Stuff

Kaylee has practice again tonight until 9-10 pm.  This week I've only seen her for a few minutes before she goes to bed each night.  Busy teen life!

Ann and I went to a clinic/doc appointment this morning, and I think he had some good information that will help.  She's feeling a little better than she did a week ago, so I assume that trend will continue.  :)

Around 2 pm I got a text from Kaylee asking me if I'd heard about anything bad going on, because her school was in a "non-functional lockdown", which means they are locked into rooms and everything stops.  I had just gotten back from the doctor's, so I didn't know anything. I Googled the news and got nothing, so I went to Facebook, where her school had posted on their home page that a report of a man in a nearby parking lot was spotted with a long rifle, police were on the way to intercept him, and the kids were locked into the school for their safety.  So I texted Kaylee back and told her that.  I also told her that we're talking Greentown here, he was probably a hunter or something, that it was probably nothing, and not to freak out anyone.  Maybe not all kids can hear something like that and not freak out, but she can.  About an hour later, they posted another message that was an "all clear".  I sent her a text as to what it was, and her day moved on.  This is what I said on Facebook, and this is how I feel about this:

I find it sad that we live in times in which my daughter's school goes on a "non-functioning lockdown" for an hour today because of a report of a man with a long rifle nearby...to find that it was a kid from another school out on Spring Break playing in a lot with an air gun toy. I'm not saying the school was wrong, just how depressing it is that a kid playing outside elsewhere with a toy gun shuts down an entire (out in the country, even) school now...

How times have changed...

Also, while I guess I understand why, I don't know that it's right that the school doesn't tell the kids what is going on.  They just locked them down and waited.  They told the parents, but not the kids who were the ones actually locked in.  The youngest ones in the building are 14 and 15 years old.  That's old enough to be treated like human beings who need to know what's going on and why.  It's a lot more scary to not know and wait with your hands in someone else's fate.  At least it is for people like me, or Steve, or my Mom, or Kaylee, or...  A good part of me really believes that if you treat a young person like an intelligent, reasonable human being and give them the responsibility to handle it properly, that they will learn they actually CAN.  What's that old saying?  People will rise or sink to what is expected of them?  So expect more.

Kaylee just got home and I asked her how it went down. She said first they got an announcement over the intercom that they were in a "functional lock down".  A few minutes later they got told it was now a "non-functional lock down", and the teacher pulled the blinds, shut off the lights, locked the door, and made the kids hide under the tables.  Nobody knew why including the teacher, who pulled out her smart phone and tried to find out.  That's when Kaylee texted me, and I told her what they were looking at.  Meanwhile, the Kokomo Police Scanner had people posting on Facebook that there were two armed gunmen, and some kids saw that and getting really scared, so Kaylee told them what I said.  One girl in a wheelchair started crying and the teacher was trying to calm her down.  All this for a juvenile on Spring Break with an air gun playing in a parking lot.

Kaylee also said they were talking about parenting, with her friends, talking about how some parents are laid back, others super strict, how one would react to this or that, etc.  They talked about threatening to run away, and Kaylee said "Oh, yeah, I threatened to run away once, and my parents offered to help me back a bag."  I asked if anyone called child protective services on us now, and she said no, they just started laughing.  :)

This afternoon I had a flight.  The winds were up and it was gusty, but we did a cross-country to Huntington.  The last time I was there I was flying the Yak 52 in formation.  That's been awhile.  Two years, at least.  The flight was fine, got some good gusty swirly winds in the trees at Huntington, as usual, made for one exciting landing and some good practice.

Time to pick up the kid at 9:40 pm here.  On to tomorrow...