It's the end of the school (as we know it)

8:53 AM
The atmosphere in this place is very weird. Everyone is terrified, or maybe on edge is more accurate. There are a bunch of buff guys in the parking lot wearing red polos and khakis. We're going to have an "active shooter" drill some time between 9 and noon, where someone or maybe multiple people come into the school and pretend to shoot the place up. I've heard these are very noisy and they set off smoke bombs and stuff.

I've done what I usually do on this particular inservice day, which is to go to a nearby classroom and sort papers (my stack is about 3 feet tall this year) and write report cards. When the drill starts, I lock the door and wait it out. I guess that's it. We'll have to see.

These things are not really for us. If it were, we'd have students here and the students have been banned from campus. Part of a drill for us would be to protect students. This is a police drill, pure and simple. Long term, of course, it is good for school safety that the police learn how to navigate this place in case of an emergency. Short term though, all it's done is make people anxious. Even I'm a bit anxious, and literally all I have to do is pull a door shut and sit on the floor until the "all clear" announcement.

9:03
They keep hitting the page button on the intercom, which I assume is making everyone more jumpy than they already are.

9:10
It's very very very quiet in here.

9:27
I was thinking as I drove over here today, since part of the objective of this thing is to scare the crap out of everyone, what would be the best moment to do that. We should have had a pool. I'll take 9:54, since I don't know what Bible verses predict the end of the world.

9:30
It just started. I heard some semi-distant loud bangs and then a few more and then they announced the lockdown. I'm sitting on the floor away from the door and windows. Door is locked, I think, I hope.

Wow, that's REALLY loud.

9:35
Lots of yelling. Some walkie-talkie action too. I didn't know guns were that loud, though I've never shot indoors. I don't know if the yelling is all the shooter or the police too. This is properly frightening. I'm pretty sensitive to loud noises, so I'm glad I'm where I am.

9:38
I think there's still stuff going on. Oh yeah, more loud bangs. Lots of dead people in real life. Some desperate sounding yelling.

9:44
I don't think 7 minutes of quiet with no "all clear" is good news.

9:45
And it's over. Time to go for a debriefing.

9:49
So now we're all sitting in the auditorium and everyone is telling their stories of what they did and whether they heard stuff. I have no idea if it went "well." The receptionist said she screamed when the shots started and that she definitely would have been dead.

9:56
Apparently the shooter was on the other floors, not mine. Now the police and security company are coming in to tell us about it.

10:45
The debriefing is over. It was very interesting, really. They told us what had happened and that our security guard had actually neutered (actually, I think he said neutralized) the shooter. So they restarted with a second guy who got upstairs. The universal lesson was, call 911 if you're in a position to talk (as I was- the room I was in has a solid metal door and only about a foot of wall space that could have been shot through) whether it's to report something or to ask if it's safe to come out. They have a pretty sophisticated communications system for this kind of stuff. I guess the other thing is, if you're outside when this happens, channel Monty Python and Run Away!

The police got here in less than 2 minutes, which is pretty good. They stopped to take their weapons off, which I presume they would not do if it weren't a drill. So now we're supposed to get back to work, which I guess I'll do.