This Is What the Threat of Gun Violence in Schools Looks Like

[Content Note: Gun violence; terrorism; child abuse.]

Here are two things I saw this morning, each of them absolutely heartbreaking:

This should not be hanging in my soon-to-be-kindergartener’s classroom. pic.twitter.com/mWiJVdddpH

— Georgy Cohen (@radiofreegeorgy) June 6, 2018

If you're unable to view the image embedded in the tweet, it's a photo of a sign hanging on a chalkboard in an elementary school classroom with carefully printed text reading: "Lockdown, Lockdown / Lock the door / Shut the lights off / Say no more / Go behind the desk and hide / Wait until it's safe inside / Lockdown, Lockdown / It's all done / Now it's time to have some fun."

A song for tiny children to sing to the tune of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" or the "Alphabet Song," because part of being a kindergarten teacher now is to teach your charges horrifying nightmare ditties that might save their wee lives.

And because part of being a child now is learning those ditties in case a man with a gun comes into your classroom to murder you.

This afternoon, I received text alerts from my kids' school that they were on lockdown. I thought you might like to know what happens, from the perspective of my 12yo. I just picked her up from school and she was rattled and full of adrenalin.

— Sarah Wine-Thyre 🇺🇸🏳️‍🌈 (@SarahThyre) June 6, 2018

was really scared and crying really hard. We thought we were going to die. I said just in case we die, let's remember all our good times. My BF and I sang our favorite song to each other."

— Sarah Wine-Thyre 🇺🇸🏳️‍🌈 (@SarahThyre) June 6, 2018

Sarah asks her daughter about what the song was, then returns to the lockdown, which lasted for 45 minutes. She asks if they were given updates during the ordeal. Her daughter tells her they weren't; it was very quiet while they were all "crammed together," until they heard helicopters overhead, at which point they feared the school might be bombed.

She tells her mother, "We've done drills but we knew this was for real. We were all sure we were going to die, Mom. I'm so glad we didn't die."

One more thing the 12yo said? "There was one spot where the blinds weren't down all the way and we kept staring at it expecting some man's face to look in and see us and come in and kill us. We couldn't stop staring at that window."
Horror in real life.

— Sarah Wine-Thyre 🇺🇸🏳️‍🌈 (@SarahThyre) June 6, 2018

This is the life that a significant portion of the population and virtually the entire governing party, including the sitting president and vice-president, have decided is acceptable for children in this nation.

I cannot begin to fathom the heart and mind of a person who finds any of that okay.