The radio version of this story was edited by Adam Bearne.
Transcription:
LEILA FADEL, BYLINE: Since the start of the school year in this country, there have already been more than 70 campus shootings – 70 in just over two months. That’s according to the K-12 School Shooting Database, which tracks these incidents. Here at MORNING EDITION, we’ve thought a lot about both the trauma of this violence in a supposedly safe place – a school – but also how we now prepare our children for the day when this could happen to them. This includes our show’s parents, like our editor Adam Bearne. Her daughter came back from her first week of preschool and told her about what she calls a building exercise.
CLARA: I don’t know why they call it a construction exercise, because it’s really confusing.
FADEL: Clara was actually talking about a containment exercise.
CLARA: We had to be very quiet, go under our compartments, close the doors, and then I got scared because I thought it was real.
FADEL: It wasn’t, but his 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.
Hi.
AMY KUJAWSKI: Hello.
FADEL: My name is Leila.
KUJAWSKI: Hi, Leila. Delighted to meet you.
FADEL: It’s nice to meet you.
KUJAWSKI: My name is Amy.
FADEL: That’s Amy Kujawski, the principal of St. Anthony Middle School, which she simply calls Sam’s. It’s in a suburb of Minneapolis. And as you can hear, she has that larger-than-life middle school principal energy, and she leads with that positivity, even when things may seem bleak.
KUJAWSKI: We will emphasize belonging, safety, love, care and warmth.
FADEL: That day, his school underwent the first of five state-mandated lockdown drills, the first since the mass shooting at the Catholic school and nearby Church of the Annunciation.
How far is the Annunciation from here?
KUJAWSKI: Oh, my God. It’s close. Yeah. I had employees who had nieces and nephews there, who had friends there. Yeah. Yeah.
FADEL: The walls of Kujawski’s office bear posters with messages you might expect, like: Hate is strong; love is strong. But there is also a laminated sign with the school’s safety protocols, as there is in every room of the building.
KUJAWSKI: Containment. Locks, lights, out of sight.
FADEL: All children know this language and know what to do in case of a medical emergency, or something much worse. In Kathleen West’s class, the teacher prepares her 12 and 13 year old students for the confinement exercise.
KATHLEEN WEST: We want to stay away from that window by my desk. So if you can see this window, you are not in the right place and you should get closer this way. Yeah, I think you’re good, Henry, because you can’t see the window from there. So I think it will be good. Yeah. We just have to sit in this unpleasantness for a little while.
FADEL: When it’s time to exercise, there’s an announcement over the loudspeakers.
UNIDENTIFIED STAFF MEMBER: May I have your attention, please? This is a containment exercise. Teachers, please keep your students safe in your classrooms. This is a containment exercise. THANKS.
FADEL: The classrooms become dark. The corridors are quiet.
And you check every door to make sure it’s locked?
KUJAWSKI: Yes. And I also give feedback to our teachers if I can see or hear them.
FADEL: It’s Principal Kujawski again. She doesn’t shake the doorknobs too much, so students don’t think of a real intruder. And back in West’s class, she quietly reassures the students.
WEST: They’re the ones who make sure our door is locked.
FADEL: After cleaning his floor, Kujawski listens as other staff members check on the rest of the school. Then she speaks into her walkie-talkie.
(SOUNDBITE OF WALKIE TALKIE BEEPING)
KUJAWSKI: Are we all clear? I think we can call it.
UNIDENTIFIED STAFF MEMBER: Attention, please. The containment exercise is clear. The containment exercise is clear.
(CROSSTALK)
FADEL: The school gets noisy again as everyone moves on to their next class and we chat with a few students.
PHOEBE STRODEL: My name is Phoebe Strodel and I am 12 years old.
RAEGAN DUNKLEY: Hello. My name is Raegan Dunkley (ph) and I’m also 12 years old.
FADEL: Okay. So describe to me what you just did during this lockdown exercise.
PHOEBE: Well, we position ourselves against a wall or a shelf or a space where, if there were people coming in, they wouldn’t be able to see you through the windows or any other space, etc.
FADEL: But do you feel prepared overall?
RAEGAN: Yes.
FADEL: Yes?
RAEGAN: Yeah.
FADEL: Does that scare you? Or does this make you feel…
RAEGAN: No, because – well, I mean, it’s really scary if it’s a real situation. But luckily there is a police station right next to our school. So if there were to be a lockdown drill, the police would be there within minutes.
FADEL: So the exercises seem normal to you. They are simply part of life. Fire drill…
PHOEBE: Yeah.
FADEL: …Containment exercise.
PHOEBE: Yeah. You start, like, in first grade or something, because, like, kindergartners probably wouldn’t take care of it, or anyone younger than that.
FADEL: Lockdown drills aren’t the only thing the school is doing to protect its students. Classrooms are locked during lessons. There is bulletproof film on the windows, and nearby police and firefighters know the school’s safety protocols. West, the teacher you heard teaching her kids earlier? Well, she’s embarrassed by the fact that it’s all so ordinary.
WEST: You catch me at a really vulnerable moment because my brother and sister are both sending all their children to Annunciation.
FADEL: Yes?
WEST: So they were all in the shootout there. And my brother was there, and my brother-in-law was there – he just happened to be at mass that day. So six members of my family were involved in a mass shooting this school year. And then the following week, I came back to work here.
FADEL: What was it like doing a lockdown drill after that, knowing…
WEST: Honestly, it’s so normal. You know, the exercises are similar to how we are legally mandated to say the Pledge of Allegiance. It’s just something that happens.
FADEL: West was a student teacher when Columbine happened more than 25 years ago, so she was still teaching during the era of mass shootings in American schools.
WEST: We went through different waves of questions, for example on how to react and on the nature of the exercises. And of course, now I still think the shooters all participated in all those drills.
FADEL: Oh.
WEST: So, I don’t even know, you know, how effective they’re going to be. They’re not going to shoot us while we’re in our classrooms, locked up. They’re going to shoot us when we’re at the fire drill. The kids are all in the same place and the teachers are all in the same place. And I always think, OK, how can I save the most lives in this situation, right? And it’s crazy that it’s just part of the job. That’s not why I got into teaching in the first place.
FADEL: Yeah. What do you teach?
WEST: English.
(LAUGH)
WEST: I love reading and writing. I don’t really want to teach how to escape, you know, active shooters in school.
FADEL: Have you noticed a change in the way you think about preparing children or how…
WEST: Yeah. The exercises have changed over time. And I worked at a school where they wouldn’t tell us if it was real or not, which I found really cruel and unusual. So the lockdown drill would take place, and the kids would wonder: is this real? And I’m like, I don’t know. Listen to the sirens.
FADEL: (panting).
WEST: Like, if we hear the sirens, it’s real. If we don’t do it, then it’s not.
FADEL: Is there anything you would like to say or talk about preparing these kids or having to prepare them?
WEST: Well, I really wish the right people would take action to stop this. And I don’t think that’s fair. As a teacher who started out making $30,000 a year, you know, 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 it up, but I just feel like it’s when, not if. For example, if I’m lucky, no matter what happens in my 40-year career, I’m on year 24. So if I get to 40 or whatever, I’m lucky if the filming is on the other side of the building and not where I am.
(SOUNDBITE OF “TALES FROM THE LOOP” BY PHILIP GLASS AND PAUL LEONARD-MORGAN)
