Parents react to news of a shooter on their children’s campus
I received a message — something no parent wants to hear from their child, a couple hours after I dropped off at San Dimas High School
“We’re having an actual lockdown rn,” my daughter texted.
My heart stopped, and dread washed over me. I reminded myself to sound calm as I texted her back to find out more about the situation. Plus, I know my daughter is level-headed and responsible. I trust her to do the right thing in an emergency.
San Dimas High School French teacher Robert Ruh confirmed the students knew what to do.
“(Students) knew the protocols and immediately went into action. They were silent as church mice, listened for directions, followed those directions, and took the situation seriously,” Ruh said.
He explained that although more than 90 students hid in a 30-person classroom during the lockdown, the students helped each other “feel safe and comfortable.”
When students sat on the floor in their classrooms with the doors locked, they were told someone brought a firearm to school in a backpack.
Another parent of students at both the San Dimas High School and Lone Hill Middle School, Atousa Mazandarani said she remembers being at Trader Joe’s that morning.
“I saw deputies going from classroom to classroom, with guns drawn, checking backpacks,” Mazadarani said.
She heard a helicopter hovering over the high school and middle school. She drove to the high school to investigate. She also began receiving texts from her children at both schools.
Lone Hill Middle School was also set to lockdown due to its proximity to the high school. Thereafter, my middle school son said he was stuck in his first period classroom, not knowing the reason for the lockdown.
Thirty minutes later, the police checked my daughter’s classroom to confirm everyone was safe. They continued clearing rooms, checking on the students and teachers. An hour and a half after every room was checked, the students and teachers were allowed outside.
Mazandarani waited outside the school with KTLA News 5 and concerned parents. The next update she received was when the campus police search finished.
“(Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputies) came out with the principal of San Dimas High School and announced that the campus was safe,” Mazadarani said.
Parents received an email later that afternoon from the district superintendent with more details. A student called 911 reporting that someone on the basketball court had a firearm. The police notified the school and the school called a lockdown. However, the call was a prank by a student. No one brought a firearm on campus.
To know the call was a false alarm was a relief. Students, teachers and staff were not in danger. The police and the school’s immediate response was also reassuring. Students were prepared for the emergency.
Parents raised in the 80s knew only fire drills, tornado drills, and earthquake drills. Now, students also must practice lockdown drills. The schools and teachers had prepared the students well. Not only was a lockdown procedure in place, but the students knew what they had to do in the event of a lockdown.
Of course, students and children should not have to learn how to handle an active shooter or go through lockdown drills, but I am glad that teachers are preparing their students to handle the worse case scenario.
Ruh praised the students in his classroom.
“I could not have been more impressed and proud of this group of young people who understood immediately the seriousness of the situation and demonstrated maturity, care and compassion,” Ruh said.
Parents said they were proud of those in charge.
“(They handled it) very, very nicely. I’m very appreciative of the deputies, the staff and the teachers and the principals at both schools,” Mazandarani said.
After the initial relief faded, a deeper unease remains. All my life, schools have been bastions of safety — from visiting my dad at the university where he worked, to my school experiences, elementary through graduate school.
Until now, my kids have not experienced a danger like this lockdown at their schools. The sense of stability parents take for granted when their children are at school has been shaken.
Threats at school are a real thing. So many American parents have been devastated by school shootings. Everyone should learn from their loss and do something about the safety of our schools.
Like all problems, threats to our schools need to be addressed from different angles to make a difference.
Restricting access to firearms and running more comprehensive background checks are reasonable solutions. Perhaps we need to take emotional and mental health more seriously, by providing free mental healthcare to everyone who needs it.
The congress should fund research into the causes of gun violence, as has been suggested in a previous editorial of this paper. Even if parents don’t all agree on the solution, we can still act because we can agree that kids should be safe at school.
This time, the threat was a prank. But parents of students in the next lockdown may not be so lucky. Let’s make changes so our kids can worry about kid stuff and not getting shot at school.
