The radio version of this story was edited by Adam Bearne.
Transcription:
LEILA FADEL, BYLINE: Since the start of the school year in this country, there have already been more than 70 shootings on college campuses, 70 in just over two months. This is according to the K-12 School Shooting Database, which tracks these incidents. So here at MORNING EDITION, we’ve been thinking a lot about both the trauma of that violence in a place that’s supposed to be safe (a school) and how we now prepare our children for the day when it might happen to them. That includes parents in our program, like our editor Adam Bearne. His daughter came home after her first week of kindergarten and told him about something she called a construction drill.
CLARA: I don’t know why it’s called a construction drill, because that’s very confusing.
FADEL: Actually Clara was talking about a mock lockdown.
CLARA: We had to be very quiet, go under our cubicles, close the doors, and then I got scared because I thought it was real.
FADEL: It wasn’t, but his fear was. So we decided to take you, our listeners, to a school that, like many schools, tries to prepare children without making them feel that a violent incident is inevitable.
Hello.
AMY KUJAWSKI: Hello.
FADEL: I’m Leila.
KUJAWSKI: Hello, Leila. Pleased to meet you.
FADEL: Nice to meet you.
KUJAWSKI: I’m Amy.
FADEL: That’s Amy Kujawski, the principal of St. Anthony High School, which she simply calls Sam’s. It’s in a suburb of Minneapolis. And as you can hear, she has that huge high school principal energy and leads with that positivity, even when things may seem bleak.
KUJAWSKI: We will emphasize belonging, security, love, care and warmth.
FADEL: On this day, your school is conducting the first of five state-mandated lockdown drills, the first since the mass shooting at nearby Annunciation Catholic Church and School.
How far is Annunciation from here?
KUJAWSKI: Oh, my God. It’s close. Yes. I had staff who had nephews and nieces there, who had friends there. Yes. Yes.
FADEL: The walls of Kujawski’s office have posters with messages one might expect, like, hate is strong; love is strong. But there is also a laminated poster with the school’s safety protocols, as there is in all the rooms in the building.
KUJAWSKI: Block. Locks, lights, out of sight.
FADEL: All children know this language and know what to do in case of a medical emergency or something much worse. Inside Kathleen West’s classroom, the teacher prepares her 12- and 13-year-old students for the lockdown drill.
KATHLEEN WEST: We want to stay away from that window by my desk. So if you can see that window, you’re not in a good place and you should approach this way. Yeah, I think you’re good, Henry, because you can’t see the window from there. So I think it will be good. Yes. We just have to sit in this unpleasant situation for a moment.
FADEL: When the time comes for the drill, there is an announcement over the loudspeakers.
UNIDENTIFIED STAFF MEMBER: May I have your attention please? This is a lockdown drill. Teachers, please secure your students in their classrooms. This is a lockdown drill. Thank you.
FADEL: The classrooms are left in darkness. The hallways are silent.
And you’re checking every door to make sure it’s locked?
KUJAWSKI: Yes. And I also give feedback to our teachers if I can see or hear them.
FADEL: That’s Director Kujawski again. He doesn’t move the door handles too much, so students don’t think there’s a real intruder. And back in West’s classroom, she calmly reassures the students.
WEST: That’s them checking to make sure our door is locked.
FADEL: After cleaning his floor, Kujawski hears the rest of the staff checking the rest of the school. He then speaks into his walkie-talkie.
(BEEP SOUND OR WALKIE-TALKIE)
KUJAWSKI: Are we all clear? I think we can call him.
UNIDENTIFIED STAFF MEMBER: Your attention, please. The lockdown drill is all clear. The lockdown drill is all clear.
(CROSSTALK)
FADEL: The school is loud again as everyone moves on to their next class and we chat with a couple of students.
PHOEBE STRODEL: I’m Phoebe Strodel and I’m 12 years old.
RAEGAN DUNKLEY: Hello. My name is Raegan Dunkley (ph) and I’m also 12 years old.
FADEL: Okay. So describe to me what you just did in this lockdown drill.
PHOEBE: Well, we go like against a wall or a bookshelf or a space where if there were people coming in, they wouldn’t be able to see you through the windows or any space and stuff.
FADEL: But does that make you feel prepared in general?
RAEGAN: Yes.
FADEL: Yes?
RAEGAN: Yes.
FADEL: Does something scare you? Or does it make you feel…?
RAEGAN: No, because… well, I mean, it’s definitely scary if it’s a real-life situation. But fortunately there is a police station right next to our school. So if there was a lockdown drill, the police would be here within minutes.
FADEL: So the exercises seem normal to you. They are simply part of life. Fire drill…
PHOEBE: Yes.
FADEL: …Lockdown drill.
PHOEBE: Yeah. You start it in first grade or something because kindergartners probably wouldn’t handle it nor would anyone younger than that.
FADEL: Lockdown drills aren’t all the school is doing to protect its students. Classrooms are closed during classes. There is bullet-resistant film on the windows and the police and nearby fire department are aware of the school’s safety protocols. West, the teacher you heard instructing her children earlier? Well, it bothers him that this is all so normal.
WEST: You’re speaking to me at a really vulnerable time because my brother and sister send all their kids to Annunciation.
FADEL: Do they?
WEST: So everyone was in the shooting there. And my brother was there, and my brother-in-law was also there; I happened to be at Mass that day. So six members of my family were in a mass shooting this school year. And then the next week, I went back to work here.
FADEL: What was it like doing a lockdown drill after that, knowing…?
WEST: Honestly, it’s very normal. You know, drills are like when we are legally mandated to say the Pledge of Allegiance. That’s something that happens.
FADEL: West was a student teacher when Columbine happened more than 25 years ago, so he always taught in the era of mass shootings in American schools.
WEST: We’ve gone through different waves of how to respond and what the exercises will be. And of course now I always think, well, every shooter has gone through all these drills.
FADEL: Oh.
WEST: So I don’t even know how effective they’re going to be. They are not going to shoot us while we are in our classrooms, locked up. They’re going to shoot us when we’re at the fire drill. The children are all in the same place and the teachers are all in the same place. And I’m always thinking, OK, how can I save the most lives in this situation, right? And it’s crazy that that’s just part of the job. That’s not why I got into teaching in the first place.
FADEL: Yes. What do you teach?
WEST: English.
(LAUGHTER)
WEST: I like to read and write. I don’t really want to teach about how to escape active shooters in school.
FADEL: Have you seen a change in the way you think about preparing children or how…?
WEST: Yes. The exercises have changed over time. And I worked at a school where they didn’t tell us if it was real or not, which I thought was really cruel and unusual. Then the lockdown drill was carried out and the children said: is it real? And I say, I don’t know. Hear the sirens.
FADEL: (Gasps).
WEST: If we hear the sirens, it’s real. If we don’t, then it isn’t.
FADEL: Is there anything you would like to say or talk about preparing these children or the fact that they have to be prepared?
WEST: Well, I really wish the right people would take action to stop this. And I don’t think that’s fair. As a school teacher who started out making $30,000 a year, and will never make more than $100,000 a year, my job should not be to save your child’s life. I know the statistics don’t bear it out, but it looks like when, not if, it will happen. If I’m lucky, whatever event happens in my 40-year career, I’m on year 24. So if I get to 40 or whatever, I’m lucky if the shooting happens on the other end of the building and not where I am.
(SOUNDBITE OF “TALES FROM THE LOOP” BY PHILIP GLASS AND PAUL LEONARD-MORGAN)
