Kindergarten Lock Out Drills

Yesterday afternoon on the way home from dance class my sweet little 5 year old kindergartner told me about drills they've had in school this week.  Fire drills, bus drills and lock out drills.  She explained each one and when she got to lock out drills I about lost it on the freeway.

She simply and innocently explained that a Lock Out Drill is in case an "angry bad dog gets on campus and the school needs to keep kids safe until he's off".  

An angry strange dog.  

She went on to explain that the teacher closes and locks the doors, turns off the lights, closes the blinds and they all stay very quiet and still so that the dog doesn't find them.

Oh my heart.

I was thankfully driving and facing away from her so she didn't see my tears as my mind replaced "angry strange dog" with the reality that I have seen oh-too-clearly on the news.

I am thankful that the school and teachers have found a safe way to prepare for such a horrific event without frightening my child.  She is innocently imagining a stray dog instead of a stray soul walking about with a machine gun and intent to harm.

She added that the teacher told her that it could also be a robber, but that it was much less likely since robbers don't usually go to schools.  My daughter then added "what would they want to steal from a school anyway".

Exactly my dear.  Exactly.

I made her promise that if there is a lock out at her school she will stay absolutely quiet and do exactly what her teacher says.  No questions (my child always has a million questions).  She promised.

This parenting stuff is hard, trusting my baby girl to others and letting her go and become independent, small steps at a time.  Thankfully I have hope that God will protect her even if that means she'll be joining him earlier than I would prefer.

Have your little ones had lock out drills?  How do you prepare them for the worst?

Can I just add that things were much simpler when I was a child.  We only had fire drills and earthquake drills.  There were no "angry dogs".  Which makes me think of my mom's time, they had fire drills and bomb drills.  I wonder what kinds of drills my grandchildren will have?