You hear it on the news, you read it on social media, but you never think this is going to happen to you or to a loved one. What am I talking about you ask? Schools being on lock down……
Today, my daughter’s school was on lock down for almost three hours due to an armed fugitive who was being sought/chased. I got the email from school right when it happened, and I immediately got the panicked Mommy syndrome! I wanted to leave work to get to my little Kindergartener and take her with me where it’s nice and safe! Yes, I know they said that we weren’t allowed to pick up our kids, but gosh darnit, my mind and heart wanted to do just that. I tried to work on a project at the office, but I kept checking my email and the school’s Facebook pages for updates. I wanted to know what was going on and whether or not the person had been caught. I was concerned about my daughter and wondered if she was scared or nervous. I wondered what the teacher’s told the little ones why they were on lock down, and I wondered what they did during lock down. Did they remove them from the windows just in case the bad person decided to shoot at the school? Did the kids go into one central location as a whole? Were the kids hiding out somewhere just in case this bad person was able to get into the school? How many police officers were at the campus? How close was this person to the school? What did he do to be considered a fugitive? My heart was racing, my mind was on major overload, and I felt like I needed to throw up.
I asked family and friends for prayers for the police officers, students, and school staff. I didn’t want to give any information as I didn’t want a lot of family members going into panic mode right along with me. Come to find out, one of my friend’s husbands was on the scene where all of this was going down. She was nervous for him right along with me being nervous for my daughter. I prayed for her, and she was praying for me. I love that I have family and friends who believe in prayer and will stop what they are doing to say a little prayer when asked. It was a long almost 3 hours.
Praise God they were able to apprehend the fugitive and take him into custody. I still don’t know what the original charges were that made him lead the police on a chase, but I do know that I appreciate and am grateful for each and every law enforcement person who was on the scene today not letting this person get away. I am appreciative and grateful for all of the staff at my daughter’s school for keeping all of our babies safe today and every day.
I don’t know why society has changed so much from when I was a kid. Not once did I ever experience a lock down situation at school or in college. Yes, when I was in high school and college we did have guns on campus, but it was because it was Friday and the guys were going hunting over the weekend.
After today, I don’t know if I can handle another lock down situation. Will they have another one? I don’t know, but I’m praying they won’t. Tonight my daughter may or may not have gotten an extra snack, as well as extra hugs and kisses. I asked her what happened at school today, and she told me they had a drill. She believed it was a long drill the whole time up until one of the little neighbor kids came over and told her about the bad guy. Sigh….. I wasn’t planning on telling her what “really happened” because I don’t want her to fear going to school. I told her that the police were there the whole time and they were going to make sure the bad person didn’t come into the school. I told her that she needs to listen to what the teacher tells her during these drills because her teacher is there to keep her safe.
Please keep all law enforcement and teachers in your daily prayers! They have to put themselves in harm’s way to protect our babies! Much love and respect to each and every one of them!
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