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This is not a Drill
Author: Raine
Date: 02/23/2023 13:38:21
I am younger than my baby boomer friends, but I am old enough to remember having to practice two types of drills at my elementary school. One was the fire drill. The other is what we called 'Duck and Cover'. We would all have to go into the hallway crouch down on the floor and cover our heads. I don't recall ever having been asked to watch Bert the turtle. I recall being told that we were doing this to be protected from an explosion in case of an attack.
I might have been told about the dangers of the USSR, I can't remember. One thing I know is that with the fire drills, we got to go outside and that was fun. The civil defense drills were uncomfortable and awkward if you were a girl wearing a dress. Another difference between the two is that fire drills were an effective way to find safety in case of a real emergency. I would learn later that the latter drills would do nothing to protect us in case of a nuclear attack. If anything, knowing what I know now about nuclear catastrophes, it would prolong the misery and death. Chenobyl is a good example.
It would be years until I knew how useless those drills were. As I said, they were just weird and uncomfortable. I don't have any long-term trauma from them. My generation grew up with the cold war, not a world war. It was only about twice a year and I was too young to understand all the why, and what about them. I didn't have a global awareness, you know? It was the mid-70s, and Ford was president.
Fast forward to this year. This woman could be the age of my daughter, had I chosen to be a parent. Here is what she wrote on social media a few days ago: I never thought I was going to die with the drills we had in elementary school, all we knew is that these were the things we had to do in case of an emergency of some sort. I never had to pretend to be dead in order to live. I just had to try to make sure the boys didn't see my underwear cause my skirt was short.
One last thing: I always knew they were just a drill. Experiencing a real fire or nuclear war was far less likely than a trip to the nurse because I hurt myself on the playground.
& 
Raine
I might have been told about the dangers of the USSR, I can't remember. One thing I know is that with the fire drills, we got to go outside and that was fun. The civil defense drills were uncomfortable and awkward if you were a girl wearing a dress. Another difference between the two is that fire drills were an effective way to find safety in case of a real emergency. I would learn later that the latter drills would do nothing to protect us in case of a nuclear attack. If anything, knowing what I know now about nuclear catastrophes, it would prolong the misery and death. Chenobyl is a good example.
It would be years until I knew how useless those drills were. As I said, they were just weird and uncomfortable. I don't have any long-term trauma from them. My generation grew up with the cold war, not a world war. It was only about twice a year and I was too young to understand all the why, and what about them. I didn't have a global awareness, you know? It was the mid-70s, and Ford was president.
Fast forward to this year. This woman could be the age of my daughter, had I chosen to be a parent. Here is what she wrote on social media a few days ago:
"Don't you remember when the shooter came to my school, like at Uvalde?”
My face went white and I stopped folding laundry. “What are you talking about?” I asked my eight-year-old. “It was last fall. We all had to be very quiet and the teacher locked us in our classroom. She told us that if the shooter came in we should pretend to be dead," he said, matter-of-fact. My heart caught in my throat.
I vaguely remembered the school district sending an email in September that there would be an unannounced active-shooter drill at his elementary school at some point in the wake of the shooting in nearby Uvalde.
What I didn’t know was that he thought it was real. And has thought so ever since.
"Baby, there was no shooter in your school that day,” I reassured my special-needs second-grader. “That was just practice. It was a drill."
"That was just a DRILL?" he said, incredulous. "I thought we were actually going to die.” Not only was the nature of the drill inadequately communicated to him, but THINKING HE ALMOST GOT MURDERED AT SCHOOL was so unremarkable that he didn't think to mention it to me until now.
I am sick. Sick for our country and sick for our kids. We have to do better.
One last thing: I always knew they were just a drill. Experiencing a real fire or nuclear war was far less likely than a trip to the nurse because I hurt myself on the playground.
& Raine
