"We're gonna have a surprise lockdown this week."

[Skidmore]

That was the first grader while putting on her wraps just now.

Kindergartner: "We practiced lockdown yesterday."

Grandma (been here for 3 weeks helping out): "What do you do during a lockdown."

First-grader: "The teacher closes the curtains and we sit in our desks and don't make a sound until we have permission."

Grandma, who understands the need for the preparedness and safety of classrooms in this twisted nation of ours, feels like crying and shouting in anger and frustration and in anger at the gun lobby and their minions and our worthless politicians right and left who subject our babies to this culture of fear and its accompanying threat. In many ways, this is worse than the hiding under the desk drills we went through as children during the Cold War. The USSR had more sense than to actually unleash nukes. This gun culture contributes to people who actually act out. I don't think those two little kids really understand what they are being prepared for but are good children who will listen to their teacher. When my daughter comes back from taking them to school, I'll be asking her if she has a sense of what has been told to kids at school about why they do these drills. I'm sure some explanation has been given. It just makes me furious that any has to be given at all. That we have allowed the bad and the ugly to run this nation. The gangs of DC.

[RC]

1. Having the kids sit at their desks, makes them easy targets for anyone standing in the doorway.

There has to be better thinking and logic involved to arrive at better answers than to just sit still and accept the status quo of being a possible target. Are there no closets? No places to hide? No in class restrooms? Are there still no workable locks on the classroom doors?

[Skidmore]

2. I'm certain there are other things being done that the kids are not aware of.

I was getting a 5 & 6 year olds perspective on what they need to do. I volunteered to read with kids in the first grader's room last week and from my recall of that room, cubbies are all open as are the available storage areas. Restrooms in the school are not one per classroom but children must be excused to go down the hall to a communal restroom area.

[liberal_at_heart]

3. my son's middle school had one last week

My daughter's school had a lockdown drill earlier in the school year. Both of my children's schools have received threats this year. The one at my daughter's school was a very serious threat, while the one at my son's school was considered a low level threat. Yes, this is the world we live in now. If I let myself think about it too much it would be hard to let them leave the house everyday, but it certainly does cross my mind more than it use to.

[Skidmore]

4. My daughter told me that there was

a threat last year, a parent with a gun and an ax to grind with his ex. Schools locked down in the area because they could not determine where he was. Brings to mind how easily domestic violence is still skipped over in spite of best interests to deal with it.

[marions ghost]

5. It is sad

Parents and grandparents need to be concerned. Not a good way to bring up kids.