Lockdown
The public elementary school I work at in Bed-Stuy went on lockdown yesterday due to a shooting less than half a mile away, just days after the horrific school shooting in Uvalde, Texas.
There aren’t words for the psychic terror of this experience. There aren’t words for trying to keep a kindergarten class completely silent and calm for upwards of half an hour, while internally you are wondering if you all will make it through the day alive. Even if logistically, you know there is a relatively high crime rate in the school’s immediate vicinity, there is no way to know whether a shooting is the product of an interpersonal dispute or whether a nearby gunman’s intended target is the school you work at. This is our reality in America in 2022. American exceptionalism is a myth.
Stay vigilant. Hug your loved ones closely every day. All we really ever have are one another.