Journal #9

The world is a different place than it was prior to the shootings in Montreal, Columbine, and any number of other places. How much do you pay attention to violent issues in the media? How safe do you feel in school? What suggestions do you have for finding our way (as a society) to a more peaceful state? Do you have any thoughts, comments, opinions or suggestions about how the situation at Stamford on October 14, 2009 was handled?

Our media today is full of negativity such as violent issues. If you pay attention almost all the stories in the news are about something bad. I can’t say I follow our media on a day to say basis. I do find I am aware of some of the violent issues going on because my mother always informs them to me and tells me to be careful. At the school I do find it to be a safe place. They put a lot of stress on the safety of the students and this makes the atmosphere of the school comfortable. Although after hearing stories about violence happening in other schools it does open my eyes a little. I understand that things could go wrong, and there are bad people out there, so technically something could happen at the school.

The day Stamford collegiate had its bomb threat I was at home sick. I was sitting on my couch with my Macbook. I happened to log into my facebook and a friend had told me the school was on lockdown and explained the situation to me. My first reaction was that I needed to get to the school quickly to make sure my little brother was okay. My brother is autistic so I was worried he would be reacting poorly to the situation. So I called my mom at work and explained what happened, she told me to be careful and call her when I’m with my brother. I ran to school and I wasn’t aloud in the building, I was told to wait outside till the lockdown was over. Finally the bell rung and I came into the school and immediately started looking for my brother. When I found him I made sure he was alright and then called my mother.

From my point of view it seemed like school handled the situation in a proper manner. I mean they did make me wait outside during the lockdown when it was freezing cold out. I understand that’s all apart of standard procedure though. I don’t understand why they would keep everyone in the school for a bomb threat though. If someone was going to blow up the school, I think they should get all the kids out to safety. I’m sure they have their reasoning behind the situation though.