I got a text from Ben on Wednesday morning that read “FYI we’re in lockdown. My class is safe.” Apparently someone called and made threats of violence against Essex High School, so the entire school went into lockdown mode for almost three hours, while rumor swirled.
There wasn’t much more information on the outside, as news outlets just circulated the same basic story. I was stuck at work, which was actually a great distraction, but I was preoccupied all day, constantly refreshing the Burlington Free Press website for updates, worrying about the what-ifs.
Thankfully, police and a bomb squad ensured the safety of everyone in the school, and Ben came home Wednesday afternoon, but it was a scary, weird day. When you see this kind of stuff on the news, you never think it could happen to you.
Oddly enough, this isn’t the first time Ben and I have been in this sort of situation; we lived in the Boston area in 2013, and he worked downtown. After the marathon bombings, he was stuck at his office, and I was in Watertown. Cell phones weren’t working and I had to call his office to get a hold of him to make sure he was ok.
And we were in Watertown the night the Tzarnaev brothers led police on a high-speed chase down Mt. Auburn Street. We had just gotten back to our apartment from dropping my sister off at Logan and Ben said “I think those are gunshots.” And I said, “No way, it’s just firecrackers.” And then there was an explosion, and we hid in our basement for 2 hours, listening to police scanner apps on our phones. And then spent the entire next day on lockdown along with all the other citizens of Boston.
I am very grateful for the quick, decisive action of the school district and local law enforcement for keeping the students and teachers safe. Now I just hope they find the bastard who called in those threats.
Oh my goodness, how terrible!!!
I’m just so thankful everything worked out ok.
How scary! Glad things worked out
Me too. Such a crazy thing to have happen in little old Vermont.
You never know. It could happen anywhere, I guess.
So glad it turned out okay. How scary!
Definitely. Just glad it had a positive outcome.
Lockdowns are scary crap – although I remember thinking it was more scary that our middle-schoolers knew more about those protocols than we did as their parents! Just so glad that everything worked out OK.
As for Boston … that remains surreal to me as well. I was just back from staying with my brother who had a ‘widow-maker’ heart attack and was in a coma for more than 24 hours afterwards and wasn’t clear if he would survive and/or be mentally functional … so I came back, happy he was doing well and my parents were there to help him at home for a while … went out for a run and watched bits of the Marathon and then … OMG. Still shocking.
Surreal is the perfect word for it. Hard to believe even when you’re right in the middle of it.
So thankful that things were okay ultimately. Thank goodness for procedures, though I wish we didn’t need them
For real. Just glad to know that there is established protocol, and that it ultimately helped keep everyone safe.
Yikes! That’s awful and scary, and I’m glad it ended up being okay. Hopefully they caught or will catch the threat-maker! Post Marathon bombing was totally spooky. I wasn’t in the H2O like you were, but we saw our old apartment there on the news, a few doors down from the shootout. That was spooky enough, but hiding in your basement – dude! That’s enough of a scare to last a lifetime.
Yeah, I would really prefer not to have any more of these scenarios in our lifetime…