I am a former teacher of 20+ years. I am a mother and a grandmother. My advice to you, if you can afford to, is to take your kids home and keep them home.

I started teaching in 1999. I taught for 20 years. I saw a lot of changes in that time and not many of them were good. <br><br>When I first started we didn't lock all the doors and windows. We didn't have active shooter drills. We didn't have metal detectors or security guards at the door. We didn't have to scan our IDs to get in the front door (you did after 90210 came out, though, lol). We didn't have cameras in every corner of every room or in the hallways. We didn't have to carry a 2-way radio with us so that we could be called to a "lockdown" at a minutes notice. We didn't have to train for bleeding out. We didn't have to tell our students to not only run away, but run away and fight. <br><br>We also didn't have school shooting after school shooting. We didn't have to worry about whether or not our school was the next target. We didn't have to pretend that if we locked the door and turned off the lights that no one would know we were in there. (I mean, really, is a locked door going to stop a bullet? It won't.) <br><br>What we did do was teach. And parents did a lot of the parenting. We didn't spoon feed kids their breakfast burritos or tell them what to eat for lunch (I am not talking about special needs kids here) . We didn't have to threaten detentions or suspensions to get kids to behave. We did scold them, we did embarrass them in front of their friends, we did make them feel bad, we did give them a lot of busy work if they misbehaved, we did have them clean up after themselves, we did call their parents when they were bad, we did take their phones and their iPods away from them, and we did have them stay in at recess if they didn't behave. We also didn't give every kid a trophy and say "Good job!" for just showing up. You did have to earn it. <br><br>When it came to the academic part of things, we didn't have to incorporate "trauma" into every lesson. Trauma-informed this, trauma-informed that. We didn't have to give them mental health days (kid's don't need mental health days, they need parents who parent!) . We didn't have to incorporate SEL into every lesson (social-emotional learning: it's basically what we used to just call "behaving"). We didn't have to tell them they were all winners. We didn't have to pass every single kid so that their feelings weren't hurt. And we didn't give participation points (showing up to my class was the bare minimum, thank you very much!). <br><br>In return, the kids didn't threaten to shoot us. They didn't punch us or kick us or pull our hair or push us or throw chairs at us or throw scissors at us. They didn't pull knives on us. They didn't tell us that they were going to come to our houses and shoot us in the head. They didn't tell us to shut up before they shot us. They didn't tell us that they were going to drag us behind their car and that if we weren't dead when they were done, that they would shoot us in the head. (These are all real quotes from real kids, gathered over about a 5 year span.) <br><br>So, take your kids out of school and keep them at home. If you can't, try after school care or a nanny or an after-school activity. At least there, you have more control. And if you can't afford that, hunt up some Parks and Rec Centers or the local Boys and Girls Club. At least there, your kids aren't being warehoused by overworked, underpaid, apathetic teachers who are just there for a paycheck (and believe me, there are plenty of us). Your kids are safer at home with you and they are better off there, too. If you care, that is. <br><br>I know some of you won't. I know that some of you see your kids as a burden. Some of you hate your kids and wish they would die. (I have had parents tell me this, right in front of their kids.) Some of you don't want your kids around. Some of you abuse your kids and don't want anyone to know so you keep them in school. Whatever your reason, just know that your kids are not safe and they are not welcome. Not anymore.