Yesterday afternoon, I was working at my temporary Ikea Poang workstation (more on that later), when Tammy told me that Ian had texted her that there was a lockdown at his school. We immediately tried to figure out what was going on, and there wasn’t much information. There were texts coming from the CBE (actually from Twelve Mile Coulee school, but we didn’t know that at the time:
I headed down on my bike, expecting Ian might already be on his way home, but when I got there, there was a long lineup of parents waiting.
I could text with Ian, and speaking with other parents in the line, it was clear that the police incident wasn’t at the school, but over near Sobey’s. The confusion was because CPS asked the two schools within a block of the incident to not dismiss the kids. It wasn’t a lockdown (all phones are off for that). The parents could line up and the kids could be dismissed to them. I got in line, but by the time I got to the edge of the building in the picture above, the school was allowed to dismiss all the kids and Ian was on his way out.
We got a couple emails later from the principal that tried to explain what happened.
At 2:49 pm Calgary Police Service Communications advised me that there was a Police Operation in Tuscany, and asked us not to dismiss the kids until they advised us that it was safe to do so.
Normally, we would have a dismissal or we would have an “External Threat Lockdown,” where there is an issue in the community and all students would stay in their classrooms in the school and no one would be dismissed if the timing was like today. The CPS did not want to call it an official lockdown and let us know we could release students directly to their parents, as they did not want students walking out in the community on their own. We practice for an “External Threat Lockdown” and we have processes for dismissal, but as this was somewhere in between we were figuring out processes today as we went, so thanks for your patience as we tried to figure it all out and keep kids safe.
I think the thing that was frustrating was that the CPS didn’t bother to put out any information on what was going on. Their Twitter account still has nothing on it. The school was in the dark, the parents were in the dark. Personally, I think the decision to not have hundreds of kids wandering into a dangerous situation was a good one, but the communications were lacking.
And my Ikea workstation?
My back decided it didn’t want to work properly on Friday last week, and I have been taking care of it since. It’s getting better, but on Monday morning, after only about 45 minutes in my office chair it was clear something needed to change. I moved my 24″ monitor from my desk and put it on the ergonomic arm. Sitting reclined in the Poang and alternating the heat pad on and off kept me comfortable and productive for the day. It’s not perfect and I miss having a second monitor, but it’s good.
Excitement in Calgary!! the chair looks comfy..