Oh That Place We Call School...

So last week at my school, there was a rumor of a bomb threat. It wasn't a real a bomb threat, just a rumor, but in light of all the violence that has been happening recently in schools, my school took it pretty seriously. 3rd period the principal announced a lock down, but my friends and I were in the cafeteria so we couldn't hear it. So my friends left halfway through the period to go to the band room like they always do. So they left the cafeteria, despite the lock down, to find a swarm of police officers, and they quickly returned. At this point, we had no idea what was going on. Like two seconds after they returned to our table, the assistant principal and some other important looking dude read us the announcement that the principal said. It pretty much said, "There's an unsubstantiated bomb threat. We're going in lock down. Go back to your second period class." So we trudged back to our second period class- for me it was Spanish. On our way teachers were yelling at us to get to our classes cuz we were a little late since we were in the cafeteria. A few minutes later the principal gets on the intercom again to announce that the police will be searching our school with bomb-sniffing dogs and that we'll have to remain in lock down for two hours. Two hours in Spanish class! Now that's cruel and unusual punishment. Two hours and I had to go to the bathroom.

In the end it turned out ok. My class watched You-Tube videos. Afterwards I ran to the bathroom, but there was a line! OMG!

That was last week. On Wednesday, about 10 minutes before the end of the school day the principal comes on the intercom with a lovely announcement. "A threat has been found...blah blah blah...school will not be closed...police will be present... no off-campus...everyone can only enter through one door...this message is online" Well I was kind of relieved because I thought he was going to say we were going to have a lock down which would mean I'd be stuck in math class for who knows how long. I thought the one-door thing was stupid, but no big deal. That afternoon, my brother goes online to read my mom the announcement and I hear him saying that the school is going to be searching backpacks tomorrow. How unfair! He didn't say that before. It made me mad that they were keeping information from us.

The next day as everyone enters the building we were greeted by police and administrators. They stared us down and we walked past and I said loudly to my sister(so they could hear) "Well, this is creepy." Now, I was already pissed, but during my first period class, my teacher informs us that all except for the corner bathrooms are locked and we are not allowed to leave the classroom at all. In my next class, I find out from the teacher that teachers going to start to have to wear ID all the time and eventually the students will too. I also find out that the threat which was written in a boy's bathroom, was not actually until tomorrow. Oh Joy. During lunch, they were only letting people go to the bathroom one at a time, through one door, while teachers guarded the other doors. My friends had to ask a teacher to escort them to the band room. This other girl I know was in the auditorium for fashion show practice and they wouldn't let her go to the cafeteria to eat lunch. My dance teacher said she let a girl get a drink from a water fountain, which is right next to the dance room, and they were like freaking out calling the police on her. It was such a great day with police all around the school and not being allowed to go to the bathroom.

So this today, everything was the same. As me, a friend, and my driver's teacher were walking out to drive, I was telling my teacher how much this whole thing sucked. We walked right past a group of like six police officers and I hope they heard me.

This whole thing really sucks. I hate not being able to go to the bathroom. I hate not being able to leave the cafeteria to go to the library. I hate having the police watching us as we go about our day. But most of all I hate this fear I have now that I'm going to get killed in school. My school has always been so awesome, but now I hate it. Every Friday, we have spirit day where you're supposed to wear red and/or school shirts- well I saw hardly any red clothing today, but I was seeing red.