I know I'm a little late on it, but I wanted to write about how my teachers handled the Jamie Hood situation in class last week. On Friday the school was on a "soft lockdown" which means that we were supposed to stay in our locked classroom as much a possible, no outside recess, and students had to be escorted where ever they went (bathroom, water, other classes)

That morning during morning meeting after everyone had shared my teacher said "today all the flags are flying at half mast. Does anyone know what that means?" After some student guesses she explained it was a gesture of respect for Officer Buddy Christian because of what happened to him. Then she asked the kids what they knew about what happened this past week in Athens. A few of the commented "that someone had shot some police officers."

My teacher said that they were correct and "While our police officers were doing their job of keeping us safe that a man, Jamie Hood decided he was going to hurt them. Officer Christian was killed and another police officer was in the hospital." Then she asked the students if they had any questions or comments.

They went around the room sharing "I heard all those Hoods are crazy." to "my mom said we are going to go to the funeral on Sunday." Some questions they asked were "is him in jail yet?" My teachers was honest and said "No, the police are searching for him but they still haven't found him yet."

After each student had a chance to say something she said "My number one job at school is to keep you safe so lets not worry about this anymore..." After that discussion I didn't hear anymore talk about the situation.

I thought my teacher handled the tough situation very well. She gave them this basic facts without overwhelming them with information and listened to their thoughts and answered questions about Jamie Hood and the police officers.