Inside the lockdown at Manual Arts -- Part 2

Antero Garcia, a Manual Arts High School teacher, received the following e-mails over the weekend after Friday's campus lockdown kept students and staff in classrooms all afternoon and into the evening. These are some of the e-mails from his fellow teachers: 

Greetings all,

I'm just dealing with some post-traumatic stress, as we all are.

Does anyone else feel like throwing up this morning?

I feel like I could write volumes from the thoughts roiling in my head. They've been pretty much nonstop since yesterday at about, say, two-thirty. Still there, unfortunately.  Even followed me into the dreamsphere last night.

Nothing like a wake-up call to reality --One teacher said he had a swat team in his room.  Did this happen to anyone else?

I think we should talk about this together. Anyone else think so?

John

A e-mail response to John:

Thanks, John, for sending this out. I also have not been able to process what happened to my students and my sense of dignity last night. Not only were we denied information, as someone else stated, we were subjected to all sorts of humiliating and frustrating experiences. The sight and smell of the urine bucket in the corner of the room is one that stands out in my mind.

My room faces Vermont [Avenue], so my students could see their parents and friends sitting in front of the school. They were in communication with them throughout the afternoon and evening, and the parents felt as helpless and clueless as we were trapped inside.

It was frustrating to have to hear news of what was really happening from outside sources. We learned of our situation via the Channel 9 news that played on our TV and of course the 20 different rumors that were being texted into our room by other students trapped on campus.

This morning I am trying to remember that our student's safety is always first and that this was the issue at heart. However, I am bewildered that the sighting of a possible gun was the cause of this mayhem. I am even more stunned when I think of all the times the issue of students hopping the gates on and off campus all day has been consistently ignored by the Administration. I am even more stunned that it was [former principal] Mr. Trimis, the man that I spoke to many, many times about those gates, who called last night assuring the students, staff and community that MAHS is and will be safe.

I think it is very important that we talk about Friday with as many stake-holders as possible as there are many questions and many stories that I think we need to hear. For instance, once it got dark I snuck two girls to the bathroom. We crept past the SWAT officers who were purchasing drinks from the soda machine and got a custodian (who was told to go ahead and start cleaning the campus) to let us into Doolittle Hall.  [Another adult] poked her head out of her office and was super upset about the special needs students still trapped down the hall without services. I told her that from my room we could see that various staff had already gotten in their cars and left. We were both stunned.

Although there must have been a good reason for staff leaving before special needs students we didn't know it because we were not being told what the plan was.  My questions: Do the students and staff and any and all human beings have any rights during a code 1000?  Who makes the decisions?  The LAPD, the district or the administration?  Why did Mr. Trimis leave a voicemail for us last night?

Renee

Comments

[Niki Latsko]

Its hard to relate to what went on at Manual Arts on that Friday, 11/21/08. I work in a suburan school district in northeastern Ohio, quite sheltered from the "inner city" events like Manual Arts experienced. We experience "homeland" security at airports, train stations, federal buildings and that is all under control....LAPD and LAUSD was out of control. The teachers and staff of Manual Arts, along with the students should be commended, it sounded like a war zone.