Somebody set up us the bomb
Thu Apr 07, 2005 05:14 (UTC -5)Last semester the school set into place an emergency plan for when bad things (shootings, gas leaks, bomb threats, etc.) occur. We had a practice evacuation in December, complete with paramedics on the scene and students from the health class practicing CPR on others who volunteered to be unconscious. In my post, I jokingly remarked that “[t]he semester ends next week, so if there’s a gas leak in second block today, tomorrow, Monday, or Tuesday, we’ll be safe and know exactly what to do.”
On Tuesday, when we got into third block (a.k.a. third hour or third period), we were supposed to start reading. It’s for our little thing called Tornado Time Out for Reading (our mascot is a golden tornado). We have to read for 20 minutes during a different class each day. On Monday it’s fourth block, going down to Thursday, first block. (We have four blocks a day and four days a week. Ain’t it grand?) Anyway, my teacher, who is a stickler for everything, insisted we get out a book to read even though the principal hadn’t made the announcement like he should have. So we were a few minutes to our reading when the P.A. came on. It was the principal. What we expected to hear was, “Attention students and staff, it is now Tornado Time Out for Reading, enjoy the next 20 minutes.” What we heard was, “Attention, we are under a full lockdown, Code Black, bomb threat.”
A real bomb threat! Public schools everywhere (especially the worse ones) seem to get them all the time. Coming from a private school last year, I had the preconceived notion that bomb threat = empty threat. (I do, however, recall a bomb threat at my old school, but I don’t remember when, how, where, or if it actually happened.) People obviously weren’t scared — there was no real immediate threat, like when there’s a gas leak — so I found no reason to be either. Notwithstanding the many bomb threats that occur in every school district each year, I’ve never heard of a bomb blowing up a school.
I must admit I was a bit panicked when I packed my stuff into my backpack (didn’t want to leave my borrowed calculator in smithereens), but I cooled down a bit as the school filed out of the building and, each class (supposed to be) following its teacher, went to the bleachers on the football field. After all, it did take a while. Due to the arrangement of the demolished former campus, the present campus, and the all-the-while football field, it’s not the shortest of walks from school to field. And there are a lot of people, to boot.
Anyway, we were on the bleachers and everyone seemed to be collected. Some people had brought their lunch, because there was a lunch period going on at the time. I didn’t see anyone eating, though, but I did have a piece of a chocolate bar that a girl from my class offered me. We passed the time wondering if this was a real bomb threat and not a drill, and at the very notion of how silly bomb threats are. I mean, if you’re going to plant a bomb (which actually seem to be present in approximately nil cases), why warn people that it’s going to go off? I guess the aim is not to kill, but to scare. Because you never have a bomb anyway!
Anyway, my main concern at this point was that the evacuation was going to cut time out of lunch. Just as I asked for the time from someone, an assistant principal handed the principal, who was standing in front of the bleachers, a megaphone. He went to turn it on. The siren rang.
Ha ha. He probably has difficulty turning his computer on.
Anyway, he got it to work and said that he thanked us for our cooperation, and that everything was safe, we could go back to class, lunch people could go back to lunch, etc., etc. What’s more, our lunch would be pushed back 10 minutes but no time would be taken from it. So pretty much everyone was happy in the end.
I didn’t hear any stories right away about who made the threat, but on the way home from school, my sister said it was someone at a nearby school. Probably just wanted to cause a little scare. Figures.
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