Imagine working at a school where your students are adults with a maturity level of middle school students. Would you treat them like children or adults?

In this story, one teacher is in this situation, and she treats them like children. However, the principle does not seem to be on the same page, and when it’s time for a school lockdown, the situation gets even more complicated.

Keep reading for all the details.

“You have to get as low as possible!!!”

This happened when I was teaching from 2010-2011 in Arizona. I worked at a school that happened to have a classroom full of adult-aged fifth graders. They had the same maturity as 5th graders, learning 5th and 6th grade Math.

At “Scrappy-Doo Charter School for Adults”, which actually happened to moonlight as a University of Phoenix campus, I got the upstairs corner office/classroom.

I had two walls that were completely windows, 100 percent see through panes. It made it difficult in some ways (like not enough wall space), but overall it worked out.

The students loved being able to look outside and see the entire neighborhood.

It really was ALL windows.

When I say ALL windows, I mean ALL…

I’m 6’2″, and from slightly above my knees all the way up to the ceiling it was see through panes of glass.

It was gorgeous.

Here’s how they handled lockdowns…

Despite being a school that teaches “Adult fifth graders” and beyond, we had lockdown procedures that we practiced monthly.

During a lockdown, all staff and students had to be “below all outward-facing windows” for the entire lockdown.

I had the group of us sit criss-cross applesauce (which was fun to see with this group of Billy-Madison style giant fifth graders) and we took turns telling scary stories in a whisper.

The principle only made it worse.

My principal did NOT like this one bit.

He burst in during our Mockdown and yelled at everybody, saying “You have to be as low as possible so you don’t DIE from a stray BULLET!”.

Wow. Despite these kids being adults, they were still, in a sense, kids.

Way to freak them out for next time, jerk.

Then there was a real lockdown.

Anyway, wouldn’t you know it, a month and a half later something goes down at the “Handler Mall” where a domestic dispute turns into a kidnapping by gunpoint. The man took his former significant other around, right past our school.

We went on lockdown quickly, and this time I was ready for some mighty fine MC.

We got as low as possible.

The principle’s expression made it all worth it.

We all had pillows and blankets that I let them previously stash, brand new, in our closets in backup cubbies, and we all had nap time.

Me included.

I did not plan on laying down and actually sleeping, I just wanted to see the look on my principal’s face when he saw a room full of manchildren having naptime during an actual emergency and lockdown.

I got to see his face after hearing him bang on my door, which I somehow propped shut with a chair. His furious face made me so friggin happy. It’s one of the best joys of my life, along with those “kids”. They were all great.

Nap time was a great idea! That way the students wouldn’t be freaked out, and they would literally be as low to the ground as they could be. What did the principle expect them to do?

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.

One person wasn’t familiar with the wording.

LOL!

I agree. What else could she have done?

Maybe he was panicked and wanted everyone else to be panicked too.

She did a great job keeping the students calm.

If you liked this post, check out this story about an employee who got revenge on a co-worker who kept grading their work suspiciously low.