Today I was fortunate that our local newspaper kept us updated on the events that took place at my daughter’s high school.
My daughter got off the bus and I met her mid stride in the middle of the street. I hugged her and she said, “Mom, I am fine.” I did not let go. I literally hugged her all the way to our house…like four feet, but still. Eventually she made me let go. My other 3 children are at a totally different school but for some reason I could not settle myself until they were home. I had zero desire to cry, but once everyone of my family members were home I had to fight back tears. I was successful as I didn’t want to freak my kids out, but it took effort.
Our beautiful, precious M has a field hockey game tonight, so off she went with my husband. I could not attend as the other 3 have homework etc. and I didn’t want her to leave. I made dinner for the little ones and then as a distraction I popped back on to our local paper’s site and saw this comment…
I am angered at the lack of planning on the school boards end; the went into lock down before lunches started and then evacuated the building hours later, so there was no meals provided for children! They finally brought water out, but what about getting OTHER SCHOOLS involved to make sandwiches, or get apples,etc out to those kids! I have a call into the school board…let’s see what they have to say.
This is what I have to say…If there is choice between focusing on trying to keep my kid from being blown up and say, giving her food, I am going to go with choice A.
I am brand new to this survival thing, but I am pretty sure most all of us can survive 3 1/2 hours in 85 degree weather with just water.
It took every bit of self control I had to NOT head on down to that school with my handy dandy 9mm and save the day, but I kind of thought with the police dogs and experts I might be a bit of a distraction. So sandwiches never really came into play for me.
I in no way relinquish my responsibility or my desire as a parent to keep my family safe to anyone let alone my local school or police department, but at no time during this god awful sucky day did I wonder if my kid had a sandwich. I mostly wondered if her she was scared, if she was safe, if she wished her mom was there.
No one and I mean NO ONE can or even should be burdened with the responsibility of 100% guaranteeing anyone’s safety. It is a huge step in faith for me to turn over my kid, but even I with my gun, extra mag, 2 knives, pepper spray, warrior mindset and ninja fighting skills can promise she will be safe(I hate this fact by the way), but I can and will expect an effort by those who are charged with that duty. A concerted, well informed, trained effort to do everything one can humanly do. For some reason giving her a sandwich never once occurred to me.
I am not much for vigilante justice, but what this person did was cruel. It was irresponsible and it was mean. Here is the thing, sometimes evil just gets the first shot. Please for the love of god if you have to pick between stopping a bomb threat and giving my kid a sandwich, please, please, please address issue number one. After they are all home safe I will make every single one of them a sandwich, but lets get them home safe first.
Honestly, THANK YOU GOD FOR LETTING MY KID COME HOME SAFE AND WHOLE. You have no idea how much I value that blessing. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Glad all is well. When the AHole is found, I would suggest a public flogging followed by a week in the stocks . . . . .
I agree.
” When you know that you’re capable of dealing with whatever comes, you have the only security the world has to offer.”– Harry Browne
True.
Glad everything turned out okay, and from reading your previous post, it sounds like the school board and LEO’s finally had a sit-down-heart-to-heart (probably over dinner at the local Golden Corral, all on the taxpayer’s dime) and hashed out some details. Clearing a safe zone on the campus, first and foremost, was excellent. While I understand this can potentially take time away from searching for an actual bomb, there’s no sense in searching if you send the kids to where the bomb is located.
The human body can survive something like 7 days without food, but only about 3 without water. The school provided drinks, and once everything was clear, they apparently offered food and more drinks to the kids as they boarded buses to head home. So, they prioritized 1) safe zone for kids to be relocated to, 2) water as they waited in 85 (most certainly not a sweltering day…kids spend…or used to…hours running around in much higher temps during the summer), and 3) more food and water available after everything was declared safe by the bomb squad and access to the cafeteria was restored at the end of the day. In my opinion, that’s a win, and it seems like a school that has its priorities wired correctly. The parent who thinks their kid needs a PB&J (minus crust, and cut into triangles for Lil’ Precious) rather than safety from a possible bomb needs to have their priorities rewired. Preferably with raw feed from a high-voltage tower.
I understand being overly protective of ones child and wanting them to be safe, but 3 seconds after a rough day is not the time to be thinking if little Johnny had food. I am all for assessing a situation and seeing if we can improve upon it, but really, that is not my biggest area of concern.
Yeah, I hear ya. But that, in my opinion, is something that should be a bit farther down the priority list. Sounds like they got the kids’ safety at the top, and I find no fault in the way it was handled (not like I’m an expert or anything, but from where I’m sitting, it sounds like a great plan of action). Now that they have the kids safe, lesser considerations can be addressed. I completely agree, no staff should be allowed back into the building until the whole thing is cleared (they don’t pay teachers or lunch ladies enough to go bag a bunch of sammiches in a potential bomb location); perhaps, when it looked like it was going to take a while, a call could have been made to another school for some sack lunches and bottled water? I wouldn’t expect the school to run over to Burger King and order several thousand #1 combos (with fries). Another thought would be, is the stadium in direct sun, or is there adequate shade? What sort of entertainment options are available (think: improv pep rally!) to keep kids occupied, or are each teacher required to come up with something for their class?
Anyhoo…that would be my brainstorm for the day. The parent, IMHAOIO, still has her priorities out of whack. Kudos to the school board and LEOs for their work!
I have a university-acceptable B.O.B in my office and my wife, who teaches 5th grade, has some acceptable preps in her classroom as most/all schools practice lock-downs, but not 3, 5, 12-hour lock-downs…
Dann in Ohio
Good plan!
@AGirl… for example, the wife has a 32 pack of Sam’s bottled water and 32 Quaker Granola bars (4-boxes of 8) from Walmart on the bottom shelf in her one cabinet… we replace it at the beginning of each school year… that’s one water and granola bar per student and one for the teacher in case of an emergency… Lockdown, stuck at school due to snow storm, etc. It’s just our mindset… but other classrooms are on their own, we can’t fix everyone and everything…
Did you know a parent could provide a classroom with the same supplies for less than a twenty-dollar bill!
Some people just don’t have their head in the right place. I’ve come to the realization that they probably never will.
I agree, but you know sometimes you just have to shake them anyway and say, hey, wake up:)
Everytime I hear someone say, “the police will protect you” I immediately say back, “they can’t and they won’t”. Not because of any SCOTUS ruling (yes they have ruled the police have no responsibility in protecting any one individual) but because the cops, military, prosecutors, judges, and everyone else out there are not GOD.
So it’s up the us to teach our kids how to take care of themselves as best as possible, Care for themselves in the financial world, social world, legal world, and yes, the world of survival. That means knowing how to defend themselves and others. And that takes time and alot of thought, which explains why so many people just say, ‘the police will defend you’ and turn their eyes back to the TV.
It does take time and though and effort and even then there is no guarantee, but that’s what we want. Especially when it comes to our kids…we want a promise they will always be safe, but there are no promises of that. For me, that is the toughest part. I wanted to do something yesterday, but there was nothing I could do, but wait and hope it was a hoax.
Oh I am thankful all is okay. But the mentality of some people never ceases to amaze me. I am pretty dang sure the school had more pressing things to worry about then making sandwiches.
I worry about school safety every day. Our principle n Chief, likes to lock all the gates, HOWEVER..you can go through the bus loop and walk right in to the cafeteria…Scenarios run through my head every day of what could happen…
“Honestly, THANK YOU GOD FOR LETTING MY KID COME HOME SAFE AND WHOLE. You have no idea how much I value that blessing. Thank you, thank you, thank you!”
If anyone understands a mother’s love for her child, it’s God. I’m glad everything turned out well. I agree that safety from bombs takes priority one over any amount of snacks. It’s dumb that anyone has whined about that.