This may send chills down your spine. It should.
A woman tweeted about a horrifying poem — written to a hauntingly familiar tune — that she saw posted on the wall of her child’s future classroom.
It’s to prepare for lockdowns in the event of a school shooting.
On Tuesday, June 5, Somerville Schools posted on Facebook:
“Tomorrow is Kindergarten Transition Day, when incoming Kindergarteners spend he day visiting their new school and learning about Kindergarten.”
That is not uncommon for schools, especially elementary schools that have any sort of partnership with specific pre-K programs or facilities.
Parents come in for a sort of open house experience. At some of these events, preschoolers who are soon to be rising kindergarteners are able to see and visualize their future.
Everything is so new when you are 4 or 5 years old, so being able to see a classroom in advance can make your future less daunting.
Unfortunately, the experience caused quite a fright for a parent after she saw this hanging in a classroom.
To the tune of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star,” or “The ABC Song,” or “Baa Baa Black Sheep,” read:
“Lockdown, lockdown, lock the door.”
Yikes.
“Shut the lights off, say no more.”
A chorus of children’s voices singing this sounds like the intro to a horror movie.
“Get behind the desk and hide. Wait until it’s safe inside.”
Holy f–k.
“Lockdown, lockdown, it’s all done. Now it’s time to have some fun.”
Awful.
Some commenters tried to comment that this might be for tornado drills, too. But it is not. Tornado drills send children into hallways, and do not require turning off the lights or remaining silent.
This is to prepare children to hide and fear for their lives in the event of a shooting.
Georgy Cohen, the mother who shared the image, which of course went viral as people saw it and blanched with horror, wrote:
“This should not be hanging in my soon-to-be-kindergartener’s classroom.”
Referring to her child as “Z,” which is a tasteful way of discussing your child in a public space, Cohen says:
“Yeah. They already do the drills in pre K. Z was excited about it as a game to see if you can stay quiet for ‘one whole minute."”
To children, death is usually an abstract concept. And it very much should be.
For parents and other adults, who can fully understand the creeping dread of a society that allows its most vulnerable citizens to be in so much danger on a daily basis, this really hits home.
To be clear, she is not in any way condemning the school or the teacher who wrote the song.
“I’m only going to add one more comment to this:”
As you can imagine, her mentions on Twitter were blowing up.
“The school is doing exactly what they need to be doing, and I am glad for it.”
A rhyming song with a familiar tune is great for teaching children to remember simple instructions.
“My issue is with the political & cultural factors that brought us to this sad state.”
Yep. She specifically refers to America’s gun culture and the lack of political action.
“Please talk to your legislators about the need for gun reform.”
The tweet’s viral popularity was astonishing. This rhyme was a real shock to the system — which is good, because these horrors should never be normalized.
Many people who have a tweet blow up try to garner attention to a personal passion, such as their SoundCloud.
Cohen writes:
“So I don’t have a SoundCloud but I, like most of you, have congressional representatives I can call to advocate for gun reform https://www.callmycongress.com/ Or we can support orgs like @Everytown and @SandyHook.”
That is sound advice.
The whole world has been horrified by these shootings. Regular folks and celebrities alike.
