What Scares Me Most Is How Seriously My Students Take Lockdown Drills
Terrorism and gun violence are as much a part of their reality as Snapchat and Insta
In the fall of 2010, I was in my first year of teaching middle school science, and I hated lockdown drills.
I was eager and young, and I resented the six-minute interruption in my classes. Whenever the principal’s voice came over the intercom announcing that we were going into lockdown, I had to herd my 26 excitable students into the corner of the room, close the curtains, and lock the door.
As a new teacher, my classroom management skills were terrible. Maintaining order in my classes, while also teaching, was difficult enough. During the lockdown, I had to convince my students to remain still as they huddled together in the dark.
I pleaded with them to be quiet, bribing them with promises of gum or a Friday movie. As with many drills in those early years of my career, someone would fart or get the giggles or moo like a cow and the class would erupt in hushed laughter.
Finally, the principal announced that we were all clear, and I had to salvage the remaining few minutes of my class time, rushing through notes or activities so that my instructional time didn’t take a hit.
