEST, we were placed on lockdown for a number of
reasons. As we have said before, our
school was an old hospital. We only used
half of the building, which covered four floors. The other half of the building, which was
closer to eight to ten floors, was left vacant.
At one point, a couple years ago, we were told by administration to be
on alert because people had broken into the vacant half of the building and
were working their way through to our side.
Our school had twenty four hour, seven days a week security, but we
still needed to be careful.
On one ordinary Wednesday afternoon, our lockdown signal was
called over the PA system. Now, we had
two lockdown signals; one signal was for a severe emergency, which meant to
lock the doors and hide the kids, and the other signal meant there was a lesser
emergency and to keep the kids in the classroom. The signal on that Wednesday was severe. I remember that on that day Amanda was
subbing in another classroom, and it was just twenty-seven second graders and
me. I did a quick sweep of the hallway
since our classroom was close to the bathroom, locked the door, slid our green
safety card into the hallway, and told the kids to get near the coatrack. Someone outside would still be able to see us
if they looked through the window, but not through our classroom door. I can remember to this day that there were
some girls who were frightened and started to tear up and others that saw the
lockdown as a game. I kept the kids
close and asked them to be quiet. I had
no idea what was going on at that time and what kind of danger could be outside
our door. By the grace of God, we were
safe and the people who had been roaming around our building never made it
inside. We had been put on lockdown for
our protection because the people had been spotted.
I pray for peace for the families and community in Newton,
Connecticut. I will hug my students a
little tighter come Monday morning, and I will remind them that I love
them. I once had a little one tell me
that she loved me like a teacher. Well,
I love them like my own babies and promise to keep them safe.
-Lisa
