A dose of reality

Remember when we were young and in elementary school and we had drills? I lived in Idaho so we only had fire drills, no earthquake or nuclear disaster drills. We were told to all line up and go outside where our teacher would do a head count before we went and played until the bell rang and signaled us to go back inside. It all seemed so idyllic and innocent.
My how the world has changed.
Riley's school had a drill a few weeks ago. When I asked him what they practiced for the drill, he told me they were instructed to stay in their seats and be very quiet. This seemed very odd to me so I told him that for a fire drill, they were supposed to go outside and for an earthquake they were supposed to get under their desks. What was this teacher teaching my kid anyway?? Riley told me that this was a disaster drill and during the drill the teacher locked the classroom door, closed the blinds and told all the kids to be silent. It took me a minute to realize what they were practicing. It was a school shooter drill.
School Shooter Drill!!
Did you ever imagine a day when our precious children would have to be drilled on what to do if a maniac was shooting up their school?! This has hit me very hard and I am still struggling with the reality that this is the world my children are growing up in.
I remember being able to ride my bike 7 miles into town to spend the day with friends, camping out on their trampolines in the front yard. There were no cell phones to keep tabs. We were safe. We knew were were safe and our parents knew we were safe. Now, kids aren't safe anymore.

This is a sad dose of reality. This is the world we live in.