That Plan! Teachers responding to Florida Shootings

       

            Yesterday my heart sank. My heart goes out to families who have lost their loved ones through this tragedy. When the Columbine shooting of 2012, I think we all were shocked but thought this was an isolated incident. Yet, more and more episodes like this are happening. It occurred to me, I've been teaching thirty years and now this Florida shooting has alerted every school nationwide and has alerted even private sectors of education.
           I am a contracted teacher and was approached today to attend a teacher meeting at the location I teach on Fridays. The topic was how are we going to prepare if a shooting should occur on our campus? What?
           We meet at a local church since we are a private group of instructors that convene once a week. However, the Sutherland, Tx incident that happened only a few miles away from our city, made us all realize that churches are no exception.
           My husband travels to work and passes this town every day. He says that the whole town seems different now since this happened. Why? Well, it was a remote area and a small community of people. He says it's as if the citizens of that county are all on alert now. They are noticing every vehicle that passes by.
           So back to the meeting. We were sitting in the classroom yesterday to brainstorm what to do to protect ourselves. The first means is to purchase walkie-talkies for each teacher was a suggestion. As the conversation continued, then a former policewoman states that she is willing to carry. She admits its a lot of responsibility to carry when my heart sank. Are we all really having this kind of conversation? Seriously?
           Thirty-five years ago when I was studying to be a teacher I never imagined these scenarios in my mind. I just was thinking of how to teach, decorate the bulletin boards and make learning fun. I wasn't thinking of guns. OMG!
           We continued the meeting with escape routes and how are we going to train students to react to these types of situations. I left the meeting much to my dismay and headed off to my grocery store.
           I noticed the cashier and the bagger both had walkie-talkies. So inquired about it and he stated, Mame, this is how we communicate with each other. Back in the day, I remember they used intercoms for this. But I can see why everyone now has one with how our world is. I told them that I had just come from a teacher meeting about protecting our students, when the bagger states her aunt whose a teacher, just went to a survival meeting. They were teaching them to escape routes and guns.
That's when I said, "If they make me carry a gun to teach, that's the day I quit teaching." That's where I draw the line. I can't do that.
           Long story short, it is so disheartening to see families grieving and teachers having to learn how to protect their students. Blame can't be on just one specific thing. However, we need to think, how can we help deter these events from happening repeatedly. We need to think and come up with THAT PLAN.