Well I was going to blog about my boat camping trip last weekend, but I think I'd best tell about the bizarre bomb threat school evacuation today.
First of all, it was a hoax. They happen regularly at schools, if you can believe it. the last one at my school was in 2008, I think.
To start the day, I got to work extra early today for a parent meeting and all was well. It went into 1st class of the day, but no problem since I had a teacher cover my class. For 2nd period, I was in the portable and about 1/2 way through the period the fire alarm went off.
So I exclaim, "oh no!" ...or something like that. I did not swear. Ha ha.
We all filed out to the gravel soccer field at Thrift Elementary where the kids were at recess and playing gleefully. They got called back into classes soon after we all arrived on their playground, which relieved me. I'd worried about their reaction to us being there and how the high-schoolers would behave.
So we all thought it was just a false alarm. Even one of the senior students was saying that her friend texted her that it was from a teacher demonstrating a smoky camp stove inside portable 2.
However, when the police came out to where we were all standing waiting (& freezing!) and waved us to move another 50 feet back ... That was the first clue that it was more serious.
So we all moved and waited some more ...& more. And we wondered what the holdup could be. Some kids went to the nearby pool to go to the bathroom. And warm up, too.
THANK GOODNESS IT WAS NOT RAINING.
I had not grabbed my purse, jacket, or house keys, as I ALWAYS do, since I was not in the room they were stored in.
Well, after a full hour, we teachers were called to a teacher meeting where we were told that it was a bomb threat and the kids were to be sent home. Immediately.
So we did just that, though it did worry me somewhat sending kids home when their parents were not aware nor likely home. Many kids had no housekeys. Though most had their cellphones and could call someone.
Students with no way home or no way into their homes were directed to go to friends homes or to the public library, which is 10 min walking distance. Many of them probably went to the mall. They were all delighted, for sure.
Except for the BASES kids - the mentally handicapped kids were confused & discombobulated. Of course we didn't abandon them. All parents were phoned and pickups arranged.
So after the kids were gone, all us teachers waited around. It was very confusing because we were told that we would be sent home, too, but after a meeting with our principal - which never happened. We all waited in the cold, now hungry, to see what to do. It was another half hour until the police said that we could walk up the street to the front of the school and go in to get our purses and car keys. We were all much relieved. I could have walked to Clint at his school to get a set of housekeys, but in my indecision & desire to get back into the school and get some work to do I ended up hanging around until we were all let in at noon.
We all did get back in. I ate some lunch and grabbed a pile of work then stayed until 5:20 scrambling to catch up on my backlog. Kind of a silver lining to a bad day.
I did find out via hearsay that a paper note had been found in a student bathroom that had a bomb threat and timeline on it. Due to the timeline, it was deemed a viable threat and taken 100% seriously. The police even blocked off the entire block of roads around the school. Also, the poor elementary school kids went into code yellow or red for the entire hour and a half. They must have been very curious. Hope none were scared.
I have an early morning staff meeting tomorrow to debrief the whole thing and we will all get the whole real story then. It will be interesting.