lockdown lockdown this is an emergency alert [Music] before being taken on as a full-time teacher at a high school a little outside of Austin Texas I was a substitute I would sub in for a multitude of classes with my main subject area being math classes being a sub I would most days have a lot more off periods of course since I would work more on an as needed basis this was on a day that started like any other I had four classes I would be subbing for that day they were all the math classes that
a specific teacher would teach including geometry and Algebra I would usually enjoy subbing for science classes as the teachers would usually just have me show the class in educational documentary and then hand out a question sheet which would be handed in at the end of the class to be graded with math though you'd actually have to teach the material as a sub I arrived to school and picked up the keys from the front office to the two classrooms I'd be subbing in that day both classes were in the math hallway which was downstairs to the
far left of the school the periods I was teaching that day were something like two three seven and nine I had already taught the first two classes so I had about an hour and a half before the seventh period class I'd be teaching during most of this time I stayed in the classroom of the last class I just subbed for since it was empty for the next two periods I was doing a mix of work related and non-work related things on my laptop period six there would be another class here so I'd migrate to the
Teachers Lounge by the back of the school after the second bell rang and period six began I was walking the empty Halls to the teacher's lounge I'd been in the lounge multiple times and honestly it would usually be sub sitting in there if anyone the teacher's lounge is pretty much in the back corner of the school by a separate back entrance that's only unlocked from the outside by teachers ID cards I set my belongings down on a table in the empty teacher's lounge and this was when I heard Knox at the back exit door I
went out to the hall and to the doors where I saw a clean-cut looking man with gray short hair and a button-down shirt tucked into khakis with a black jacket over all of it he looked like a teacher saw me through the glass and smiled and asked me to open the door I asked if he were a teacher here he said yes my name's Mr Abrams I don't have my ID on me today I opened the door for him and he thanked me and quickly walked past me I noticed that now he had his hand
in his right pocket he had some serious movement in his step he seemed to know where he was going actually he was going in the direction of the math hallway I suddenly felt like I may have made a mistake letting him in without ID I rushed to my laptop and pulled up the staff directory which was accessible to all employees of the school I looked up Mr Abrams there was not a single teacher at any of the schools elementary to high school with the last name Abrams I had no choice but to call the front
office and let them know that I think someone pretending to be a teacher had entered the building this was taken seriously as the school issued a lockdown immediately sending every classroom an automatic distress call to lock all doors and turn off all lights immediately I heard a commotion from out in the math hallway I walked out into the Hall a little closer and I could hear bangs or kicks on a door and a man screaming at the top of his lungs Maria opened up and I know you're in there Maria was the first name of
the teacher I was subbing for that day and I couldn't tell for sure but I believe the door he was kicking on was one of the classrooms I subbed in that day police had surrounded the school in literally minutes and had answered from multiple entrances and detained the man I didn't witness it happen it was down in the intersecting hallway and I wasn't allowed past the police the teacher I subbed for who I changed the name for her privacy had called out of work that week originally alleging she was very sick the man who came
to the school banging on the door was apparently her ex-husband and as far as Rumor Has It Maria did something horrible to him not much of a rumor because clearly that would be the case if he came to the school with a gun everyone's guess as he came to kill her and then himself no one knew where Maria went to hide from her ex or what the full story was but she didn't return to work for months I pray to God all the time thanking him that no one was hurt or killed because I was
the one to let him in and I would have forever sat on my conscience the story is told in the perspective of a college-aged female I attend University in Massachusetts I currently live off campus in my final year here but this took place when I was a freshman living in the dorms freshmen are on the first floor of every building on campus this was the winter semester it was a freezing cold day I just finished up my last class around 5 PM our professor let us out really early it was already dark out as I
was walking back to my dorm on my walk back I got a text from the university the text started in all capitals saying attention all faculty and staff get to a safe building immediately as a suspicious man was walking around campus approaching women with crude threatening comments and telling them he had a gun the text mentioned that University Police were aware of the issue and were on full alert looking to find the man I picked up the pace in my step to get back to my dorm building I started looking behind me every few seconds
and suddenly noticed someone walking not that far behind me it was a black man and a huge winter coat I couldn't gauge his age from this distance but also he could have just been a student at that point I was being paranoid plus the text didn't specify the person's race I rushed to my building and when I got there I let myself in to get into any dorm buildings on campus you need to use your student ID cards I entered the building the first door shut then I opened the second door that's when a loud
bang at the first door made me jump it was that man from behind me before he was asking if I could open the door I was about to ignore him but then he said please I'm cold I turned to look at him and he had this pleading kind of expression on his face ask do you live here what's your room number he said yes he's on the third floor but he ignored my asking his room number twice I said sorry I can't let you in this is when he started saying vulgar horrible that I don't
want to repeat he started licking the glass and commenting about what he's gonna do to me as soon as he gets into the building in disgust I ran to my room and slammed the door behind me I turned on the lights as it was Pitch Black inside and my roommate wasn't back yet I texted my dorm group chat saying I think the creepy man the school sent a warning about was at the front door of the dorm building don't come anywhere near everyone replied the same thing OMG call University Police that's what I did I
got the number off the website and called them told them right away the creepy man with a gun was at our dorm building when they asked if he was still there naturally I walked to the window to look outside I screamed at the top of my lungs for three seconds when I saw the man on the other side of the glass smiling shaking his head doing this disgusting motion with his tongue pleaded with the officer on the line to send the police there now the man on the other side of the glass took off running
and he disappeared into the darkness as soon as he was beyond the light of the light posts still cried for the police to hurry and as soon as one of them got to my dorm room I led him in and described what the man looked like he told me to stay in my room and don't leave again for the night he advised I tell all my friends in the building to do the same an additional text was sent out to all residents of my building hunt for that man went all night apparently they never found
him the things he said to me were Beyond disturbing I didn't see a gun on him but honestly anything could have been in his massive coat pockets the campus had extra police on duty the rest of the week when I was in second grade each day of the week we'd have a different extracurricular activity at some point in the day I think it went Mondays was art class Tuesdays was music class wednesday was Library day and so on by second grade kids were allowed to walk to the bathroom unattended as long as they got permission
and took the special Hall Pass item chosen by the teacher of the class for the art class it was this big green plastic crayon that was meant as the bathroom pass I remember this memory almost vividly which makes it all the more disturbing when I think about it honestly I was kind of a weird kid when I was in elementary school I did have some social issues that I don't think ever got diagnosed but I would sometimes just do weird things case in point we were never supposed to just take the bathroom pass and leave
the classroom without asking first but during art class as our teacher was going around the class helping the students out with our Little Creations I got up and took the plastic crayon and walked out the classroom door to go to the bathroom the bathroom was all the way down the hall I go inside and as a kid I was the type to pee sitting down so I went to the stall and sat on the toilet seat this was when I heard the loudspeaker outside the bathroom that the school was going into lockdown my heart started
to race I was outside of the classroom during a lockdown I was terrified I don't remember if I finished peeing or not but I know I got right off the toilet seat and went outside back into the Hall I was scared I was going to get in trouble I saw all the classroom doors were shut with their blinds down and lights off already I was too late I saw a man walking down the hallway I assumed it was a teacher even though he wasn't dressed like one I had the Wits of a second grader so
I said excuse me I'm locked out of my classroom I remember vividly he said back oh that's all right come with me I know where to go he grabbed my hand and we started walking in what seemed to be the direction of the back exit that's when I heard a familiar woman's voice keep screaming Troy my name from behind us it was my art teacher Miss green she screamed at the man to get off me and grab me by the arm and tugged at me back to the art classroom once inside she locked the door
and scolded me quietly I remember seeing the worry in her eyes she might have even been crying the lockdown continued for another half hour at least the whole time I was confused scared and most of all embarrassed by all the stairs my classmates were giving me the principal came on the loudspeaker eventually and said the lockdown was over when my art teacher got on the phone with I assumed the front office I think whatever she said was what prompted The Faculty to end the school day early I'm so grateful for Miss green she really put
herself in danger and saved me from something horrible whether it be from kidnapping to any amount of emotional trauma [Music] this happened to me when I was a junior in high school around April or May of 2019. I live on the Mississippi Gulf Coast but for privacy reasons I'll leave out the school name I played the double bass in our school Wind Ensemble and every morning we had rehearsal in the band hall we were about halfway through rehearsal when I heard a knock on the band hall door which opened to the outside I don't think
anyone else heard the knock because we were in the middle of performing a song and I was standing with my double bass on the perimeter of the Ensemble along with the percussionists so I was closer to the door before anyone could say anything or react one of the percussionists who I knew just blindly went over to the door and opened it for the person outside we had been repeatedly told by the band directors to never open that door for anyone on the outside unless it was a student and even the students had to show their
student ID badges through the window before being let in but we still have to open that door a lot for other students as it locks on its own so he probably just opened it without thinking and didn't look through the window as soon as he opened the door the person forcefully came in and walked to within 15 to 20 feet from where I was standing it was a middle-aged latino man about 5'6 wearing a gray hoodie and cargo shorts I immediately noticed that the guy had both of his hands in his hoodie with what appeared
to be a heavy object the band director saw him first and immediately stopped conducting and the rest of the band turned their heads around to see what was going on the band director asked with a nervous but forceful tone can I help you the man replied in broken English yes I came to check out my daughter the band director asserted this is not where you check out students you shouldn't be here the man then asked where he should go to check out his daughter and to my surprise the band director directed him to go out
the band hall double doors and make a right down the school's main hallway to the front office the man thanked the director and quickly walked out of the band hall into the school during this whole conversation I had my double bass turned in the man's Direction and stood behind it so that it would maybe somewhat Shield me from any bullets after the man had disappeared down the hallway the entire Orchestra was speechless for a minute or so processing what just happened the director immediately called the school security and within a minute or so the school
was on lockdown the director turned off all the lights in the band hall and we all crammed inside whatever tuba lockers we could find a whole five minutes passed until two armed security guards came running full speed through the band hall in the direction that the man had gone another 10 or so minutes passed and the lockdown was over the school never came out with an official statement of the event nor could I even find any local news articles about it I suppose the school was trying to keep the whole thing a secret for such
a stupid breach of security would certainly damage its reputation but I later heard from multiple other students that the man had just committed an armed robbery somewhere near the school and was fleeing on foot from the police when he decided to take refuge in the school pretending to pick up his daughter I also heard that he was found with a gun on him which explains the heavy object I noticed in his hoodie pocket the fact that I was standing literally 15 or so feet from an armed Intruder inside of a school for a whole two
minutes still terrifies me to this day although I know the band director was probably trying to keep his cool so as not to piss the guy off and cause him to shoot all of us or something I still think he made a huge mistake by directing the man to go further into the school instead of telling him to go back outside and enter the school through the front door like every other parent or visitor has to had that man had worse intentions that situation could have ended tragically I'm glad I'm not in high school anymore
because now I know firsthand how easily such things could happen at the hands of a careless mistake [Music] this experience was short and to the point I was a very young child in Catholic private school I was in the fourth grade our school would routinely practice lockdown drills I think once every couple of weeks we'd have one all of us in the class were always excited for them for some reason as kids we just found it to be fun it's all a joke when you're that young half the kids don't even realize what you're practicing
for and the other half who do don't ever expect a real lockdown to happen one day it did though over the intercom came a voice from the front office saying we're going into lockdown this is not a drill I remember some kids still laughed at the announcement as if it were cool to hear that we're going into lockdown no one could have prepared for what came next as our teacher seemed concerned and rushed to shut the door in the lights and yelled at us to get in the corner I think that's when everyone realized this
wasn't just a regular lockdown drill something serious was going on we all huddled in the corner of the room each door had a narrow glass window which could be looked through suddenly the silence was broken by craze screaming from the Halls one lone male's voice it was just incoherent screaming the man was chanting something screams got closer and I remember how scared we all started to get the screams got closer until they were right outside our classroom door then bangs on the door made a bunch of us scream and cry the man on the other
side of the door screamed your God is dead Jesus didn't die for your sins you're all gonna burn our teacher tried his best to calm us down as the screams intensified and the man started to yell I hear you in there I see you open up the door the man screamed words I didn't understand at the time but I believe looking back he was screaming Islamic phrases and shaming our religion I was too young to put it all together immediately the bangs on our door stopped and the screams continued further down the hall away from
the door but they could still be heard the crazed man continued through the Halls the man's screams were overpowered eventually by the yells of other men there was a huge commotion in the Halls during what I presumed to be the moment he was taken down by police or security he had to stay in the lockdown position for a long time even after this after a while the lockdown was over and the school day was cut short parents were called to pick up their children luckily my mom didn't work so she was able to come pick
me up right away it was a bit of a scarring experience we were all so young that we didn't even understand the gravity and freakishness of the situation I'm just glad no one got hurt [Music] [Music]
