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Blog Entry 90 of 197 From the mountains to 6th Avenue
Many Evergreeners commute. It's been described as a commuter community. Accurate. So there is an etiquette to commuting. The first rule: Leave early. Even if you depart for a 9 to five job at 6:30 a.m., you will not be alone. If you like being alone on the highway, go to Montana. The second rule: Leave early If you don't get off til 5 p.m., take a book on tape, because you will be sitting in traffic near Federal and 6th, and entertainment of any kind is helpful. There are polite drivers, like me, who let others sneak in, especially in merge lanes. I try. You probably do too. The one thing I have decided that will not happen to me is that I will not be mangled in a car wreck on 6th Avenue or I-70 in either direction. What do you do to keep this promise to yourself?

The halls are too quiet
Contributed by: Karen Groves/YourHub.com   on 9/27/2006

I was at Conifer High School during a lockdown Sept. 27. I watched as the principal, security personnel, teachers, counselors secretaries spent much of the time on the phone, on the walkie talkies.

There was no sense of hysteria. That was happening at another high school farther south off US 285 at Platte Canyon High School, where a man was holding students hostage.

Despite the sense of not knowing what was really going on at around 12:30 p.m., the school seemed out of character to me because, because the halls were not filled with students. There was not an echo of adolescent noise that multiplies and bounces off walls in school hallways.

It was too quiet.

Pat Termin, who had resigned from an administrative position with Jefferson County Schools is a former principal at Evergreen High School. She is officially the interim principal here. Today she rarely sat down, and she looked more like a kid at beach party than a high school administrator in her bold Hawaiian shirt and sandals. She moved from her office to the front desk, to the hallway, calmly directing the staff.

She made an announcement on the intercom to teachers that an email she had just sent would explain the situation and that they should impart that to students.

She patted a student on the back, who was sent to the office because he had a family member at Platte Canyon. She was alternately maternal and professional. Hats off to Pat.

When record specialist Debbie Jessee started up the popcorn machine, the aroma of fresh popcorn was a welcome distraction to students who had been crying and nervous about their loved ones. She smiled as a student held the popcorn machine door open, he, anxious to make contact with the puffy delight.

Most people were on the phone. I asked where's the TV?

A teacher said they have TVs in the school, but access to networks is controlled by . . . . who I don't know. I also couldn't access wireless internet. When I asked a teacher about that she said that too was controlled by an internal source, internal to the school system. I am not sure who controls what or how that works, but maybe it added to the sense of calm and quiet during a serious situation, where details are not known. For me it added to a sense of feeling disconnected in a world where that is normally constant.

The secretaries on the phones were flushed and talking calmly and without letting up, to their callers. They repeated more than once, "We are safe here."

If I can tell you one thing from the hours I spent in the Conifer office with the kids on cell phones, the school staff on phones and walkie talkies, the teachers consoling the students, the students consoling the students, I felt safe.



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Showing 1-2 of 2 comments
Submitted By: Tabitha Dial
posted on 10/3/2006 @ 2:59:07 PM
Rated Blog Entry
Excellent.
Submitted By: Bill Boucher
posted on 9/28/2006 @ 3:29:15 PM
Rated Blog Entry
Great post, Karen.
Showing 1-2 of 2 comments
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