Matching Tracksuits

A student hands a teacher a 9 millimeter hollow-point bullet on the way out of the classroom with the simple comment that he “found it on the floor in the classroom.” Within a few minutes, people from the district office and the police department start pouring into the building. All the eighth-grade students are ushered back to their homerooms. Each homeroom takes its students to their lockers, instructs them to take all their materials with them, and walk through one of the the weapon detectors that district personnel and the sheriff’s office rotates throughout the schools. 

In the meantime, the kids sit for an hour in my homeroom, waiting for our turn, talking about what’s going on.

“Mr. Scott, is it true someone found a bullet?” a girl asks.

“Can we just jump out of the window if we have to?” another girl asks.

“I’m low-key worried, Mr. Scott,” a boy says.

I tell them that there’s nothing to be scared of, that we’re taking these precautions to make sure we’re safe. “If this were a situation with immediate dangers,” I reassure them, “I would not be this relaxed.”

In the meantime, a charismatic young man begins reassuring everyone that Jesus will protect them. He’s doing it half in jest, half in seriousness. I tell him to bring it down a level. He does for a little while, then decides he wants to read Bible verses to everyone. I call him over to my desk.

“I know what you’re going to say!” he reassures me.

“Just come on over here, please.”

He steps to my desk, and I explain: “Not everyone in here is Christian.”

He smiles: “Got it.”

I’m sure he’s thinking of our two Muslim students, but I’m sure there are a couple of students who are of the skeptical bent.