On Feb. 16, 2018, I was in a school shooting scare, and it was the scariest event of my life. The day started off normal. I walked into first period, U.S. history, and had a unit test I didn’t study for. After first period, I had second period chemistry and aced a quiz. It felt like every other day. But the real story begins during fourth period, when the fire alarm went off.
First, for you understand why I was so confused when the fire alarm went off, I have to first explain how my school's period schedule works. There are two lunch periods at my school, A lunch and B lunch. I don’t know what period the B lunch kids are in while we are at lunch, but I do know that 20 minutes into fourth period, the bell rang, signaling the start of B lunch.
On this specific day, I was sitting with my friend Janiah. We were talking about random things while I worked on my ALEKS (math work). In our conversations, we eventually brought up what happened in Florida. Janiah had lived near the county where the shooting happened before moving to Georgia, and we were just talking about how sad it was. I can’t personally speak for Janiah, but I registered and empathized with what happened in Florida; however, it didn't feel like something like that could ever happen to me.
I know shootings happened very frequently, especially after Columbine, but I could never picture something like that actually happening. My friends and I had talked about it, saying things like, “Where would you hide?” and “What would you do?” But to be honest I really didn’t know. I said “Oh, I would hide here” or “I would record it just in case it was the last thing I would ever say.”
But I would later find out that I was nowhere near prepared if a real shooting were to happen. Eventually after the 40 minutes of lunch were up, I went to my fourth period of math. While I was sitting there, two girls came in and said that their parents were there to pick them up. At the time I thought they were probably leaving early because it was the last day before break. But I later realized it was because a photo of someone threatening the school had begun to circle around. Students were calling parents to pick them up before anything happened. The two girls were checked out and eventually the period officially started and for around 40 minutes, everything was fine.
Since I was a little ahead in my school work, I was given the privilege of listening to music while doing my work. And right as I was listening to “Be Prepared” from "The Lion King," I saw a flash catch my eye and looked over to the other side of the room to see the fire alarm going off. I took my headphones out of my ear and looked to Laura with confusion because the school doesn’t usually have a fire drill during lunch periods. Then I heard people in my class saying, “ Oh my God, it’s actually happening!”
“Did you see the picture?”
“Oh my God, I have to get out of here.”
One of the guys told my math teacher that someone had threatened to shoot up the school. After I heard that, something in my stomach just dropped, and I began to get paranoid and sweaty. As everyone began to pile into the hallway, I got this surreal feeling like I was in a bad dream. I slowly walked outside with Laura. When we got outside, we stood in the parking lot, and I asked people what the picture said. Eventually, I got the picture, and as I was reading it, I heard the sound of cars starting and driving off. I saw students just getting into their cars and driving off.
At the time no one wanted to stick around and see if the threat was a joke or not, especially since just the day before Lanier High School, which was only 20 minutes away, had someone bring a gun to their school. No one was hurt but just knowing someone had a gun in that school freaked everyone out. I personally believe that combined with the fact the fire alarm went off just like in Parkland Florida, the students just didn’t feel safe enough to stay in the school.
After being outside for a while, we were finally let back in, and this was when the real chaos reigned. So many people tried to check out that there was too much chaos for the school to check out anyone, so the administration said if a parent talks to your teacher, you can just leave. By the end of fourth period, there were only seven students left in my math class. Near the end of the day, one of the administrators went on the announcements saying the threat was directed towards a Northview in Alabama. I personally believe it was directed towards us, and they just didn't want us to freak out.
The rest of the day we were stuck in school, but everyone was still shaken up as well and most didn’t feel safe at school anymore, so a lot of people went home. During fifth period, they had grief counselors walk around and make sure everyone was emotionally stable because some people really were that shaken up. Through fifth and sixth period, all the doors to every hallway were shut, and they had every teacher lock their door, but it wasn't all that reassuring.
That day really prompted some serious questions. A school is supposed to be the safest place for children; a place for them to learn and prosper. How is it OK that not just us but kids all around the country don't feel safe to go to school, and how do we make schools safer?
This prompted a group of Northview student to rally everyone together to join the nation in the National Student Walkout on March 14. I have seen the passion for kids involved in this cause, and personally, I am very proud to be a student at Northview right now. The Northview students acknowledge that what happened Friday was only a school shooting scare, but the fact it felt so really made a lot of us think really hard about these mass shootings.
Seeing the Douglas students demand justice really does make me so pride to be apart of this generation. The victims of the shooting have been heard repeatedly saying they don't want our prayers; they want action; I agree 100 percent. Because of the Douglas school victims, there is undeniable strength and thirst for justice there has actually been progress. President Trump has come out saying he is going to begin to regulate Bump Stocks for all guns. Although this is only the first step, this still is a step, and I applaud Trump for being the first to take it. Don't stop fighting until schools are safe again.
