Not a good sign

It's never a good sign to drive into your child's school neighborhood and find 10 police cars (with lights flashing)blocking off the entrance to the school. It's even worse to hear that your child's school has been in lockdown. Hence was the scene today. But before I get to that....let me talk about picking up the first child from his school just 40 minutes earlier.

Today I arrived at Mason's school to pick him up. As I always do, I stood waiting outside near the exit for his class to appear. Shortly before the end-of-school bell rung, the fire alarm went off. There were flashing fire alarms, and the alarm sounding. Lovely. The principal came out with the bullhorn to announce that it was indeed a false alarm. Apparantly a student pulled the fire alarm. As the kids came streaming out to the front of the school, one class was missing. Mason's! There were a few of us parents waiting for our kids to come. They still didn't. At that point, it seemed like the rest of the school had left. Even the buses had left. Mason's class still hadn't appeared. Within a few seconds his class started streaming out the doors. The reason for the delay was that no one was allowed to enter the building until the fire department cleared the scene. Unfortunately, Mason's class exited the class for the fire alarm without their coats and backpacks. So, they had to wait for the doors to unlock to get their belongings. The kids who ride the bus had to wait in the office for their parents to come and pick them up.

After that excitement, we headed to Lauren's school to get her. It's located at the end of a neighborhood. I drove in behind a few cars....to see the flashing police lights. A car in the front of the line turned around and told us the school was in lockdown. She was told the kids were to be picked up at a different elementary school. I decided to wait to see for myself. The school district representative was turning cars around. He informed me there was a lockdown and kids would be picked up at a different high school. I pulled into a cul-de-sac to wait for a moment. Luckily Meghan and Jack were waiting with us too. Deanne was at the school, but didn't have her cell on. At that time the KIRO 7 helicopter was circling overhead. I called Mark, who checked on-line to see if there was a status update. The update was that they were in lockdown. I was then able to get through to the school and they verified all the students were safe, but they were in lockdown. A few minutes later the lockdown was over and police cars started to move. The parents and buses were allowed in. When we pulled into the pick up zone, there were still officers roaming the campus (with LARGE guns). Many officers with guns. Within the next few minutes, they headed up the hill and back to their cars. The kids were dismissed when the bell rang.

So, here's the rest of the story as we currently know it: The school had TWO lockdowns. The first occurred when a local community college had a lockdown drill. The loudspeaker could be heard for miles. The school (and a few other nearby elementary schools) locked down very briefly as the source was located. Then, as the 5th graders had recess, a few reported that they saw a man with a gun in the woods behind the school. That's when the lockdown started. Blinds were closed and all doors were locked. According to Lauren, they kids had to lay under their desks without talking for two hours. They could communicate by passing notes to each other. Here's the news link I found: http://www.kirotv.com/news/18543001/detail.html

Suprisingly, Lauren didn't seem too fazed by the whole ordeal. She said she was scared, but prayed not to be nervous. She explained the whole ordeal and how and why the kids were under the desks, etc.

All in all, it's time for a drink!