Can I pick 'em, or can I pick 'em???

I have been working for two different school districts for over three years now. I have made mistakes, like showing up at the wrong school (teachers had the same last name!), thinking I was booked one day, instead of two.  However,  I avoided what had never happened to me before, UNTIL this week.

I ended up DOUBLE booked.  I don't know why.  I became aware of my mistake the night before, when I saw I was replacing a principal in an English school and a Grade One teacher in a French school, both the NEXT day. Well, I can wear a LOT of hats, but I can't wear them in TWO different places at the s-a-m-e time. 

I had to cancel one, so I cancelled the principal assignment. My reasoning was that with the current supply teacher shortage, far better to be filling in for a teacher, who has his/her students all day, than a principal who has mostly administrative work, and little teaching.  I would have filled in here and there in many classrooms.

It TURNED out to be a V-E-R-Y long day indeed.   As I said, I can really pick 'em.   I ended up with two, thirty minute yard duties, which is a lot in one day.  I not only replaced a teacher and her morning duty but I also replaced the lunch room supervisor, who was absent that day.  She isn't a teacher.  I replaced her, but I didn't get paid for replacing her.  Remember what I said about wearing many hats?  There is a prime example right there.  Not only that, the principal doubled my lunchtime duty, from the fifteen minutes I would have had as a teacher, to the thirty minutes the supervisor had. Remember, I can really pick "em"!  It gets better!!

At 1:50 my sweet little six and seven year olds were ready to board the buses to go home.  Well, a delay is announced.  Then another delay, so the children are told to take off their tuques, mitts and put down their school bags.  Another delay announces they should remove their snowsuits, as their departure time is NOW unknown.  What was going on?  WE were in major LOCKDOWN, albeit a soft lockdown.  A man had barracaded himself in his home a few houses away from the school, with weapons, and the "SITUATION" outside the school had become very grave.  

To the kids, it was a bit of a lark. They didn't understand why they couldn't go home, but made the most of it, playing games, visiting each other in their classrooms, reading, writing, colouring, and  dancing to music on YouTube.   One said, "Are we sleeping here?  That would be cool!"  WHAT? I don't think so! Another little one declared, "My Dad is picking me up at 5:00,"  I didn't tell her, "No, sweetie, your Dad is NOT picking you up." 

From the lobby, we teachers could see flashing police car lights, and all the school buses lined up to pick up the kids, with the only occupants the bus drivers inside.  We also saw parents waiting in their cars.  The police (along with the SWAT team) had warned the former and the latter, that they MUST REMAIN in their vehicles. 

 "I am hungry!"was the complaint that began to be heard. The children were hussled into the gym for a snack, then back to the classroom, or allowed to remain in the gym. I took my little ones back to class. 

It is now 4:30.  My Vimy has been alone for nine hours, but thankfully friends put him out for fresh air, in mid-afternoon and Handy Bro went to pick him up, bringing him back to "mon oncle and ma tante's place", since I didn't know WHEN or IF I was getting home.  :) 

It is now 5:00 pm and we have been told there is no change in the "SITUATION".  The cafeteria staff will serve the children spaghetti, with or without sauce, for supper, soon. By now I am really tired, but the children have oodles of energy and are just so sweet.  One IS tired, and crawls into my lap. :) 

Suddenly, the principal makes the announcement that the children will be allowed to board the buses and go home in twenty minutes. ALLELUIA! What might have sounded like mass pandemonium at this point, was just really a HUGE, collective sigh of relief that pulsed through the entire building, upon hearing this announcement.  

Kudos to staff, students, parents, support staff, police officers, all of whom numbered in the hundreds, who were calm, cooperative, helpful and did their JOB! In retrospect, it was truly wonderful to see.

I got home at 6:15, dead on my feet. I still don't have all the details on the "SITUATION" that caused the "LOCKDOWN",  but hey... I  don't need to know.  Everyone is safe, and that is what matters.  I have learned that whenever I think, as a teacher, that I have HEARD it all, SEEN it all, and DONE it all, something happens to remind that I HAVE NOT! I am forever learning.