Hell in a handbasket. Alternately known as LOCKDOWN

Today we spent the entire second half of the day in Lockdown. Lockdown is the procedure we drill as a preparation for something like Columbine, or a kid bringing a gun into school and flipping out, or some random person in off the street getting in somehow and attacking people. All hall movement stops; everyone must be in a classroom and the classrooms are locked with only security and administration leadership in the halls checking on everyone, finding strays, and eliminating the threat while everyone hides in a classroom completely silent against the walls. Except today wasn't a drill; the eighth grade got organized and took over the school. I don't know the details; I went out to my car during lunch and came back in and the halls were dead silent. I walked into the grade office, lights out, with four teachers and two students sitting totally silently until they shushed me and told me about the lockdown. At that point, none of us knew why- it was all sixth grade teachers and students. The drill usually lasts only a few minutes, though, and this kept going. Another teacher walked in and was promptly shushed as well.

"Why are you all whispering?" he said loudly. "We're on lockdown because of the eighth grade, not because of some guy with a gun in the building."

Sure enough, a few minutes later someone came on the loudspeaker to announce that the lockdown was no longer a drill, but students were not permitted at any point to leave the classroom for any reason. I had to actually walk my kids to the bathroom at one point. Evidently the eighth grade, which has been going mildly insane all year, just got organized and decided to wreak havoc and chaos. Sometime 5th period, on some invisible cue, kids from almost every different eighth grade class got up, broke the windows out of their doors in their classrooms, and ran out of class into the hall. I think there might have been a fight that broke out about that time, too, but I'm not totally positive yet. The situation in the hallways basically turned into a mini-riot/stampede. By the time they got that resolved we had five police cars surrounding our building. It didn't end there, though; a bunch of the kids called their parents during the melee and asked their parents to come up and beat up some of the other kids. So when the bell rings and all the kids are let out of the building, a parent brawl starts happening and the police called for backup. There were probably about fifteen police cars by the time I left professional development. There was also a foodfight at some point that added to problems but I'm not clear on when that happened.

The one upside is that the principal cut PD short to let us go work in our rooms while she figured out what she should do. I don't envy her. I think it's fairly obvious to most of the teachers in the building that the eighth grade has gotten this bad because of several fairly specific bad decisions on the part of the administration, and the administration refuses to admit its own mistakes or weaknesses, which is in itself a weakness or mistake that helps nobody, including them. She finally came on the loudspeaker five minutes before the official end of the day, and announced that we would be in effect on lockdown indefinitely. Students would stay in their hoomrooms all day and teachers will switch rooms. The teachers are pissed about that, which of course was a decision made by a leadership team which steadfastly ignores (when they even bother to include) the one teacher on it, who's building rep. She also announced (L's idea) an emergency meeting with all staff to come up with ideas on how to change the climate of the building and, I quote, "take our building back".

When the principal admits that she has lost the school to a few hundred 14 year olds....


Unrelated, one of my students gave me a "Bio of Ms. A" with a little construction paper frame. Apparently I've helped this girl with everything but spelling. My bio reads:

Ms. A is a vary, vary, vary nice teacher in the hole wide world. when she teaches us she makes sure we lern evrything. And Ms. A. whers vary nice close all the time. (she's vary skny) and somtimes when the class dose not get things she makes sure we lern it. and she has vary nice jewlry, like her earrings, neckess, braclets.

by, Danielle S.
To Ms. A

And then there's a picture of me with very large earrings.

Guess I've been slacking on the spelling instruction...