I teach in an urban school in South Los Angeles. We have yearly lockdown drills and occasional real lockdowns for police activity in the neighborhood. The kids know what the “code” for lockdown is, and what to do if they’re outside the classroom when lockdown is called. I’d like to think that we’re prepared, says a reader for TakePart.com. What I wasn’t prepared for was a radio report on December 14 stating that Sandy Hook Elementary—my elementary school, the one I attended as a child—was the scene of a horrific mass shooting. Unfortunately, I have come to expect violence in the middle of Los Angeles, but Newtown? If it could happen there, it could happen anywhere. And no, we are not prepared. I am an educator and have become an expert on schools and school personnel. I do not claim to be an expert on guns, gun control, or the Constitution…
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