When I was in 6th grade I had recently been put into a new middle school due to the expensive costs of my old one. I had many friends in my current school meaning I enjoyed most of the classes as I could usually get away with joking around a bit before teachers found out. One day I had 9 periods so I figured I could bring some music in as entertainment. Around lunch (5th period) I started working my way through my playlist discreetly as we weren’t supposed to bring headphones in to school. By the time I’d already reached the 11th song I felt a tap on my shoulder. I looked up to see my math teacher Mr Hardy staring down at my “inappropriate” playlist disapprovingly. “That’ll be a lunchtime detention Mr Watts,” he said in that horrible, dull voice that teachers have when they’re telling a child off. I was about to complain but the look of contempt he gave me wasn’t worth arguing about so quietly I followed him to the detention hall.
I sat down next to some kid whose name I didn’t seem to know. Mr Hardy set me some work and confiscated my MP3 and headphones. I looked outside out of boredom, it was bright and sunny, all my friends were playing soccer and this girl I really liked was sitting at a bench watching them. I could have been there I thought before continuing my work. As I was new I didn’t know all of the drills, I knew that a low beeping noise was a fire alarm but that was about it. Suddenly a high pitch ringing echoed through the now silent hall, I didn’t know why everyone looked so afraid, a voice could now be heard over the intercom, “Attention all students, this is not a drill, please stay in your classrooms and remain calm,” this scared the living daylights out of me. Although I wasn’t completely sure what the ringing meant it definitely meant there was some sort of disaster occurring.
Mr Hardy looked panicked for the first I’d ever seen him, he rushed around turning off all the lights and lowering the blinds so we were in pitch darkness. We all waited for what seemed like forever but realistically was probably like 3 minutes before the low buzzing from the power supply stopped meaning the school must have cut the power for some reason. For the next 10 minutes all we could do was sit in silence. Some kids were crying and others were hiding under their desks. I finally gained the balls to get up and ask Mr Hardy, “What’s going on sir?” He looked at me with a grave expression on his face, “We’re in lockdown.” As soon as he said this a bang on the door could be heard, the colour went from my face as the realisation sunk in that I could die any minute if we open up!
Some girls began to cry and sob as Mr Hardy stood next to the door with his hand on the handle. The banging became heavier and heavier and evolved into mass screaming, “I’M ARMED, I’M ARMED!” person yelled, they were obviously mentally unstable but each time they banged on the door it sent shivers down my spine… After what felt like days the noise stopped and moved further down the school, all I could now think about were my friends and if they’d found somewhere to hide soon enough. This was the day before my school could afford security cameras so we kind of left to defend for ourselves when this sort of business took place.
I tried to regain my composure with some sort of crappy breathing exercises that some old lady off TV taught me. About an hour later the buzzing from the power started again, the voice from intercom came back online and said, “Attention all students, please walk single-file out to the front entrance of the school,” Mr Hardy lead us out, I was trembling with fear, each footstep I took could have been my last for all I know! When we reached the front gate cops were surrounding every entrance, I saw my friends and rushed over to them hugging each one and asking if they were all okay, we were sent home early as the school was investigated for possible other intruders.
I never found out what happened to that man as it never got media attention, all I know is after I left to go to highschool another incident like this one happened again except I don’t think that time they were so lucky…
