KA-BOOM

Never a dull moment here in library land.

This morning before school, the fun and games of library social time were rudely interrupted by a gas leak in the school kitchen. Can you believe it? The nerve of those lunch ladies smelling gas! I had to actually evacuate the library, kids were busy throwing their Pop-Tarts onto the library shelves, sneaking iPod headphones on when I wasn't looking, and frantically trying to finish their last game of Zombie Survival on the computer, seemingly unperturbed that the entire school might at any moment blow up. I, on the other hand, in my anxiety over their safety*, yelled at them to get moving and herded them like sheep to the auditorium. Where we proceeded to sit for an hour- them, happy and excited to miss first period, me, semi-bored, semi-uneasy about the halls being filled with flammable gas.

Anyway, then I started wondering- what would I do if there really was an emergency, like Columbine-style? Or an explosion? Or anything, really? Was there some kind of evacuation plan? Well apparently there is- we get the kids out and meet at Old Town Hall- but according to other teachers, there wouldn't be enough room for us all there and we wouldn't have any record of which kids were in the building and which kids we had managed to get out.

Good to know we're prepared.

*actually, more my safety than theirs.