this 101 focuses on engaging the students in writing remember to get under your desk this took place two years ago and i can still recall every moment in almost perfect detail it was nearing the end of school everyone was on their way to their last period which for me was history a class that i not only wasn't good at but i also disliked the teacher and at that point i honestly had no motivation of even showing up so ultimately i decided to ditch and hide out in one of the bathroom stalls located near the very back of the school almost no one went back there so i figured no one would find out anyway i was in the furthest back stall playing some game on my phone when the ear deafening sound of the principal coming over the intercom made me jump lock down lockdown this is an emergency alert please follow lockdown procedures go into the nearest room or building lock the door and turn off all light it was a lockdown announcement though i honestly didn't pay any attention considering they were all practice and so i just continued to sit there in the stall and wait but just then all the lights to the building seemingly shut off all at once the hum of the light faded along with the buzzing of the ac unit which meant all the power to the school had been cut off the bathroom had gone pitch black and that's when i was actually starting to get worried power was never cut off during practice lockdown drills i texted my friend asking him what was going on and literally right away he answered back with the text saying dude where are you it's a real lockdown everyone's asking where you are i told him i was in the bathroom and he responds saying i should hide but where else could i go i wasn't just going to run out into the hallway to find a better spot so ultimately i decided to stay and hide in the stall i was in i turned my phone's brightness down and texted my friend again i asked him what the reason was for the lockdown and after five long minutes of waiting he replied saying that apparently there was a kid armed with a knife banging on classroom doors and asking to be let in both my classroom and the bathroom i was in were on the same floor so i turned off my phone and tried my best to see if i could hear anything there were running footsteps and that was shortly followed by the sound of the bathroom door opening i was absolutely horrified at what i was hearing whoever entered walked towards the stall next to me went inside and shut the door i held my breath for what seemed like forever then to break the silence in a shaky voice i said who's in here it was silent for a second and then i heard a voice reply with i'm just looking for a place to hide i heard there was a lockdown over the speakers that didn't really answer my question but the guy sounded around my age and so i decided i just let it go we sat in silence for what seemed like forever when finally we got another announcement telling all students to exit the school in an orderly fashion through the front doors where cops would be waiting outside i exited the stall but was surprised to see the guy next to me didn't i asked him if he was coming and he replied saying uh yeah man just give me a couple minutes i thought that was weird but regardless i left the bathroom and started heading towards the front exit of the school as i was walking my phone went off my friend had texted me he said that apparently a kid who was maybe a couple years older than us tried to rob a nearby gas station at knifepoint the guy actually stabbed a couple people and when he was unsuccessful in getting any money he ran to hide in our school to blend in as one of the students but what horrified me the most was the last sentence my friend said that the cops outside were saying that the kid was still inside and that he was hiding somewhere in the back of the school reading this changed my walk to the front doors into a full-on sprint right as i got outside i would frantically inform one of the police officers of what i had experienced and after they searched the bathroom they found it was empty but that the window inside was broken the kid had broken and escaped through the window needless to say for the next few school days i'd gotten a lot of unwanted attention because of what i had experienced as far as i know the kid still hasn't been caught and it's still just difficult for me to come to terms with the fact that i was unknowingly hiding in a stall right next to the guy i was trying to hide from i somewhat recently got my first real job as a teacher at a public elementary school in a nearby neighborhood it was the first school year i was teaching and at this point it was only september so needless to say i was still learning the ropes it was honestly pretty stressful i teach a first grade class of around 20 kids so you can imagine how chaotic it would get at times especially with my lack of experience i remember one day i was in the middle of assigning the kids a worksheet for spelling simple words when the principal's voice came over the school's loudspeaker and ordered a lockdown now being a new teacher i wasn't yet informed of when the school had practiced lockdown drills around the year therefore i had no idea if this was a drill or not but i knew either way i had to follow protocol i turned off the room's lights locked the doors and windows and had the kids sit against the walls out of sight i'd say maybe five minutes passed of complete silence when i could faintly start to hear doors being banged on down the hall i could feel my heart start to race as the sounds got louder as whoever was banging on the doors got closer at this point i still had no idea whether it was just the principal checking all the classroom locks or an actual intruder in the school but my thoughts weren't erupted by one of my students bursting out crying it was too loud there's no doubt whoever was outside would have been able to hear it i could tell the banging outside stopped in response to the noise shortly after followed by a single pair of footsteps walking up to the door it was silent for a few seconds but the silence was quickly broken by a male's voice yelling out hey guys i think there's kids in this one and that confirmed this lockdown was real more footsteps could be heard running up to the door and that's when genuine attempts to break down the door were made by multiple people at that point not a single kid in the class wasn't crying or screaming in fear i didn't know what to do i was never trained for this kind of situation and that's when two gunshots could be heard but it didn't come from the intruders police were now inside the building right after the shots were fired the intruders could be heard running down the hall 30 minutes later and we were given the all clear it turns out the intruders were three local high school students they were eventually caught but when asked why they did it they would say close to nothing although one of the kids claimed it was a bed but personally i don't believe that for a second no bet is worth going to court over and even possibly losing your freedom i firmly believe they had much worse intentions although most likely traumatized luckily no one was physically hurt the shots that were fired by the police were claimed to have been warning shots and were aimed directly into the ground it's been two years since this all happened and i still teach first grade at the same school and even in the same classroom and to this day those bullet holes can still be seen in the school's hallway this happened back when i was in middle school technically it was actually my last day in middle school it was late may and for our last day our school would do a sort of field day where the whole school would play a bunch of games to celebrate the end of the school year now back then i used to be a pretty active kid but unfortunately due to a recent concussion i was unable to participate in any games the whole day i was pretty disappointed yeah though i did bring my ds and quickly opted to just sit inside one of the classrooms and play that as i mean there wasn't really anything else i could do none of the teachers seemed to mind so there i was all by myself in the classroom for my science class playing my ds all the while the other kids got to play games in the school's gymnasium it was a weird feeling being in that classroom alone i don't really know how to explain it i mean up until that point i don't think i'd ever been in a classroom completely alone something that needs to be mentioned is that the teachers that weren't watching the kids in the gymnasium were in a room across the hall having meetings i'd say i was playing on my ds for not even an hour when my english teacher miss allen rushed up to the classroom's door and closed it from the outside she didn't say anything to me so i figured she just wanted to make sure i couldn't hear whatever the teachers were talking about across the hall forgetting about it i went back to playing my ds a couple minutes later the classroom's door swung open i expected to see one of the teachers coming in to check on me but no a man i'd never seen before walked into the room and closed the door behind him the guy had to have at least been in his 50s and so i just assumed it was some kid's dad it wasn't unusual for parents to come into the school to bring a student their lunch so i asked if he was looking for someone he replied with no in a tone that seemed almost offended that i would even ask that question before i could say anything else the guy started walking towards me i asked him what he was doing and that's when he lifted up his shirt revealing a handgun on his waistband he followed it up by saying look kid i'm gonna need you to come with me or i'm gonna kill you the guy said it in the most carefree tone i had ever heard and that along with the fact that i'd never seen a gun in person before instantly overwhelmed me with pure fear before i could fully comprehend the danger of the situation i was in the guy firmly grabbed my wrist and started pulling me towards the classroom door but before we got into the hallway the deafening sound of our school's lockdown alarm started going off this was followed by the guy instantly letting go of my wrist and making a run for it down the hall and through a back exit i stood there in shock for a second but ultimately went back inside the classroom i'm not sure how much time had passed when miss allen came back into the room and told me that she didn't want to scare me but that there had been an intruder inside the building and on lockdown which now was over had taken place i would tell her about the man and instantly she brought me to a police officer who was already on the premises to explain what i had experienced it turns out the man was the whole reason the school went into lockdown in the first place the man was reported to have been scoping out the school all morning and when he was seen getting close to the building itself someone would call the police which resulted in the lockdown the guy was later caught and would openly admit that he had been trying to scare kids into getting into his car so he could kidnap them and this reality still horrifies me to this day not a day goes by where i'm not thankful for the school's alarm going off when it did [Music] you