This is my hundredth post on ChicagoNow. I was just about to post an entirely different entry until my wife called me at 12:26 to say that the high school my daughter attends was on lockdown due to a threat made against the school.As parents, how do you respond to that? I mean other than “Oh shit!”What can you do when you’re at work thirty miles away, and the school administration building doesn’t answer the phone, and the local newspaper hasn’t yet reported the story, and none of the five or six Twitter accounts related to the school aren’t updating, and your daughter sends a text saying that they’re hiding under desks?Nothing. You can do nothing but wait. Want an e-mail every time I write something new? Type your email address in the box and click the "create subscription" button. I'm not going to send you a bunch of junk, and you can ditch me any time you want.
You can check this grand information superhighway and find no information. Reliable information? Unreliable information? No information.So you wait. And you check newspaper websites, television station websites, school websites, and Twitter, and Facebook, and you hope that someone acknowledges what you know to be true only because your daughter sent a text to your wife saying that they’re on lockdown and hiding under desks.And you wait.Three interminably long minutes pass before an e-mail comes in with a recorded voice message from the school:“We are calling to inform you that all our schools are on lockdown due to a phone threat from a known individual. The Highland police department is diligently searching for this person. Schools are on lockdown and will remain so as a precautionary measure. Students and staff are safe and we will inform you of any updated details via this school messenger.”Students and staff are safe.Well that helps a little bit.But now it’s not just the high school. It’s all schools, including the elementary school my two sons attend. So that’s now three kids in two buildings that I have to worry about.And then the local newspaper publishes its first story about what’s happening. The phone call came from a phone number in Dallas. The police there are en route to the home where the call originated.Maybe this will be over soon.Then another update by the newspaper. This time they’ve talked to the superintendent of the town schools. The article says that he and the police dispelled rumors of someone inside the school with a gun and kids hiding under cafeteria tables and desks.Rumors?My daughter was under her desk in the classroom with the lights off. That’s not a rumor. That happened. A friend’s daughter texted her to say that she was in the cafeteria and under a table. That’s not a rumor. Another friend’s daughter was hiding in a closet. That’s not a rumor.Someone inside the school with a gun. That’s a rumor. That didn’t happen.In another local newspaper update a few minutes later the superintendent explained that during a lockdown “students are kept in classrooms with the lights down and lessons proceed as normally as possible.”That’s not what was happening. Kids were hiding under desks. The teacher told my daughter to hide under a desk, but the superintendent is saying that kids aren’t hiding under desks.So what happened? Did the local newspaper misquote the superintendent? Does the superintendent not know what was happening in the school? Or are the teachers not aware that during a lockdown instruction should continue and kids don’t need to hide under desks?But as a parent, as the event is unfolding and information is scarce, there’s the following fleeting, horrible thought: “They don’t want us to know how serious this is.”I hope that’s not true.However, I am glad to be writing this post. Or, I should say, I’m glad that I’m not writing a different, scarier, much more horrible post.It would have been nice to have correct information in the newspaper though. It would have been nice if someone updated an official Facebook or Twitter account. It would have been nice if my daughter didn’t needlessly hide beneath a desk.It would be nice if my daughter didn’t have to send texts that read, “I love you guys if something happens.”It would be nice if my ten year old son didn’t have to say to my eight year old son, “I wasn’t worried for me, I was worried about you.”It would be nice if these things didn’t happen.Yet still I’m thankful because it could have been worse.PREVIOUS POST: How to Make the State of the Union Address More ExcitingIF YOU LIKED THIS POST I BET YOU'LL ALSO LIKE: Dear Guns,+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Hey, how 'bout you Share this post on Facebook and Like my page Brett Baker Writes.