October 24, 2001

Towards the end of class yesterday with my fifth graders the bell rang. Thinking it was signaling the end of class I began speaking during the bell reminding the students of their homework assignment. As I was speaking we realized the bell was not stopping. I thought to myself “Oh, it must be broken” but the kids who have been at the school much longer than I have, were more clued in. They started screaming in Bulgarian and I realized that this might be the signal for an emergency. I instructed the kids to get their things, as I gathered mine and then they were off and running along with the other students. A woman came running down the hall explaining that there was a bomb in the building and we had to get out!

Well, I was worried about this, but not too worried. I had heard stories in the past of students calling bomb threats to get out of tests. I also knew that it was not very likely to have a bomb at our school. So, as I walked quickly down the hallway I was not too nervous until I spied the exit. Mass chaos! It looked like the entire school was pushing and shoving its way out of one door of the school. And really I am not exaggerating, for this is exactly what was happening. I looked around and thought – if this really is a bomb I’m a goner! There was no way I was going to swim through that mass of humanity.

Meanwhile I am looking for another escape route. I saw a janitor with a collection of keys trying to open the back door and thought “This could be my lucky break!” The problem was that she couldn’t find the right key and it took her over five minutes to locate the right key. Yikes! By this time most of the students had escaped from the front door and I shoved my way out also. We stood around for 5 minutes or so waiting to be told what to do. The police were there and checking the building. The next thing I heard was the sound of adolescent screams. Not out of terror, but from joy. School had been called off and the students were celebrating!

As I walked home amongst my students they were chattering excitedly. “Mrs. Miller, aren’t you glad that school is called off? This is super!” I was not as happy as the students for I should have sensed that we would somehow have to make up this time during the weekend, but I enjoyed watching their excitement.

I couldn’t help but think about the plans and drills performed and practiced in America. It seemed like every month in good weather we were having a drill for something or other. A tornado, a fire and yes, I guess sometimes for a bomb. Everything is so precise and down to the last detail in American schools. Even the local authorities are involved in these evacuation plans.

The next day at school several people relayed to me that yes, there is a plan that is even posted and there are a few more exits that should have been used. The difficultly they explained was that each teacher changes classrooms with each class and never knows which plan to follow. It is strange about the one door, but something that I think is left over from Communism. On a normal day everyone enters and exits from the same door. It is rare to find any other door unlocked. One of the front doors is unlocked and watched and this is where you are expected to come in.

So, there actually may have been more organization in that plan than I thought, for I saw one of the fourth grade classes outside lining up like angels waiting for their teacher. Bulgaria has a different way of organizing things maybe I a have to be Bulgarian to understand exactly how it works.

- Kate