The speaker, a young math teacher at a middle school, shares two harrowing experiences from their past.
In the first incident, they were teaching in a classroom near the school lobby when a lockdown alarm sounded. The speaker instructed students to hide and turned off the lights, but soon after, a man started knocking on the door, claiming to be a student and needing to get in. The speaker refused to let him in, which they later regretted as they heard gunshots and the man running towards them. They managed to escape to a nearby wooded area, where they waited until the police arrived.
In the second incident, the speaker was at a university, using a less-used restroom during a gap between classes. A man claiming to be from the university's front desk told the speaker about a potential armed individual on campus and asked them to lock themselves in the restroom. The speaker felt uneasy and managed to scare the man away when he tried to enter the restroom. The police later confirmed that the man did not work at the university.
The speaker concludes by reflecting on these experiences and expressing gratitude for their survival.
1. The speaker is an eighth-grade math teacher at a middle school, despite being 26 years old.
2. The speaker was teaching in the math wing of the school, which is closest to the lobby.
3. A lockdown alarm sounded unexpectedly, and the speaker had to instruct students to hide in a corner of the room with the lights off.
4. The speaker was curious about the alarm and called the front office using the classroom phone, but no one picked up.
5. A man knocked on the door, and the speaker noticed his shadow on the blind. The man claimed to be a student named Cody and said he felt unsafe in the halls.
6. The speaker signaled for the students to keep quiet and asked the man through the door who he was.
7. The man, later identified as a 20-something-year-old with long hair down to his shoulders, was walking around the school with a small handgun.
8. The police found the man two hours later without the gun.
9. The speaker believes he could have handled the situation better, such as not answering the door when the man was at it.
10. This incident happened during the speaker's university days.
11. The speaker was in the restroom of the activity center building when a man asked if anyone was in the women's restroom.
12. The man, later identified as Eli, claimed to work in the building and showed the speaker a text warning from the university to stay inside and lock all doors due to a potentially armed individual on campus.
13. The speaker did not receive any text from the university or the school's website about the incident.
14. Eli, dressed in light blue boot cut jeans, brown boots, and a gray hoodie, looked like a maintenance worker.
15. The speaker screamed when Eli tried to nudge her into a stall, causing Eli to panic and leave the bathroom.
16. The speaker left the bathroom a few seconds after Eli and ran to the nearest exit, where she called her mom to meet her.
17. The campus police confirmed that Eli did not work at the school and they would do their best to find out who he was.
18. The speaker was in the ninth period of her senior year of high school when the incident occurred.
19. The speaker and her friends had planned to go to the beach after school, but they had to cancel due to the lockdown.
20. A man dressed in all black entered the school through a set of exit doors at the end of the gym hallway.
21. The man was running towards the speaker and her friends, who managed to escape to the woods next to the school.
22. The man was later found by the police, who confirmed he was the one who shot one of the new teachers.
23. The man's identity and motive for the shooting remain unknown.
24. The incident was posted on social media in the high school class group, where it blew up.