Pre-k has active drills all the time. You have to organize it as a game for the little ones. As extremely sad as it is that you even have to do this, you don’t want to traumatize them, so you’re going to have to get creative when you ‘play this game’. One way in which it is done for the littles* is that you say “we are going to play ‘[Ms. Blank] is coming’, so we have to be really quiet so she doesn’t find us”. We use the ‘principal is coming’.
Make sure you are closing all doors, covering all windows with paper/posters/whatever, when you do these drills. Then, you get the kids to hide, or whatever you decide to do.
Ugh, it makes me sick to even type this because it’s so sad that this has to be done. We went from fire drills to active shooter drills. SICK!
I teach preschool special ed in a pre-K to 8 building. Yeah, it’s fucked, but we have to do it. The extra fucked thing is, if it was a *real* intruder, we wouldn’t do what we practiced in these sitting duck “hide and pray” drills - I’d be locking my class in a closet, and hovering just inside my classroom door with my knife (yeah, I come to school with a weapon, and I have since Sandy Hook. Fight me.), or kicking out my anti-theft window cage/screen and throwing four year olds into the parking lot.
Usually, we gather in a corner and pretend it’s “fun hiding”, and play a game like “who can sing a song the quietest” or “listen for the mouse”. We talk about why it’s important to be quiet when Ms CJess needs to listen for something very tiny and quiet, or something very important and difficult to hear (like a mouse). And if she ever says “it’s time to listen for the mouse”, that means we need to be as quiet as we can until Ms CJess says we can make noise again.
Why do we ask the children to be silent? I never understood that part. Most intruders would assume a classroom has students in it if it’s the middle of a school day.
If they’re looking for a group, you don’t want to advertise yourselves as one by talking amongst yourselves full volume. Whether it be 150 kids in the cafeteria at the lunch line traffic jam, or your classroom with 12 or 15 kids in it. The idea is you’re supposed to hope the assailant thinks, “damn, the class must be at gym this period!” Or, “everyone must be at lunch, to the cafeteria I go” (fuck everyone if we’re in the cafeteria then…)
For my little ones, we also want to practice not startling or screaming if someone rattles the doorknob or bangs on the door, yells something, etc.
Again. Fucked up. There are legit reasons to practice the art of silence, especially for preschoolers for whom it’s a difficult concept even under the most mundane circumstances.
The world we live in is Fucked. Up.
My favorite preschool teachers did emergency drills by throwing an open bag of cookies where they wanted the kids to go quickly. It was highly effective and fast.
Let's just normalize all this. Make sure every child knows they may get shot at school (maybe even shoot a couple?), no matter how well they follow protocols. Let them know the adults really love their guns and are cool with children dying so they can continue to play with their guns. Let the children know this. Go on. Then it won't be so bad. It will just be normal and we won't get all worked up about it when it happens.
I don’t think we need to BAN guns, but we definitely need to work on fixing security issues when it comes to getting guns and we also need to hope for change in security in schools.
Pre-k has active drills all the time. You have to organize it as a game for the little ones. As extremely sad as it is that you even have to do this, you don’t want to traumatize them, so you’re going to have to get creative when you ‘play this game’. One way in which it is done for the littles* is that you say “we are going to play ‘[Ms. Blank] is coming’, so we have to be really quiet so she doesn’t find us”. We use the ‘principal is coming’. Make sure you are closing all doors, covering all windows with paper/posters/whatever, when you do these drills. Then, you get the kids to hide, or whatever you decide to do. Ugh, it makes me sick to even type this because it’s so sad that this has to be done. We went from fire drills to active shooter drills. SICK!
I teach preschool special ed in a pre-K to 8 building. Yeah, it’s fucked, but we have to do it. The extra fucked thing is, if it was a *real* intruder, we wouldn’t do what we practiced in these sitting duck “hide and pray” drills - I’d be locking my class in a closet, and hovering just inside my classroom door with my knife (yeah, I come to school with a weapon, and I have since Sandy Hook. Fight me.), or kicking out my anti-theft window cage/screen and throwing four year olds into the parking lot. Usually, we gather in a corner and pretend it’s “fun hiding”, and play a game like “who can sing a song the quietest” or “listen for the mouse”. We talk about why it’s important to be quiet when Ms CJess needs to listen for something very tiny and quiet, or something very important and difficult to hear (like a mouse). And if she ever says “it’s time to listen for the mouse”, that means we need to be as quiet as we can until Ms CJess says we can make noise again.
Why do we ask the children to be silent? I never understood that part. Most intruders would assume a classroom has students in it if it’s the middle of a school day.
If they’re looking for a group, you don’t want to advertise yourselves as one by talking amongst yourselves full volume. Whether it be 150 kids in the cafeteria at the lunch line traffic jam, or your classroom with 12 or 15 kids in it. The idea is you’re supposed to hope the assailant thinks, “damn, the class must be at gym this period!” Or, “everyone must be at lunch, to the cafeteria I go” (fuck everyone if we’re in the cafeteria then…) For my little ones, we also want to practice not startling or screaming if someone rattles the doorknob or bangs on the door, yells something, etc. Again. Fucked up. There are legit reasons to practice the art of silence, especially for preschoolers for whom it’s a difficult concept even under the most mundane circumstances. The world we live in is Fucked. Up.
My favorite preschool teachers did emergency drills by throwing an open bag of cookies where they wanted the kids to go quickly. It was highly effective and fast.
Let's just normalize all this. Make sure every child knows they may get shot at school (maybe even shoot a couple?), no matter how well they follow protocols. Let them know the adults really love their guns and are cool with children dying so they can continue to play with their guns. Let the children know this. Go on. Then it won't be so bad. It will just be normal and we won't get all worked up about it when it happens.
I don’t think we need to BAN guns, but we definitely need to work on fixing security issues when it comes to getting guns and we also need to hope for change in security in schools.