School lockdown.

Midway through my volunteer stint with a 5th grade class at Noble School on Monday there was a lock down drill. An announcement over the PA system said that a stranger had breached security in the building and the school was on lock down. All outside doors to the school are kept locked and admittance is by a buzzer attendant system. The 5th grade teacher quickly closed and locked the classroom door which has no window. She had the class sit on the floor in a corner away from the door and the windows and explained what was happening. The students sat quietly and waited for the all clear.
The chasm between my experience of the first eight grades in a one room country school and that of students in 2011 is as great as the Grand Canyon. This lock down was just one more such example. It did, however, bring back a memory.
There was a system in place for the supervision of country school teachers through a County Superintendent. In Brookings Country, SD, while I was an elementary student, that person was Miss. Van Maanen She had an interesting style.
Our school building was very small with three windows on the sides and none front or back. There was a small entry room which was the only access to the classroom. We left our coats, boots and lunches in the unheated entry. In the coldest part of winter lunches would be frozen by noon.
Miss. Van Maanen drove a twenties model car...bigger than a Ford or Chevy. She'd come to the school from the east which gave a slightly downhill approach. Turning off the engine and depressing the clutch she'd coast into the school yard. Exiting the car noiselessly she'd go into the entry quietly. There she would listen for awhile to gather information about the teacher's classroom management. Eventually she'd enter the classroom but that would be the first anyone would know of her presence. I don't know that the teachers thought be the students were all afraid of her.