• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Advertising
  • Write for Us
  • Job Board
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
    • Consulting
    • Advertising
  • Shop
    • Books
    • Shirts

The Educators Room logo

  • Start Here
    • Impact Statements: Teacher Expertise
    • Newsletter
  • Browse Topics
    • Content Strategies
      • Literacy
      • Mathematics
      • Social Studies
      • Educational Technology
      • ELL & ESOL
      • Fine Arts
      • Special Education
      • Popular Topics
        • Teacher Self-Care
        • Instructional Coach Files
        • Common Core
        • The Traveling Teacher
        • The Unemployed Teacher
        • The New Teacher Chronicles
        • Book Review
        • Grade Levels
          • Elementary (K-5)
          • Middle (6-8)
          • Adult
          • New Teacher Bootcamp
          • Hot Button Topics
            • Menu Item
              • Principals' Corner
              • Charter Schools
              • Confessions of a Teacher
              • Interviews
              • The State of Education
              • Stellar Educator of the Week
            • Menu
              • How to Fix Education
              • Featured
              • Ask a Teacher
              • Teacher Branding
              • Current Events
  • Podcasts
  • Courses
    • Practicing Self-Care to Avoid Teacher Burnout- An 8 Week Course
    • Becoming An Educational Consultant
    • Teacher Branding 101:Teachers are The Experts
    • The Learning Academy
    • Books
    • Shirts
  • Education in Atlanta
  • Teacher Self-Care
  • The Coach's Academy
menu icon
go to homepage
subscribe
search icon
Homepage link
  • Advertising
  • Write for Us
  • Job Board
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
    • Consulting
    • Advertising
  • Shop
    • Books
    • Shirts
×

October 24, 2019 Instruction & Curriculum

This Is Not A Drill: The Impact Of Our New Normal

  • About the Author
  • Latest Posts

About Laura Brown

The more I teach, the more my compassion for students, parents, and teachers grows. Thank you for reading my thoughts.
  • Hey Teachers, It's July; How Are Y'all Doing? - July 12, 2021
  • "It's Time To Make The Donuts:" Teaching in 2020-2021 - April 27, 2021
  • Anniversaries are Testimony: One Year of Pandemic Teaching and Learning - March 10, 2021
  • Nobody Trusts Teachers - February 3, 2021
  • How Did Students Feel About the Presidential Inauguration? "I Feel Safer Today, Mrs. Brown." - January 22, 2021
  • How Do I Explain America To My Students Tomorrow? - January 6, 2021
  • Teachers: The Way Home Is Through Baghdad - January 4, 2021
  • My Students Are Getting Me Through This Pandemic - November 23, 2020
  • So, How Is [COVID] School Going? - October 23, 2020
  • Was Someone Actually High When They Proposed The Hybrid Teaching Model? - September 16, 2020

Under the handle of my classroom door is a red button. That button allows teachers to secure their classrooms from the inside. Before the red button, teachers used their keys to lock their doors from the hallway. The mechanism protects us, but during the first lockdown of the school year, my red button fails to engage. 

Over the public announcement system, the words: "This begins our lockdown drill," move me towards the red button. I push it many times, but no click sounds, and then I remember being told that it does not work. My classroom location is new, near the main entrance, and extremely vulnerable. I have yet to figure out my room's quirks; I did not anticipate the security lock, that little red button, was defunct.    

Luckily, the drill is during my preparation block, and my classroom is lacking students. However, the empty room gives me pause and makes me question what I should do. The drill leaves me with more questions than with a plan action. Will I have time to lower and close the blinds in the event of a real attack? If the blinds are left up and open, anyone outside can see into my classroom. There will be no safe hiding place. If an assailant enters my classroom while I am teaching, I will not see them until it is too late to do anything but fight, or try to escape through the rescue window, that is, after I wrestle it open and remove the screen. 

I sit at my desk and contemplate my death and the death of my students. After twenty-five years of teaching, fleeing violence is my curriculum and demands pedagogy. Lock-downs drills are accepted, mandated by law, required. Proponents tell us that the exercises give us a plan, just like fire drills offer. Law enforcement informs us that we, the teachers, are the first responders. We must save our children. Parents are expecting us to have a plan. The public wants us to rehearse our deaths, just in case. We live in a violent world; we must prepare for it. We must accept it. 

Educators, like the Oregon football coach/security guard who recently disarmed a student, are hailed as heroes. "Dramatic Footage Show Coach Disarming and Hugging Students," reports the New York Times. These types of incidents offer us hope, and we collectively sigh. Until the next Parkland, Sandy Hook, or Columbine, we pretend the violence will not happen in our school. And if violence comes to our hometowns, our map dots, we pray that the drills save us. We reassure each other that we have a plan, but we have genuinely no clue as to how our bodies and minds will respond.  

As I sit at my desk, the one located near the window, close to the main entrance, I notice the silence. Over 1,500 individuals are meditating about violence. The security guard opens my unlocked door, peeks her head around the awkward corner that is the entryway to my classroom, finds no students, nods to me, and quickly exits. Yelling to her, I break the regulation for quiet, informing her that I did indeed press the button. I feel the need to tell her that I was following the rules. I was doing everything right, but that damn red button will not cooperate!

The drill ends with the administrator informing the participants in the mandated speech: "In the advent of a real emergency..." The building moves on, the buzz and hum of a school's orchestra play.  

The red button's inadequacy seems like a metaphor for the futility of such drills. The responsibility of our students' safety falls on us, the educators. We can delude ourselves in our security, but the inaction of our government is glaring. After Sandy Hook, Americans accepted that children die in schools. Today, stores sell bullet-proof backpacks.  

The hurried security guard and I test the red button at the end of the day. If I push on it with excessive force, it does engage. With the illusion of a safety plan, we move on. But I am left with nagging thoughts. Are these lockdown drills only letting our legislators off the hook? Why are educators asked repeatedly to "deal" with our societies ills with limited resources? And, what impact do these drills have on our children--do they feel safer, or will they look back on these exercises like we do the duck and cover drills of the nuclear age? Or worse, are we causing unnecessary anxiety for many fragile young people?

As a history teacher, I focus on turning points and characterize eras. I can say with confidence that we are living in a new normal. We have accepted that we are a violent people and that we will bandage our wounds with drills, hopes, and prayers.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Related posts:

Hiding in the School Building: Why Lockdown Drills Suck #ArmMeWith Starts a Movement Among Teachers Columbine Shooting 20 Years Later – Our Children Are Still Dying shelfIt’s Time to Build A Shelf
« Reading Groups, A Valuable Tool
It Doesn’t Have To Be This Way: When I Knew To Look For Something New »

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

The Educator's Room was launched in 2012 to amplify the voice of educators. To date, we have over 45+ writers from around the world and boast over twelve million page views. Through articles, events, and social media we will advocate for honest dialogue with teachers about how to improve public education. This mission is especially important when reporting on education in our community; therefore, we commit our readers to integrity, accuracy, and independence in education reporting. To join our mailing list, click here.

What we do

At The Educator's Room, we focus on amplifying and honoring the voice of educators as experts in education. To date, we have over 40 staff writers/teachers from around the world.

Popular Posts

  • What I Learned From the Burial of the Unknown Cat
  • How to Incorporate SEL Into Any Content Area
  • A Q&A with Baltimore Teachers Union President, Diamonté Brown
  • 6 Reasons to Use Read-Alouds Daily

Featured On

Buy Our Books/Courses

How to Leave Your Job in Education

Practicing Self-Care to Avoid Teacher Burnout

Using Your Teacher Expertise to Become an Educational Consultant

Check out our books on teaching and learning!

The Learning Academy

Footer

↑ back to top

About

  • Privacy Policy
  • Disclaimer
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Accessibility Policy

Newsletter

  • Sign Up! for emails and updates

Contact

  • Contact
  • Services
  • Media Kit
  • FAQ

 

Copyright © 2021 The Educator's Room.