Scare tactics

Yesterday’s bomb threat was called into the local police. A school (no district or building named) is going to be bombed, said the voice.

Nice. So part way through the first class of the day, we receive an email notifying us of this, and telling us that there is nothing to worry about according to the police. At which point, the rumor mill begins and despite the ultra-secure lock down (21 exits, two security guards, you do the math), students begin leaving in droves. Even after a suspect was arrested and the all clear given, parents continued to call their kids on their cell phones and tell them to get the hell out. Even worse were the kids who called mommy pretending to be scared, then high-fived their friends as they got the clear to go spend the sunny day roaming the town.

In the middle of this, of course, were some of the wonderful standardized tests that No Child Left Behind uses to evaluate our success as teachers. Is there any way to void these test scores and take them under normal conditions? Nope. Kids bail partway through the test, their score tanks. Funding cut. Teachers fired. Class sizes increase. Learning suffers.

Very glad to be leaving teaching. The upside is, I was forced to surrender my lab activities for the day. My seven remaining students and I took the sidewalk chalk outside and made a giant periodic table.