I didn’t like my day today. If you live in Lubbock, you may have seen on the news that Lubbock ISD had an active shooter exercise. I volunteered to participate. In the morning, my job was to pretend to be a student, so I channeled my inner 16-year-old, only to have my world shook while someone opened fire in another classroom or the hallway. In the afternoon, I was a parent, pretending to be overwhelmed with anxiety (didn’t have to pretend very hard) while I waited to be reunified with a pretend child .

I didn’t like it, but I learned a lot.

I learned how grateful I am to our school district for addressing this horrible problem and preparing as much as possible for the unthinkable. LISD leadership had this exercise scheduled months ago, they didn’t wait for something awful to happen in our state before they prepared.

Our schools are fairly safe. Are there flaws? Sure. Nothing is fool-proof. But they know they can be better, and this exercise helped them learn how to keep our kids safer. I was so reassured when I spoke to Jett’s principal today, and she told me about the safety measures I didn’t even know they did, and the new plans to go in place in the fall.

Above all, I learned the teachers and administrators in our school district are brave HEROES. They love our kids and will protect them. In one of the drills, the “shooter” was very close to our classroom door. I scrambled to hide behind a desk like the chicken that I am. The teachers in the room crouched near the door, found something to use as a weapon, and stood ready too attack the attacker. They didn’t flinch nor cower. In one classroom, the teacher continued to teach us, offering suggestions for how to handle a real life situation.

I hate that we’re in a world that we have to do these things. I thank God every day that I have not had to sit in an auditorium waiting on my name to be called to be told news about my child. I pray I never do. I pray you never do, that no one else does ever again, and I say this prayer every single day.

My intent in making this post was simply to share the positive things I saw today and hopefully offer some comfort to other LISD parents. Please keep politically motivated and sarcastic comments to yourself – I’ll delete them. This post wasn’t meant to fire up a political debate.