It was another beautiful day at Sunshine Elementary School. Miss Kindheart couldn't wait to pick up her students to begin their exciting new learning adventures of the day. Safety Squirrel, the school mascot, was always close behind making sure everyone was doing the right thing at the right time.

Once she collected all of the excited students from the playground and they walked quietly through the hallway to their room, she said, "Good morning, Room 23!" "GOOD MORNING MISS KINDHEART!" the class boomed out at the same time.

"Let's please quickly get to our morning routines with attendance and lunch count."

All of a sudden, a booming announcement came through the loud speaker. Everyone was startled!

Normally they knew exactly what to do during their morning routines, but this announcement was something different.

It said,

"Lock down! Lock down! Lock down! Alert others, shelter and lock the classroom doors! Lights out! Stay quiet and out of the hallway line of sight! If you are unable to get to a secure location, hide or flee immediately to the nearest safe location away from the school! If you are outside, alert others, and flee away from the school to the nearest safe location."

The students were confused. They started scrambling around, bumping into each other. A few of the students started to cry.

Miss Kindheart clapped her hands very loudly and with intention — it was the "clap, clap, clap-clap-clap" signal that meant "All eyes on me and mouths closed tightly."

The students immediately stopped, became silent, and all eyes were trained on Miss Kindheart.

"Class, I will explain later. Right now, I need everyone to go quietly into the corner by the backpacks and sit crisscross applesauce."

The students did exactly as they were told. Zoë sat by one of the scared girls, holding her hand and helping her not to cry. The other students held hands and bravely sat without making a peep.

Miss Kindheart quickly locked the door and covered the small window with a prepared piece of construction paper. Then she went over to the windows and closed the blinds.

She whispered, "Room 23, I am proud of how quickly and quietly you followed directions. I will answer questions later. The first thing you need to know is someone is going to try opening the door — pretty hard. This is scary, but this will be someone in our building making sure our door is locked and no one can get in."

"For right now, we're just going to sit quietly. I want you to trust me and to know that the most important job I have is to keep you safe."

Sure enough, it wasn't long before the door handle started shaking and rattling loudly. Some of the students gasped, trying to stay quiet. The students were relieved to hear the strong voice of Mr. Kelly, their principal, "Room 23 is locked tightly."

Eventually, another announcement came over the loud speaker. It was Mr. Kelly again. "Sunshine Elementary, thank you for being so cooperative and helpful. The morning announcement was actually a drill. Boys and Girls, your teachers will spend time with you answering some questions. You may resume your regular classroom activities. Have a great day of learning!"

Everyone in the school must have given a huge sigh of relief at the same time because it felt like the whole building sighed right along with them!

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. Miss Kindheart took the construction paper off the window and looked to see who was there through the window. "Class, our good friend, Officer Michael, is at the door! He must be here to explain what just happened."

Miss Kindheart went to open the door but it wouldn't open. She giggled a little bit. "Oops! I forgot to unlock the door!" Miss Kindheart could be forgetful sometimes.

She welcomed Officer Michael who said as he entered the room, "Thank you Miss Kindheart, and goooood morning Room 23!" in his warm, powerful voice.

"Hello Officer Michael!" the class sang in unison. They loved it when the head security officer came to visit them. It made them feel so special.