And I don’t get this very often. It doesn’t make me sad to hear my kids cry when they are told no (if they’re hurt…that’s a different story). I have no problem sticking to punishments…even if it hurts me more than them. And believe me, it usually hurts me more! However, today my kids had something happen at their school that was a first. They had a bomb threat. A note was found in the school that indicated that there was a bomb or bombs in the school.
How did the Staff Handle the Bomb Threat?
The staff was amazing. Because it was indoor line up in the morning, they corralled the kids into the cafeteria, grouped them by class and moved them outside to stick them on buses so they were warm and dry. The local police got to the school quickly and walked through the school, checking it out. Once they were done, the K-9 unit went through. The kids sat on the bus for 2 hours.
I didn’t know any of this was going on until 10:11 a.m. when I got an automated call from the district. When I tell you my stomach dropped…it dropped big time. The call told us that a note was found and that the kids were moved outside to buses and may be moved soon to nearby schools. The call ended with them saying “your kids are safe, we will keep you posted“. I was in the doctors office when I got the call. I answered my phone on a whim because I thought I recognized the number as the districts number. No sooner did I hang up the phone, my husband called to see if I knew what was going on.
Issues I Had with How it was Handled
So many things made me upset. One, this happened moments after I dropped them off at the front door and dove off. Now I drop them off that way everyday because I am usually in my pajamas or about to head to the gym. Today I could have walked them in. Had I walked them in…I could have taken them home and they wouldn’t have endured any of that. Two, the police had the kids sitting on buses in the bus loop…right outside the building. How is that safe? When I was in high school and we had bomb threats, we had to walk very far away from the school. Not to mention, as soon as parents got the call, some drove up to the school. Those parents not only could have gotten in the way of the police doing their job, but they are also putting themselves in danger. Three, the phone call we got was over an hour into the situation and it was very vague in the sense of where exactly our kids were.
What Should Have Happened?
Here is what I wish would have happened. I wish they would have gotten the kids on the bus, drove them to a nearby school and then sent the automated call out that said where our kids were, why they were there and what they wanted parents to do. This way everyone is 100% safe and parents would have had some direction. I did not drive up to the school. As I drove past it on my way home from the doctors, I saw kids walking into the school and buses driving away. So I thought everything was OK. What I didn’t know was that parents (a lot of parents) drove up to the school and took their kids home off the bus while this was going on. What I didn’t know was that my son, who is very sensitive, sat on that bus wondering why all but him and two other kids in his class went home with their parents and his mom never showed up. When we got in the car he started crying and it about broke my heart.
So tonight, I have mommy guilt. My head tells me I shouldn’t…that I went to the kids when I found out that I should pick them up, but to see him so upset…breaks my heart. What has our world come to? Why do kids need to make a bomb threat? Sure this incident was probably a kid wanting to not have school, but our kids are practicing lock down drills; there are school shootings; it’s just sad.
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