There are particular drills that schools practice throughout the year in preparation for unexpected events during school hours. In many cases, these drills require students to stay quiet or follow instructions in order to remain safe. One Charlotte, North Carolina, teacher came to social media to explain the reality of how students behave during drills, even giving some examples.
Some teachers even jumped into the comments to tell of their own, very similar experiences with students, bringing together the conversation of whether teachers should really be expected to risk their lives in the event of an emergency.
A teacher in Charlotte, North Carolina, went to social media to talk about how her middle school students behaved during a recent lockdown drill. She explains that while teachers are expected to ensure student safety, there is little attention paid to the safety of teachers and their families.
She gives an example of a real lockdown that happened at a different school that involved a bomb threat being made. It was then discovered that the threat had been made by a student in her very own classroom, and because there were others who knew it wasn’t real, they used the opportunity to reportedly misbehave as the event was happening. Considering the severity of a lockdown, some replies focused on punishing the students, with one person saying, “talking during drills should mean suspension and I’m nooooooot kidding.”
An alleged teacher came into the replies to talk about her own experience during a lockdown drill, saying, “Last lockdown drill, my 6th graders could NOT be quiet. We finished and afterwards I went out and pulled up pictures of my parents and my dog and my cats and I said “if anything real ever happens, I am 25 years old and I need to get home to my family. You guys can’t act like that because it could stop all of us from going home” heavy for 6th graders? Maybe. But yelling labubu in the lockdown closet drove me a little nuts.”
Many other comments came from parents who seemed shocked to discover that this was a common occurence. One person even said, “We used to be scared during drills lol.” Thankfully, there was no actual danger during the drill, but the students’ reactions demonstrate how little they take certain scenarios seriously.
