The radio version of this story was edited by Adam Byrne.
transcript:
LEILA FADEL, BYLINE: There have already been more than 70 shootings on campuses in this country since the start of the school year – 70 in just over two months. That’s according to the K-12 School Shooting Database, which tracks those incidents. So here at MORNING EDITION, we’ve been thinking a lot about both the trauma of this violence in a place that’s supposed to be safe — school — but also about how we’re now preparing our children for the day it might happen to them. This includes parents on our show, like our editor Adam Byrne. His daughter came home from her first week of kindergarten and told him about something she called construction practice.
CLARA: I don’t know why it’s called a construction drill because it’s really confusing.
FADEL: Clara was actually talking about blocking drill.
CLARA: We had to be very quiet, go under our suitcases, close the doors, and then I got scared because I thought it was real.
FADEL: It wasn’t, but her fear was. So we decided to take you, our listeners, to a school that, like many schools, tries to prepare children without making them feel like a violent incident is inevitable.
hello
AMY KUYAWSKI: Hello.
FADEL: I’m Leila.
KUYAWSKI: Hello, Leila. Nice to meet you
FADEL: Very nice to meet you.
KUYAWSKI: I’m Amy.
FADEL: This is Amy Kujawski, the principal of St. Anthony Middle School, which she just calls Sam’s school. It is located in a suburb of Minneapolis. And as you can hear, she has this incredible energy of a middle school principal, and she leads with this positivity, even when things may seem bleak.
KUYAWSKI: We will emphasize belonging, safety, love, care and warmth.
FADEL: On this day, her school is going through the first of five state-mandated lockdown drills, the first since the mass shooting at the Catholic school and Annunciation Church nearby.
How far is Annunciation from here?
KUYAWSKI: Oh, my God. It’s close. yes I had employees who had nieces and nephews there who had friends there. yes yes
FADEL: There are posters on the walls of Kujawski’s office with messages you might expect, the hate is strong; love is strong But there’s also a laminated sign with the school’s safety protocols, like every room in the building.
KUYAWSKI: Lock. Locks, lights, out of sight.
FADEL: All the kids know that language and what to do in a medical emergency or something much worse. In Kathleen West’s classroom, the teacher prepares her 12- and 13-year-old students for the blocking drill.
KATHLEEN WEST: We want to stay away from that window next to my desk. So if you can see this window, you are not in a good place and should approach it that way. Yes, I think you’re good, Henry, because you can’t see the window from there. So I think it will be fine. yes We just need to sit in this awkward moment for a while.
FADEL: When it’s time for the drill, there’s an announcement over the loudspeakers.
UNIDENTIFIED STAFF MEMBER: May I have your attention, please? This is a blocking drill. Teachers, please keep your students safe in the classrooms. This is a blocking drill. thank you
FADEL: The classrooms are going dark. The corridors are quiet.
And you check every door to make sure it’s locked?
KUYAWSKI: Yes. And I also give feedback to our teachers if I can see or hear them.
FADEL: This is Director Kujawski again. She doesn’t jiggle the doorknobs much so the students don’t think there’s a real intruder. And back in West’s classroom, she quietly reassures the students.
WEST: They’re checking to make sure our door is locked.
FADEL: After vacating his floor, Kujawski listens for the other officers checking the rest of the school. She then spoke into her walkie-talkie.
(WALKIE-TALK BEEPING SOUND CARD)
KUYAWSKI: Are we clear? I think we can call it that.
UNIDENTIFIED STAFF MEMBER: Your attention, please. The blocking drill is straightforward. The blocking drill is straightforward.
(Cross-examination)
FADEL: The school is getting noisy again as everyone moves on to their next class and we talk to a few students.
Phoebe Strodel: I’m Phoebe Strodel and I’m 12 years old.
RAEGAN DUNKLEY: Hello. My name is Raegan Dunkley (ph) and I am also 12 years old.
FADEL: Okay. So, describe to me what you just did in this blocking drill.
PHOEBE: Okay, we’re facing a wall or a bookshelf or a space where if there’s people coming in, they won’t be able to see you through the windows or any spaces and stuff.
FADEL: But does it make you feel generally prepared?
RAEGAN: Yeah.
FADEL: Does it?
RAEGAN: Yeah.
FADEL: Does it scare you at all? Or makes you feel…
RAEGAN: No, because – well, I mean, it’s definitely scary if it’s a real-life situation. But luckily, there is a police station right next to our school. So if there was to be a lockdown drill, the police would arrive in about minutes.
FADEL: So your exercises seem normal. They are just a part of life. Fire drill…
PHOEBE: Yes.
FADEL: … Blocking drill.
PHOEBE: Yes. You start it in first grade or something because kindergarten kids probably won’t be able to handle it or anyone younger than that.
FADEL: Lockdown drills aren’t all the school does to protect its students. Classrooms are locked during lessons. There is bulletproof film on the windows, and the police and fire department nearby know the school’s security protocols. West, the teacher you heard teaching her kids earlier? Well, she worries that it’s all so ordinary.
WEST: You’re catching me in a really vulnerable moment because both my brother and sister are sending all their kids to Annunciation.
FADEL: Do they?
WEST: So everybody was involved in the shooting there. My brother was there and my brother-in-law was there too – we happened to be at Mass that day. So six of my family members were involved in a mass shooting this school year. Then the next week I went back to work here.
FADEL: What was it like doing a blocking drill after that, knowing…
WEST: Honestly, it’s so normal. You know, drills are like how we’re legally mandated to say the Pledge of Allegiance. Like, it’s just something that happens.
FADEL: West was a student teacher when Columbine happened more than 25 years ago, so she’s always taught in the era of mass shootings in American schools.
WEST: We went through different waves of how to respond and what the training would be. And of course, now I just always think, like, well, all shooters have gone through all this training.
FADEL: Oh.
WEST: So, I just don’t even know how effective they’re going to be. We’re not going to get shot when we’re in our classrooms locked away. They’re going to shoot us when we’re at the fire drill. The children are in one place and the teachers are in one place. And I always think, well, how can I save the most lives in this situation, right? And it’s crazy that it’s just part of the job. I guess that’s not why I started teaching.
FADEL: Yes. what do you teach
WEST: English.
(LAUGHTER)
WEST: I like to read and write. I don’t really want to teach about how to escape, you know, active shooters at school.
FADEL: Have you seen a change in the way you think about preparing kids or how…
WEST: Yes. Drills have changed over time. And I worked at a school where they wouldn’t tell us if it was real or not, which I thought was really cruel and unusual. So the blocking drill would happen and the kids would be like, is this real? And I tell myself that I don’t know. Listen for the sirens.
FADEL: (Gasping).
WEST: Like, if we hear the sirens, that’s real. If we don’t, then it isn’t.
FADEL: Is there anything you would like to say or talk about when it comes to preparing these kids or the fact that you have to prepare them?
WEST: Well, I really wish the right people would take action to stop this. And I don’t think it’s fair. As a teacher who started out making $30,000 a year and will never make more than $100,000 a year, my job should not be to save your child’s life. I know the stats don’t back this up, but it’s just a feeling of when, not if. For example, if I’m lucky, whatever event happens in my 40-year career – I’m 24 years old. So if I get to 40 or whatever, I’m lucky if the shooting happens at the other end of the building and not where I am.
(SOUNDBITE FROM TALES FROM THE LOOP BY PHILIP GLASS AND PAUL LEONARD-MORGAN)
