Today a local high school was evacuated. Apparently, there was a chemical spill of formaldehyde. The power had to be turned off, ventilation systems shutdown, and students sent to the football field to wait. Parents were allowed to pick up children if they wished and several teachers were de-contaminated.
I have to commend the school for avoiding a disaster. Kids could have been sickened or worse from the fumes, and the spill could have even caused a fire or explosion.
I hear news reports like this every single week. Bomb threats, evacuations,and more. News of a student with a gun sends communities into hysterics and schools are locked down. Crank calls suck the productivity out of school days. I remember being in high school myself. One week we spent hours each day outside waiting for fire trucks to come and give the all clear.
As a homeschooler who takes advantage of local classes, even we are not immune. One day last year the “school” in a section of a large church was locked down because an irate man could not get an immediate audience with the pastor. Instead of leaving, he got past the front desk and disappeared into the building. The school locked all classroom doors and moved children out of sight until the man could be removed from the building.
For us, this was a once or twice a year occurrence as we are in a church where few people expect children to be. Our children also do not meet on a daily basis so that lowers the chance of danger. I have to commend the parents who send their children to a school building every day for being so brave. Just the fact that kids are in a school where a ‘crazy’ could go, should he want an easy target, scares me to death. When a local man went into school a few years ago and hit a local girl in the head with an axe, I knew I was making the right choice to end my children’s public school careers. It could so easily have happened at my kids’ school, or my kid could have been the one hurt.
I sure am glad we homeschool.