Where I went to high school, a gun or bomb threat was not an uncommon occurrence. I have countless memories of standing outside in the cold, or knowing that a test was going to be pushed back, or cursing the lucky ones that got out of biology when I had to suffer through it. I remember hating every time that we had a threat and had to evacuate the building. But looking back now, after this shooting in Florida and every other school shooting I’ve learned about, I am so thankful to Hedgesville High School for putting me through that.

While I was lucky enough to never have to face a real gun or bomb in my school, I could have. Each and every threat made could have been serious. Finding a note in the bathroom saying “I’m gonna blow up the school” could’ve been from someone having a really bad day. Or it could have been from someone that had already planted the bomb and was just warning their friend to get out.

I never thought about this in school. I never looked at the possibility. It was always something stupid and unimportant going through my head. “Man, it’s cold out.” “Sweet, (insert teacher name) won’t have time to collect the homework I didn’t do.” “I bet it was a student who wasn’t ready for a test.”

I should’ve been thinking along the lines of whether everyone was okay. Wondering if it was real. Wondering if the building did blow up, were my classmates and I far enough away. Or wondering if the person really had a gun, were they going to pull it out in class, or the hallway, or in the cafeteria? Would they be aiming to hurt certain people or just anyone they could reach?

These are the things I think about now. I wonder if someone planned on shooting up my college, where would they go first? Where would I be safest? Do I know where my friends are throughout the day so I can figure out where to find them? Would I go looking for people or hide myself? I don’t know any of these answers.

Hedgesville High School took every threat seriously. We went outside if it were a bomb threat. We locked all doors if there were rumors of guns. Hell, I remember one of my old friends making a very stupid comment about shooting up our school over Kik messenger, and within an hour, he was arrested. These matters weren’t taken lightly when we had over 1400 people’s lives at risk.

So I want to thank all of the faculty members at Hedgesville High School, and Berkeley County as a whole, for taking each threat seriously. While I may have been annoyed by the precautions then, each threat could have been very real. And if they were real, I would have been safe thanks to you guys.

And to anyone that reads this, whether you’re from Berkeley County or not, I know it’s annoying to deal with those threats. I know Code Red and Code Blue or whatever the colors are in your area are just inconveniences when the weather sucks or life savers if you didn’t study for your test. I know that the threat is probably just someone being stupid. But it could be serious, so try to be at least a little thankful that your school cares about you enough to try to keep you out of harm’s way.