Lockdown

What you don’t want to see in front of your child’s school:

Lots of police cars.

What you don’t want to be told when you try to enter the school:

The school is in lockdown.

What you don’t want to find out when you get home and watch the noonday news:

Possibly kidnapping.

I was just there (what a roll I’m on) at JBelle’s school so I know that everything is okay. I know that JBelle is fine because The GMan and I just had lunch with her. Most of the kids at her school really don’t even know what happened. The police and the administration and the teachers are handling it very well (hmmm…reminds me our previous post). Yes, the school was put into lockdown but when I left, all had returned to “normal” or about as normal as school gets when it’s crawling with police officers! While at the school, I heard that an unidentified, red-haired man had gained unauthorized access to the school building. When I left the school building there were several news cameras set up across from the street. Thankfully they were not allowed to approach the school because I was in no mood to give any interviews! I found out on the news about the attempted kidnapping.

I have to say, I felt amazingly calm the entire time. I figured that if something really, really bad had happened, I wouldn’t even have been able to get close to the school. The officers were very professional and had a very good handle on the situation. The school’s administrators were calm and professional and I felt that since they were letting me and other parents into the school, they knew that the children were all safe.

Still…in light of last week’s events…I kind of have the shaky feeling again.

Petition

Tomorrow, a petition in support of Virginia Tech President Steger and Police Chief Flinchum will be delievered to the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors and to Governer Kaine. There’s still time today to sign the petition. You don’t have to be directly associated with the school to show your support. As of last night the petition had over 32,000 “signatures”. Here’s the text of the petition:

To Governor Timothy M. Kaine and members of the Board of Visitors of Virginia Tech:

We, the undersigned students, alumni, faculty, staff, and friends of Virginia Tech, fully support the decisions made and the actions taken by President Charles W. Steger, Virginia Tech Police Chief Wendell Flinchum, the Virginia Tech administration, and members of law enforcement in response to the shootings at West Ambler-Johnston and Norris Halls on the campus of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University on Monday, April 16, 2007.

We feel that these individuals and groups, especially Dr. Steger and Chief Flinchum, have borne the brunt of unwarranted criticism by members of the media.

We understand that they did their best to make life and death decisions with limited information, and that they acted in the best interests of the students, faculty, and staff of Virginia Tech.

We support Dr. Charles Steger and Wendell Flinchum, and we want them to continue to serve Virginia Tech.

If you’d like to sign this before they close signatures (at 4:16 PM EDT today), please go here: http://www.wesupportvt.com/