My Sister Told Me A Story That I Can't Stop Thinking About In The Wake Of All This. When She Was In First

My sister told me a story that I can't stop thinking about in the wake of all this. When she was in first grade they had an active shooter drill, only no one was informed it was drill. There was some mix up with the codes or something. Anyway the point is they all thought it was real. My sister says she remembers the teacher very quietly telling the class that there was an active shooter in the building and that this was not a drill. She says she remembers hearing screaming and crying from kids down the hall. She told me they all had to put on bright orange bullet proof vests and she remembers thinking that the color would only make it easier for the shooter to spot them. She remembers being scared. She remembers seeing someone walking up the hall through the heavily tinted glass. They kept trying to open the door and my little sister said she genuinely thought she was going to die. She was terrified she would never see me or my mom again.

It ended up being the principal coming to tell them that it was just a drill but it was a little too late in my opinion. That fear my sister and her classmates experience was real even if the threat wasn't and that memory is something she still carries with her.

We have to do better.

Republicans are more concerned with denying people bodily autonomy and keeping kids from learning prejudice exists than doing anything to keep those same kids from being shot by the guns they want everyone to have

They also seem to think that children are not mature enough to handle the existence of non cis/hetero people , but they are mature enough to live with the constant danger of a stranger busting into their classroom and ending their young lives