The After Life. (The lockdown, part 2)

I received many emails from parents following the “lockdown” we had last Friday.  They were thankful and encouraging, and brought tears to my eyes.

We were all thankful that the person who tried to enter our building and who then was hallucinating in the parking lot was captured several blocks away. He proved to be someone who had overindulged in one too many of many things- and was most probably suffering from other mental issues.

On Monday morning I was working on prepping for the day when my student Eliza and her mother walked into the room.  They handed me a beautiful bouquet of flowers and a card.  They also placed a bouquet and card at the table of my paraprofessional.  The mother hugged me and said, “Thank you.  For ALL you do- thank you.”  Eliza smiled very broadly, and hugged me as well. 

They walked out of the classroom so that I could finish prepping for the morning, and I opened the card.

Dear Ms. Smythe,

This is just a small thing to thank you for all of the big things that you do.  Thank you so much for turning what could have been a traumatic event, into something that Eliza thought was really fun!  She had no idea, because of how you handled it, what it really was.  But we as parents do. 

Thank you again.

I won’t lie…it brought a tear to my eye.  And while Eliza might have thought that the drill was a blast, I can tell you that I most certainly did not. 

Scariest twenty minutes of my life.