We've each been through a rash of lockdowns: both real and practice. Sometimes the practice ones were worse than the real ones. Practicing hiding and being quiet with a group of teens for over an hour is rough. One class that I taught had some gangsters in it. They were actually relishing the thought of someone attacking our room. They spent one lockdown dreaming up murderous plots for any intruder.
A group of us talked about gun control, the need for better access to mental health, and new security procedures. Everyone seemed to have an answer. All of them we've been hearing for years, but two stood out as different: French and Rose Fish, as usual, had a different angle.
Firstly, French said that in his experience he had to protect the kids from other kids; more so than intruders. French and I have stepped in to stop multiple stabbings, and other attacks with weapons. The potentially most lethal was during a huge school wide brawl we pried a long metal pole with a hook (used to move basketball nets in and out from the wall) from one guy's hand. This student was trying to plunge the hook into another student's skull. Oddly, every time we broke up a fight, or attack,our reputation would grow as always being around trouble. There is almost negative pressure from my peers to step in too often. Currently, we are not even allowed to break up a fight physically. Our job is to observe the fight and then write up a report that is adjective, and bias free and submit it to a bureaucrat.
Secondly, Rose listened to us all to finish up our tale telling, and then she said: "No policy reform or bureaucratic procedure is going to stop evil. You'll all have to wait for Jesus to come set this all straight."
