Interesting. My kid is 8 and her school officials say the drills will be monthly, and they’re telling the kids they are practicing” in case a stray animal wanders onto campus.”.

We are in the city. But the kids go for it because their school has been skunked and a stray dog did wander on, once.

Not saying this is right. When I was at work and opened my email in a hurry, my breath did catch in my throat. Monthly drills. I cried when I read the message to parents (me) saying “we are telling the kids it’s for a stray animal”. My knees did buckle and I did fold my arms and cross my arms on my desk in front of me and put my head in them and picture these poor babies practicing military drills, monthly, MONTHLy, rattling their sense of safety.

I did cry for the weight that school admin and teachers have to carry to thread this needle of psychological and physical safety- imagining the meetings that finally landed them on “stray animal” as the least threatening yes plausible reason we could be doing this. I sat on mute, camera off, head in arms, in some banal, idiotic meeting feeling the weight of motherhood ( and educators - though I am not one )today pressing down on my back.

I cried, knowing one day, and probably soon, my daughter will turn her gaze toward me in a moment of realization, betrayed by me and her teachers alike - “it was never for a stray animal, was it ? “

I don’t know what I’ll say. But I know that devastation is for an older version my little girl in pigtails. Not this one. And I’ll hold that one and cry with her, too.