I already know what’s coming.
It’s the end of fourth period and Dr. Woods Weeks is about to blast through the intercom telling teachers to lock their doors, we’re in yet another lockdown.
My first lockdown, I was dead silent. I crunched my body as small as possible into the back corner of a classroom. Today, I’m whispering to my friends and keeping my computer open on my calculus homework.
Each time we go into a lockdown I’m less scared than the one before. After about 14 lockdowns during my time at Riverside it’s hard to take them seriously.
I see my classmates walking around the class and hear videos playing out of people’s phones.
Still, there’s the thought, “What if this time it’s real?”
I still text my mom every time we’re in lockdown and think about what I would do if I hear gunshots. The whirl of helicopter blades above the school doesn’t help ease my worries.
Each lockdown costs me time in my fourth period class, AP Calculus. Every day of class is already planned, and we’ve lost 1.5 class periods so far, leaving my classmates and I with vastly less time to understand the content than the other sections of the semester-long class.
This is a problem for everyone. The safety concerns are obvious, but lockdowns will also lower levels of comprehension, worsen test scores, and leave teachers and staff unhappy. Staying after the bell causes students to be late to after school jobs, staff late for childcare pickup,and buses to be even more chaotic than usual.
If these lockdowns continue, the reputation of Riverside and Durham Public Schools is at risk. New teachers won’t want to come to a school that’s known for having lockdowns every week and veteran staff will leave for a school where they can actually get through their lectures.
I don’t know what the solution to Riverside’s lockdown problem is. I think there’s value in an anonymous tip system. If someone notices something about a friend or classmate, there should be an easy way to raise an alarm.
What I do know is that something needs to change.
Fiona Fehrman is a Pirates’ Hook head editor
