Wednesday, December 15, 2010

So cynical

I don't know if it started when she turned 8, or when she began 3rd grade, or even if it was earlier then that and started when her baby teeth started falling away to be replaced by too-big-for-her-mouth yet adult teeth. But Lauren somehow became a big kid. Unfortunately the characteristics of big kid seem to be endless irritation at the stupidity of one's own parents, expressed mostly in long sighs and eye rolls. And letting your little sister know that everything she likes is deeply uncool. Dora? Uncool. High School Musical? Very uncool.

She let me know that yesterday they had a "real lockdown". For my dad out there who remembers nuclear war drills (I think he called them "hide under your desk and kiss your ass goodbye drills"), lockdown drills are pretty similar. According to Lauren, the teacher turns off the lights and everyone has to hide silently out of sight from the door in case a gunman is running around the building. If you make noise, you could get shot. They do these drills somewhere between once a month and once every two weeks. (It's district wide. Lindsay's school also does lockdown drills, but mercifully, Lindsay doesn't see this as "someone is trying to kill me" in the way Lauren does). During yesterday's drill - I have to assume it was a drill because the Honeywell system didn't call/text/email anything about an incident - apparently a couple of the boys in Lauren's class thought that groping other people would be a good way to spend the time. Lauren was neither a groper or a gropee (it sounded like the boys were mostly grabbing each other), but she was pretty upset by the incident. She said that her teacher sent the boys to the principal, and that their parents were going to be notified, and that they were put as a class back on a daily status system. Basically, they get 5 points at the beginning of the school day, and can lose points for bad behavior. If, for example, a kid is out of points by lunch, he's not going out to recess. Lauren said, "We haven't been treated like that since first grade" and was clearly irritated. She's always chafed at group discipline.

I'm not really surprised by any of this. I know this stuff probably goes on at the private school nearby that's $25k/year. It's still really frustrating.

1 comment:

Bud Weiser, WTIT said...

We did call them KYAG drills. :) I feel for Lauren. I had a boss who'd yell at all of us when he was only pissed at a few. Those who are guilty aren't paying attention and those of us who did it right resented it...