Lockdown! (er..."Reverse Evacuation")

It's tough being a kid these days...especially in Texas.

It's not enough that school has been dumbed down by multi-pile choice (sic) tests, anymore. Or that school funding from politicians is paltry compared to the need they, themselves created...and it's getting worse. Those are typical gripes.

This only marginally relates to what happened in Connecticut. I'm not trying to throw in my opinion on guns or mental health or autism or heroic teachers.

I'm talking about the "crowd control" approach to handling "threats."

In a single two-week period, we saw tragedy in Connecticut (or, as one local elementary principal wrote repeatedly, Conneticut). In God's Country, however, my eldest daughter has faced this "reverse evacuation" procedure three times. This last time? Somebody called the police because a guy had an air gun about 1/2 mile from the school. It was dismissal time. Everybody was unloaded from the bus and quarantined (er, reverse evacuated) for about an hour. Some family friends from Round Rock have faced it twice. Manor had an issue, as well. Those are just the ones I know about from education's Word-of-Mouth Network.

You'd be surprised at the incredible number of crimes that DON'T take place in schools. Doesn't matter. All 2600 people in a building get treated as though they are in some type of "bomb shelter-lite."

These are the same kids who were somehow able to function in this same world without these drastic measures before. Then, somebody flipped a switch--my guess was at an insurance company. There are RULES to handle threats at schools now, and they rival anything you might find at O'Hare International Airport.

Is there a stranger on campus? LOCK THE ENTIRE SCHOOL DOWN! NO BATHROOM BREAKS UNTIL SPRING!

Did somebody think they might have seen a strange bag in a hall about an hour ago? HAVE ALL STUDENTS HIDE UNDER THEIR DESKS IN PITCH DARK FOR 112 MINUTES!

Do these systems work? No.

On the other hand, DeAnn's institution of "lower learning" experienced a fair threat today...at least if you were the Head Honcho of the Day. An irate parent, obviously agitated, backed the principal into a corner--yelling, swearing, threatening, bullying. The situation was handled splendidly, and very few even knew that anything was happening or did happen.

I did, though. I have insider information. :-)

The kids still left the building. They are beginning Christmas/Winter Break.

That's an example of how to de-escalate a situation.

LOCKDOWN!!!!!! just escalates things to the point of the ridiculous.

There's only one thing worse in Texas public education: the way they treat teachers during testing week. Let's just call that a teaser for a future blog.