This Friday was a very …….interesting…… day. I went to school like always in the morning, but during first period we heard an unusual announcement. It wasn‘t our pricipal, and that man that had the mic seemed quite stressed.
„Attention students, our school is on lockdown! Please lock the door, turn off the lights, be quiet and stay away from the windows!“
So our teacher rushed to the door, locked it, turned off the light and told us to huddle under the teacher‘s desk. We all just sat there on the floor, listening if there were any noises in the hallway. Luckily I had grabbed my phone during the announcement, so I could text my friends and my host parents. We all expected it to be a drill, but after like 30 minutes everybody knew it wasn‘t. Everybody was as quiet as a mouse and secretly we expected to hear shots at some point…….
I texted my boyfriend and some other friends to ask if they know what was happening. They all said something slightly different things, but it was clear that it wasn‘t a drill and something was seriously wrong. I heard that the police was running around the whole school, and that kinda made everyone worry. I was quite scared but thank god everybody around me was rather calm.
After an hour, someone opened the door of our classroom from the outside and turned on the light. It turned out it was a cop, and he was telling us to stay exactly where we are. After another 20 minutes, there was an annoucement that the lock down was over and we should go back to normal class. But only after 5 seconds, there was the next announcement that said we should immediately go back to the lock down mode and that it wasn‘t over yet. At this point we still didn‘t know what was going on, but then our principal posted on Twitter that there was a man in the cafeteria that wasn‘t supposed to be there and that he was possibly armed. My host parents also texted me and asked what was going on. I was the only one they could reach since their children didn‘t have their phone on them.
We were in the lock down mode for about 1.4 hours, until we actually got the announcement that they had caught the target and we could go to our next period. So like the annoucement suggested, I went to my second period, which was over 5 minutes after arriving in the classroom.
In third period, Karen, the woman that‘s responsible for the exchange students, gathered us and asked how we were feeling about the lockdown. We all said it was scary but we were okay. For the rest of the lesson we had a sub and then in debate we mostly talked about the lockdown and what might have happened to start it. The school doesn‘t really tell us what happened, so obviously rumours spread. A lot of students had called their parents and got picked up from school for the day. My host dad also texted that he was outside the school and if me and my host siblings would like to leave, we could. But we all decided to stay in school to not miss any classes.
In English class, our teacher Mrs Anderson (my favorite) wanted us to talk about Trump‘s proposal to arm teachers. She herself is really conservative and pro gun. She asked us whether we would have felt safer if she‘d had a gun. About three quarters said yes and she also said that she would want to have a gun in case of a school shooting so she could protect the students. This kinda changes my views on that issue. In Europe all I‘ve heard was how ridiculous Trump is suggesting to give guns to teachers. But I can tell you that I personally would have felt safer in that situation to know that the teacher had a gun, and the other students seemed to agree.
When I got home, my host parents told me what the police had told them outside of the school. Apparently, a former student of this school went to see his girlfriend who‘s still in going to Wylie High and they got into an argument in the cafeteria. He then threatened her and then mentioned that he‘s carrying a gun and would shoot her. Some other kids in the cafeteria overheard the conversation and informed the school administration. The school was then immediately locked down because this guy had pulled a knife on people before. He was later found at his home and arrested.
After school we had a pep rally because of the football game that evening. I didn‘t go though, instead I went across the street to get a starbucks drink with my boyfriend‘s sister Gretchen that I know from debate.
The football game was great! We finally won, although it was quite close. After the game I went out with Jacob and after midnight I finally went to bed because there would be a debate tournament the next day.