For a lot of our kiddos, the world can be a very scary place on any given normal day. Sights and sounds can overwhelm our kiddos. Of course in our classrooms, we have our standard fire drills, tornado drills and earthquake drills once a month. All things that are scary but are things that are preventable. Lock downs are something of a different nature, especially when it comes to our kiddos who are special needs.
I think it needs to be said that we shouldn't even have to have lock
down drills to begin with. Even for the General Ed it is a sad reality,
so can you even imagine what this all means for those who are special
needs and the people who care for our children?
Lock downs are for schools who have a intruder or active shooter(s) trying to either get into the school or have managed to succeed in getting in. The very first thing for an educator and their aides is the safety of their students, as well as personal safety. Scary stuff. Again as much as all the fire drills are the same, safely get your students to a safe location. Lock downs, the faculty and students are stuck within a school. Stuck. Stuck until it is safe from them to get out. Quick thinking on the faculty's part, law enforcement or sometimes the students themselves.
I don't think it needs to be said that since Sandy Hook, most school's protocols for lock downs has changed, but other things have not. As a parent of a two special needs students, I have to ask when protocols for schools are being laid in place, what is being done for our school children who are special needs, as we all know that special needs encompasses a lot. It isn't just physical. It isn't just cognitive. There is a wide spectrum that deals with special needs. While we as parents at the best of times, reluctant to send our children to school, it makes me wonder if we have to start putting in drill protocols within our children's IEPs. What should happen if an active shooter enters our children's school.
As I sit and write this, I am aware of the fact that I am not only a parent to special needs children, but now I am also one of many care givers within a school system to those with special needs. I am not going to lie when I say this whole idea of lock down drills scares the shit out of me. It is something that I am never going to used to, ever. I know what we do in our own classroom to maintain safety for our kiddos and ourselves during drills, but I can't help but wonder what it is like for our kiddos, themselves. I am taken back to my initial response to Sandy Hook. While at the time, I wasn't employed by the school system. My shock was the same as it was to the tragedy of Florida. It gave me nightmares. As I thought about what would have happened to my own children if this was what was happening to them. How would they deal in a crisis? Especially one so horrific as to watch your teachers and friends being gunned down. Again I am not going sugar coat this issue. I know there are crisis counselors out there that are trained to help those who aren't cognitively aware of what has just happened, but I still can't even wrap my brain around how my children would deal with something like this and that they would still have to deal with something like this after Sandy Hook. Its not like I can sit my non verbal child down and explain to him that bad people do bad things to other people.
Since Florida we have seen the young people who have been directly affected by this tragedy speak out. Calling for gun legislation and calling out those who have been in the pockets of the NRA, all while sending "Thoughts and Prayers". It is now encouraging to see the younger generation getting involved. It is sad however, that it took a senseless act of violence to finally hear their voices. I have sat and listened to our POTUS talk about arming teachers in the classrooms and giving the ones who are trained a bonus.Teachers who have to peg and plead with parents to send in supplies like pencils, paper and glue. He wants to arm them all with firearms. Seriously? Not only a liability issue, there is no way you could regulate it. It would take one disgruntled personnel to take gun from a classroom and do the same as an active shooter. I can't even fathom a gun in a special needs classroom. I can't and won't.
So what happens to our special needs kiddos during a crisis. For the most part if we the adults are calm, most of our kiddos are too. When it comes to trying to keep our stimming children quiet during a lock down, it is mission impossible. Most of us are in a small secluded space with kiddos that are reactive to no light, the inability to keep quiet or being in a space that is small and cramped. While we try to do our best to keep them quiet and safe, it doesn't always work. Even though we are doing everything in our power to maintain safety, nothing is 100%. That is what scares me to the point of nightmares about lock downs and special needs kiddos. We would be easy targets to a person with no regard to other human lives.
While I am happy to see students speaking out against the current gun laws of this country, it saddens me that I haven't heard too much from disability advocates and organizations about what happens to the special needs community when tragedies like this happen.What are we as care givers and SPed educators to do when this happens? While I am fortunate to work in an awesome environment, where the SPed department is supported, I know that not all schools are the same.
I hope that this recent tragedy in FL opens the lines of communication, finally, for things to change. While I feel there is hope for the future, it isn't the immediate future. We now have a group of young people who are angry. Young people who now have been taunted by those who are either in a seat of power or sitting in a computer chair hurling insults. Young people who in the next couple of years will be able to vote. I hope that the anger they have now will still be fresh in their minds when they are deciding who becomes our next POTUS and those who sit in Congress and the Senate. I hope they remember the local politicians who told them they were fauds because they stood up and said "Not Anymore". But I hope that these young people will remember those who don't have a voice, but were there as well during tragedies like Sandy Hook and FL and every other school shooting this nation has seen and will see in its future. Don't forget the protection of those who don't understand why lock down drills have to happen and active shooters are a reality.
