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The radio model of this story was edited by Adam Bearne. <\/em><\/p>\n Transcript:<\/strong><\/p>\n LEILA FADEL, BYLINE: For the reason that begin of the college 12 months on this nation, there have already been over 70 shootings on campuses \u2013 70 in simply over two months. That\u2019s in response to the Okay-12 Faculty Capturing Database, which tracks these incidents. So right here at MORNING EDITION, we\u2019ve been considering lots about each the trauma of that violence in a spot that\u2019s imagined to be secure \u2013 a faculty \u2013 but in addition about the way in which we now put together our children for the day it would occur to them. That features dad and mom on our present, like our editor Adam Bearne. His daughter got here dwelling from her first week of kindergarten and informed him about one thing she known as a building drill.<\/p>\n CLARA: I don\u2019t know why it\u2019s known as a building drill, \u2019trigger that\u2019s actually complicated.<\/p>\n FADEL: Clara was really speaking a couple of lockdown drill.<\/p>\n CLARA: We needed to be actually quiet, go beneath our cubbies, shut the doorways, after which I received scared \u2019trigger I assumed it was actual.<\/p>\n FADEL: It wasn\u2019t, however her concern was. So we determined to take you, our listeners, into a faculty that, like many colleges, is attempting to arrange the children with out making them really feel like a violent incident is inevitable.<\/p>\n Hello.<\/p>\n AMY KUJAWSKI: Hiya.<\/p>\n FADEL: I\u2019m Leila.<\/p>\n KUJAWSKI: Hello, Leila. It\u2019s good to fulfill you.<\/p>\n FADEL: So good to fulfill you.<\/p>\n KUJAWSKI: I\u2019m Amy.<\/p>\n FADEL: That\u2019s Amy Kujawski, the principal of St. Anthony Center Faculty, which she simply calls Sam\u2019s. It\u2019s in a suburb of Minneapolis. And as you possibly can hear, she has that larger-than-life center college principal power, and he or she leads with that positivity, even when issues would possibly really feel bleak.<\/p>\n KUJAWSKI: We are going to emphasize the belonging, the protection, the love and care and heat.<\/p>\n FADEL: On this present day, her college goes by means of the primary of 5 state-mandated lockdown drills, the primary because the mass capturing on the Annunciation Catholic Faculty and Church close by.<\/p>\n How far is Annunciation from right here?<\/p>\n KUJAWSKI: Oh, my goodness. It\u2019s shut. Yeah. I had employees who had nieces and nephews there, who had associates there. Yeah. Yeah.<\/p>\n FADEL: The partitions of Kujawski\u2019s workplace function posters with messages you would possibly anticipate, like, hate is loud; love is powerful. However there\u2019s additionally a laminated signal with the college\u2019s security protocols, like there may be in each room within the constructing.<\/p>\n KUJAWSKI: Lockdown. Locks, lights, out of sight.<\/p>\n FADEL: All the children know this language and what to do in a medical emergency, or one thing a lot worse. Inside Kathleen West\u2019s classroom, the trainer will get her 12- and 13-year-old college students prepared for the lockdown drill.<\/p>\n KATHLEEN WEST: We need to avoid that window over by my desk. So when you can see that window, you\u2019re not in a great spot, and it is best to come nearer this manner. Yeah, I believe you\u2019re good, Henry, \u2019trigger you possibly can\u2019t see the window from there. So I believe that might be good. Yeah. We simply should type of sit on this unpleasantness for a little bit bit.<\/p>\n FADEL: When it\u2019s time for the drill, there\u2019s an announcement over the loudspeakers.<\/p>\n UNIDENTIFIED STAFF MEMBER: Can I’ve your consideration, please? This can be a lockdown drill. Academics, please safe your college students in your lecture rooms. This can be a lockdown drill. Thanks.<\/p>\n FADEL: The lecture rooms go darkish. The hallways are quiet.<\/p>\n And also you\u2019re checking every door to verify it\u2019s locked?<\/p>\n KUJAWSKI: Yep. And I additionally give suggestions to our academics if I can see or hear them.<\/p>\n FADEL: That\u2019s Principal Kujawski once more. She doesn\u2019t jiggle the door handles an excessive amount of, so the scholars don\u2019t suppose there\u2019s an actual intruder. And again in West\u2019s classroom, she quietly reassures the scholars.<\/p>\n WEST: That\u2019s them checking to guarantee that our door is locked.<\/p>\n FADEL: After clearing her flooring, Kujawski listens for the opposite employees checking the remainder of the college. Then she speaks into her walkie-talkie.<\/p>\n (SOUNDBITE OF WALKIE-TALKIE BEEPING)<\/p>\n KUJAWSKI: Are all of us clear? I believe we are able to name it.<\/p>\n UNIDENTIFIED STAFF MEMBER: Your consideration, please. The lockdown drill is all clear. The lockdown drill is all clear.<\/p>\n (CROSSTALK)<\/p>\n FADEL: The college will get loud once more as everybody strikes on to their subsequent class, and we chat with a pair college students.<\/p>\n PHOEBE STRODEL: I\u2019m Phoebe Strodel, and I\u2019m 12 years previous.<\/p>\n RAEGAN DUNKLEY: Hiya. My identify is Raegan Dunkley (ph), and I\u2019m additionally 12 years previous.<\/p>\n FADEL: OK. So describe to me what you simply did on this lockdown drill.<\/p>\n PHOEBE: Nicely, we go, like, up towards, like, a wall or a bookshelf or an area the place if there have been individuals, like, coming in, they received\u2019t be capable to see you thru the home windows or any, like, areas, and stuff.<\/p>\n FADEL: However does it make you are feeling simply typically ready?<\/p>\n RAEGAN: Sure.<\/p>\n FADEL: It does?<\/p>\n RAEGAN: Yeah.<\/p>\n FADEL: Does it scare you in any respect? Or does it make you are feeling\u2026<\/p>\n RAEGAN: No, as a result of \u2013 properly, I imply, it undoubtedly is horrifying if it\u2019s a real-life state of affairs. However fortunately, there\u2019s, like, a police station proper subsequent to our college. So if there have been to be a lockdown drill, the police could be right here inside, like, minutes.<\/p>\n FADEL: So the drills really feel regular to you. They\u2019re simply a part of life. Hearth drill\u2026<\/p>\n PHOEBE: Yeah.<\/p>\n FADEL: \u2026Lockdown drill.<\/p>\n PHOEBE: Yeah. You begin it in, like, first grade or one thing as a result of, like, the kindergarteners in all probability wouldn\u2019t, like, deal with it or anybody youthful than that.<\/p>\n FADEL: Lockdown drills aren\u2019t all the college is doing to guard its college students. The lecture rooms are locked throughout classes. There\u2019s bullet-resistant movie on the home windows, and the police and hearth division close by know the college\u2019s safety protocols. West, the trainer you heard instructing her children earlier? Nicely, she\u2019s bothered that that is all so bizarre.<\/p>\n WEST: You\u2019re getting me at a very weak time \u2019trigger my brother and sister each ship all of their children to Annunciation.<\/p>\n FADEL: They do?<\/p>\n WEST: In order that they had been all within the capturing there. And my brother was there, and my brother-in-law had been there \u2013 simply occurred to be at Mass that day. So six of my members of the family had been in a mass capturing occasion this college 12 months. After which the subsequent week, I got here again to work right here.<\/p>\n FADEL: What was it love to do a lockdown drill after that, understanding\u2026<\/p>\n WEST: Truthfully, it\u2019s so regular. You already know, the drills are like how we\u2019re legally mandated to say the Pledge of Allegiance. Like, that\u2019s simply one thing that occurs.<\/p>\n FADEL: West was a scholar trainer when Columbine occurred over 25 years in the past, so she\u2019s at all times taught within the period of mass shootings at American colleges.<\/p>\n WEST: We\u2019ve been by means of completely different waves of, like, tips on how to reply and what the drills are going to be. And naturally, now I simply at all times suppose, like, properly, the shooters have all been by means of all these drills.<\/p>\n FADEL: Oh.<\/p>\n WEST: So, like, I simply don\u2019t even know, , how efficient they\u2019re going to be. They\u2019re not going to shoot us once we\u2019re in our lecture rooms, locked down. They\u2019re going to shoot us once we\u2019re out on the hearth drill. The youngsters are all in the identical place, and the academics are all in the identical place. And I\u2019m at all times considering, like, OK, how can I save probably the most lives on this state of affairs, proper? And it\u2019s loopy that that\u2019s simply a part of the job. Like, that\u2019s not why I received into educating within the first place.<\/p>\n FADEL: Yeah. What do you train?<\/p>\n WEST: English.<\/p>\n (LAUGHTER)<\/p>\n WEST: I like studying and writing. I don\u2019t actually need to train about, like, tips on how to escape, , lively shooters in school.<\/p>\n FADEL: Have you ever seen a change in the way in which you concentrate on making ready the children or how\u2026<\/p>\n WEST: Yeah. The drills have modified over time. And I did work at one college the place they wouldn\u2019t inform us if it was actual or not, which I assumed was actually merciless and strange. So the lockdown drill would occur, and the children could be like, is it actual? And I\u2019m like, I don\u2019t know. Hear for the sirens.<\/p>\n FADEL: (Gasping).<\/p>\n WEST: Like, if we hear the sirens, it\u2019s actual. If we don\u2019t, then it\u2019s not.<\/p>\n FADEL: Is there something that you’d need to say or speak about on the subject of making ready these children or the truth that you do have to arrange them?<\/p>\n WEST: Nicely, I actually want that the suitable individuals would take motion to make this cease. And I don\u2019t suppose it\u2019s truthful. As a schoolteacher who began out making $30,000 a 12 months, , and can by no means make greater than $100,000 a 12 months, like, my job shouldn’t be to avoid wasting your little one\u2019s life. I do know the statistics don\u2019t bear this out, nevertheless it simply looks like when, not if. Like, if I\u2019m fortunate, no matter occasion occurs in my 40-year profession \u2013 I\u2019m at 12 months 24. So if I make it to 40 or no matter, I\u2019m fortunate if the capturing occurs on the different finish of the constructing and never the place I’m.<\/p>\n (SOUNDBITE OF PHILIP GLASS AND PAUL LEONARD-MORGAN\u2019S \u201cTALES FROM THE LOOP\u201d)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n