The radio model of this story was edited by Adam Bearne.
Transcript:
LEILA FADEL, BYLINE: Because the begin of the varsity yr on this nation, there have already been over 70 shootings on campuses – 70 in simply over two months. That’s in response to the Okay-12 Faculty Taking pictures Database, which tracks these incidents. So right here at MORNING EDITION, we’ve been considering lots about each the trauma of that violence in a spot that’s purported to be protected – a college – but additionally about the way in which we now put together our children for the day it would occur to them. That features dad and mom on our present, like our editor Adam Bearne. His daughter got here dwelling from her first week of kindergarten and advised him about one thing she known as a development drill.
CLARA: I don’t know why it’s known as a development drill, ’trigger that’s actually complicated.
FADEL: Clara was really speaking a couple of lockdown drill.
CLARA: We needed to be actually quiet, go below our cubbies, shut the doorways, after which I acquired scared ’trigger I assumed it was actual.
FADEL: It wasn’t, however her concern was. So we determined to take you, our listeners, into a college that, like many faculties, is attempting to organize the children with out making them really feel like a violent incident is inevitable.
Hello.
AMY KUJAWSKI: Whats up.
FADEL: I’m Leila.
KUJAWSKI: Hello, Leila. It’s good to fulfill you.
FADEL: So good to fulfill you.
KUJAWSKI: I’m Amy.
FADEL: That’s Amy Kujawski, the principal of St. Anthony Center Faculty, which she simply calls Sam’s. It’s in a suburb of Minneapolis. And as you’ll be able to hear, she has that larger-than-life center faculty principal power, and she or he leads with that positivity, even when issues would possibly really feel bleak.
KUJAWSKI: We are going to emphasize the belonging, the protection, the love and care and heat.
FADEL: On this present day, her faculty goes by means of the primary of 5 state-mandated lockdown drills, the primary because the mass taking pictures on the Annunciation Catholic Faculty and Church close by.
How far is Annunciation from right here?
KUJAWSKI: Oh, my goodness. It’s shut. Yeah. I had employees who had nieces and nephews there, who had buddies there. Yeah. Yeah.
FADEL: The partitions of Kujawski’s workplace characteristic posters with messages you would possibly count on, like, hate is loud; love is robust. However there’s additionally a laminated signal with the varsity’s security protocols, like there’s in each room within the constructing.
KUJAWSKI: Lockdown. Locks, lights, out of sight.
FADEL: All the children know this language and what to do in a medical emergency, or one thing a lot worse. Inside Kathleen West’s classroom, the trainer will get her 12- and 13-year-old college students prepared for the lockdown drill.
KATHLEEN WEST: We need to keep away from that window over by my desk. So in the event you can see that window, you’re not in a great place, and it’s best to come nearer this fashion. Yeah, I believe you’re good, Henry, ’trigger you’ll be able to’t see the window from there. So I believe that can be good. Yeah. We simply need to sort of sit on this unpleasantness for slightly bit.
FADEL: When it’s time for the drill, there’s an announcement over the loudspeakers.
UNIDENTIFIED STAFF MEMBER: Can I’ve your consideration, please? This can be a lockdown drill. Lecturers, please safe your college students in your school rooms. This can be a lockdown drill. Thanks.
FADEL: The school rooms go darkish. The hallways are quiet.
And also you’re checking every door to ensure it’s locked?
KUJAWSKI: Yep. And I additionally give suggestions to our academics if I can see or hear them.
FADEL: That’s Principal Kujawski once more. She doesn’t jiggle the door handles an excessive amount of, so the scholars don’t assume there’s an actual intruder. And again in West’s classroom, she quietly reassures the scholars.
WEST: That’s them checking to make it possible for our door is locked.
FADEL: After clearing her ground, Kujawski listens for the opposite employees checking the remainder of the varsity. Then she speaks into her walkie-talkie.
(SOUNDBITE OF WALKIE-TALKIE BEEPING)
KUJAWSKI: Are all of us clear? I believe we will name it.
UNIDENTIFIED STAFF MEMBER: Your consideration, please. The lockdown drill is all clear. The lockdown drill is all clear.
(CROSSTALK)
FADEL: The varsity will get loud once more as everybody strikes on to their subsequent class, and we chat with a pair college students.
PHOEBE STRODEL: I’m Phoebe Strodel, and I’m 12 years previous.
RAEGAN DUNKLEY: Whats up. My title is Raegan Dunkley (ph), and I’m additionally 12 years previous.
FADEL: OK. So describe to me what you simply did on this lockdown drill.
PHOEBE: Effectively, we go, like, up towards, like, a wall or a bookshelf or an area the place if there have been individuals, like, coming in, they gained’t be capable of see you thru the home windows or any, like, areas, and stuff.
FADEL: However does it make you’re feeling simply usually ready?
RAEGAN: Sure.
FADEL: It does?
RAEGAN: Yeah.
FADEL: Does it scare you in any respect? Or does it make you’re feeling…
RAEGAN: No, as a result of – properly, I imply, it undoubtedly is frightening if it’s a real-life state of affairs. However fortunately, there’s, like, a police station proper subsequent to our faculty. So if there have been to be a lockdown drill, the police could be right here inside, like, minutes.
FADEL: So the drills really feel regular to you. They’re simply a part of life. Fireplace drill…
PHOEBE: Yeah.
FADEL: …Lockdown drill.
PHOEBE: Yeah. You begin it in, like, first grade or one thing as a result of, like, the kindergarteners most likely wouldn’t, like, deal with it or anybody youthful than that.
FADEL: Lockdown drills aren’t all the varsity is doing to guard its college students. The school rooms are locked throughout classes. There’s bullet-resistant movie on the home windows, and the police and hearth division close by know the varsity’s safety protocols. West, the trainer you heard instructing her children earlier? Effectively, she’s bothered that that is all so bizarre.
WEST: You’re getting me at a very weak time ’trigger my brother and sister each ship all of their children to Annunciation.
FADEL: They do?
WEST: In order that they had been all within the taking pictures there. And my brother was there, and my brother-in-law had been there – simply occurred to be at Mass that day. So six of my relations had been in a mass taking pictures occasion this faculty yr. After which the following week, I got here again to work right here.
FADEL: What was it love to do a lockdown drill after that, understanding…
WEST: Truthfully, it’s so regular. , the drills are like how we’re legally mandated to say the Pledge of Allegiance. Like, that’s simply one thing that occurs.
FADEL: West was a scholar trainer when Columbine occurred over 25 years in the past, so she’s all the time taught within the period of mass shootings at American faculties.
WEST: We’ve been by means of totally different waves of, like, the way to reply and what the drills are going to be. And naturally, now I simply all the time assume, like, properly, the shooters have all been by means of all these drills.
FADEL: Oh.
WEST: So, like, I simply don’t even know, , how efficient they’re going to be. They’re not going to shoot us after we’re in our school rooms, locked down. They’re going to shoot us after we’re out on the hearth drill. The children are all in the identical place, and the academics are all in the identical place. And I’m all the time considering, like, OK, how can I save probably the most lives on this state of affairs, proper? And it’s loopy that that’s simply a part of the job. Like, that’s not why I acquired into instructing within the first place.
FADEL: Yeah. What do you educate?
WEST: English.
(LAUGHTER)
WEST: I like studying and writing. I don’t actually need to educate about, like, the way to escape, , energetic shooters in school.
FADEL: Have you ever seen a change in the way in which you consider making ready the children or how…
WEST: Yeah. The drills have modified over time. And I did work at one faculty the place they wouldn’t inform us if it was actual or not, which I assumed was actually merciless and weird. So the lockdown drill would occur, and the children could be like, is it actual? And I’m like, I don’t know. Hear for the sirens.
FADEL: (Gasping).
WEST: Like, if we hear the sirens, it’s actual. If we don’t, then it’s not.
FADEL: Is there something that you’d need to say or speak about on the subject of making ready these children or the truth that you do have to organize them?
WEST: Effectively, I actually want that the fitting individuals would take motion to make this cease. And I don’t assume it’s honest. As a schoolteacher who began out making $30,000 a yr, , and can by no means make greater than $100,000 a yr, like, my job shouldn’t be to avoid wasting your little one’s life. I do know the statistics don’t bear this out, however it simply looks like when, not if. Like, if I’m fortunate, no matter occasion occurs in my 40-year profession – I’m at yr 24. So if I make it to 40 or no matter, I’m fortunate if the taking pictures occurs on the different finish of the constructing and never the place I’m.
(SOUNDBITE OF PHILIP GLASS AND PAUL LEONARD-MORGAN’S “TALES FROM THE LOOP”)
