I have a box in my classroom that keeps my students and myself safe. You see, it has a tourniquet, a billy club, some gloves, and other items designed to help in the event of a shooter. This is cool and good and normal. I especially like that my fingerprint is required to open the box. But don’t worry, if someone accidentally lifts the cover to the fingerprint scanner it will call the police anyway. They’ll be at the school in under three minutes and know exactly which box was activated.
Yes, I like the box looming over my desk, installed over a weekend where my “You Are Loved” rainbow poster used to be. Its invitingly sharp corners remind me I’m safe. The harsh green LEDs, the kind my astigmatism can never resolve clearly, bathe the room in a calming wan glow. The seemingly random tests, the ones where the man’s voice barks in my left ear, let me and my students know all is well.
I love telling my students where we will go if someone wants to shoot us. I love explaining to them that running is our best option. I love the look in their eyes when they tell me they would hide under the tables and stab the shooter with scissors. I love reminding them that life isn’t a fucking video game.
I’m happy to have the box, this reminder of death in my classroom.
I’m really sorry for my ignorance but what the fuck? Do American schools really have stashes of shooter survival gear in each classroom? What’s next, blast doors in the halls and bunkers under each classroom?
The only thing you got wrong is bunkers under the classroom. There are companies that will install for all intents and purposes bunkers inside the classroom.
I have a box in my classroom that keeps my students and myself safe. You see, it has a tourniquet, a billy club, some gloves, and other items designed to help in the event of a shooter. This is cool and good and normal. I especially like that my fingerprint is required to open the box. But don’t worry, if someone accidentally lifts the cover to the fingerprint scanner it will call the police anyway. They’ll be at the school in under three minutes and know exactly which box was activated.
Yes, I like the box looming over my desk, installed over a weekend where my “You Are Loved” rainbow poster used to be. Its invitingly sharp corners remind me I’m safe. The harsh green LEDs, the kind my astigmatism can never resolve clearly, bathe the room in a calming wan glow. The seemingly random tests, the ones where the man’s voice barks in my left ear, let me and my students know all is well.
I love telling my students where we will go if someone wants to shoot us. I love explaining to them that running is our best option. I love the look in their eyes when they tell me they would hide under the tables and stab the shooter with scissors. I love reminding them that life isn’t a fucking video game.
I’m happy to have the box, this reminder of death in my classroom.
Based on prior incidents this may be of no help whatsoever
oh they’ll come… to stand around, porkily, while keeping the parents out and letting the shooter kill more children
I’m really sorry for my ignorance but what the fuck? Do American schools really have stashes of shooter survival gear in each classroom? What’s next, blast doors in the halls and bunkers under each classroom?
The only thing you got wrong is bunkers under the classroom. There are companies that will install for all intents and purposes bunkers inside the classroom.
Edit: Hurry children, get into the unventilated bulletproof closet for your safety.
I hope you and your students never have to face the unthinkable. And I don’t know what else to say.
Thank you. And you don’t have to say anything. Use this horror to fuel something productive in your life.
putting a real life memento mori in every art class is a very normal thing