Active Shooters
Risa Cohen, MSEd
Creative Director at Sing Into Reading. ?? ?? ?? I am a literacy teacher "in disguise." My students think we just make music and fun - and we do!
I had pushed almost all the classroom furniture against the door and tied it shut with my belt. I held a stapler tightly, ready to strike. My knuckles were turning white from the squeezing. From the hall, I could hear an angry male voice in the hall screaming "Henry! Henry!" Henry was one of my students, and the voice was getting closer. I could hear the man pulling the doors of other classrooms. And then I heard gunshots. My heart was going a mile a minute...
This was a simulation. The man screaming "Henry" was a police officer taking us teachers and staff through an ALICE training. And despite knowing that this “shooter” screaming “Henry” was a police officer, my adrenaline kicked in, and my fear was very real.
Active shooters are a real threat. For this reason, as a teacher I would review my ALICE training annually. And twice a year, we would hold active shooter drills. In each situation, my co teachers and I would decide in the moment (depending on the announced location of the imaginary active shooter) what to do. We used the ALICE acronym to run through our choices (alert, lockdown, inform, counter, evacuate).
Drills would usually involve calmly, quickly, and quietly taking the children outside and walking to our designated meeting point. But other times, we were informed that the shooter was so close to the classroom that we didn’t have enough time to evacuate. At those times, we would block and lock the door. Then my co teachers and I would take the entire class into the bathroom. We locked our 3 - 6 year olds in with us, asked them to please be quiet, and huddled in silence. Invariably, someone would be scared. And once, someone had to use the bathroom. I never got used to it. And neither did the children.
If my preschool students could deal with active shooter drills, then gun buyers can deal with background checks, waiting periods, and red flag laws. Please write to your representative to urge them to pass gun control legislation. Start here: https://actionnetwork.org/letters/gunreformnow
Peace,
Risa