Walkout Lockdown
All in the Same Day
As I was driving to work yesterday morning I smiled as I saw kids from the local high school with signs on the over pass. They were participating in the walkout. I was more pleasantly surprised when I arrived at the private school I work at to discover that some of our small junior high class was out as well. They had their signs in hand and were chanting. A friend texted that she walked out of her downtown office in solidarity and met a dad with two kids in local schools who was doing the same thing. I am excited for the youth, participating and standing up for what they believe and the teachers and other adults that are supporting and encouraging them to use their voice.
A couple hours later, the day took a quick turn when my office mate received an emergency text from her son’s university that a man with a gun had been spotted on campus and to take shelter. The campus was put on lockdown. She could not reach her son. We sat in silence. The only noise was the fax machine when it rang. The phone occasionally, and one of our voices when answering. The three of us only making noise when necessary. She called her husband and while the conversation mostly took place in Mandarin, there were a few English words. Some of the locations because names are names, but then the word lockdown… I was trying to decide if it didn’t translate or if it was quicker to rattle off the English phrasing.
No news reports, just twitter updates. I was quite about what I saw there, students posting pictures of their barricaded classroom doors, pictures of text conversations with loved ones, short frustrated bursts of anger, well wishes to be safe, and lots of confusion. Every time my co-worker’s phone chirped or peeped my other office mate and I would look up and still our breath waiting to hear he was okay. She phoned the school to make sure the text was a real threat, it was, but no new information was given.
Silence filled the room again. The occasional clicking of keys on a keyboard, or ringing of a phone. My boss asked me in between meetings if she had heard anything yet. Not yet…
Conflicting reports on twitter. People quick to post what they know and don’t know. I text my friend group for sanity, they begin to look at the hashtag and follow along with me. For nearly two hours I am refreshing twitter hoping for the latest news, but she received the call from her son. Relief spreads across her face along with tears. I can hear tones of love, concern and joy expressed in a language I don’t understand.
Tears and smiles in the office. I shook my hands out, not realizing how tight they had been, or the knot that had formed in my stomach.
Later, the incident was reported as a hoax. The call into local police was false. Why this was done is still under investigation, but the problem is, this threat is not a joke. This threat was very real to all of the students and faculty that were on lockdown. These procedures are in place as a reaction to these circumstances and situations that happen all the time. This is a reality. It does not seem like an if situation anymore, but when.
I don’t believe it was a coincidence that only hours after this school and many others participated in the #walkout that then this call was made. Someone was trying to capitalize on the very real fear. People are afraid, I will never forget the look on my coworker’s face that was filled with fear, but people are also angry. Angry enough to not be controlled by their fear, angry enough to walk out, to protest, to speak up.
Angry enough to fight for change.
