I am so happy to be included in the collarborative exhibition: Deadlocked and Loaded_Disarming America (Artrage Gallery, Community Folk Center, Point of Contact Gallery, University of Syracuse) I painted this after my experiences on lock downs and lock down drills.

FUTURE UNFOLDING: Flak Jacket Required

Before becoming a full time working artist, I spent several years as an elementary and middle school teacher.  Last year, I returned to the classroom in a one year teaching position at an elementary school. I found that the lockdown drills that I had previously done with students were laced with an urgency and sense of importance that was not  felt in years past.  In 2019 there were 45 school shootings.  This awareness hung in the air as I approached our first lockdown of the year. 

The next day was our twice yearly lockdown and active shooting drill and I knew we needed a thoughtful conversation and practice for this practice.  I asked my students to show me where they would go?  They all lined up along the wall. In a year of 45 school shootings, I immediately thought of the article I had read the night before that said students sitting or standing in a line assures that all will be killed at the same time. I started over, "I want you to go the place you feel most safe in the classroom." They easily split themselves up, went with a friend and choose  their own hiding places in cubbies, under desks, in closets, behind the steel laptop cart.  A few lingered until I made sure the doors were locked and blinds were pulled and settled with me between a desk and bookcase. It was silent.

Students take these drills seriously and they become a source of high anxiety for many.  I try to prepare them and also contact their parents so they can reassure them at home.  I always include a conversation to hear their perspective and invariably someone suggests wearing flak jackets to school, "We can make them pretty with pictures and different colors."  This usually leads to "Why don't we have bullet proof backpacks or special shields at school. Let that sink in. These are the thoughts of children trying to keep themselves safe. 

I have been in two lock downs which were not drills, including fitting an entire class of young children in a windowless closet knee to knee.  These are experiences no child should ever have.  Surely, this society can agree to a solution for the most vulnerable, for the future of our children and the future of our nation.  I have always felt that if the decision makers could spend a day with us during a lockdown drill the politics may give way to a  a stronger yearning for real solutions so that our children can be children. 

Amy Pleasant