Let's All Put On The Light-up Elsa Shoes

A Book Review of The Elephant in the Room-
​A Lockdown Story

The Elephant in the Room
A Lockdown Story
Written by: Alicia Stenard
Illustrated by: Greg Matusic

As a child therapist that specializes in trauma in young children, I have strong feelings about school lockdown drills, especially for the Pre-K, K, 1st and 2nd grade age group. I often ponder the question, Is it really necessary to traumatize our children in this way? How can we keep our children safe from societal threats without traumatizing them further? To put ourselves in the place of our children, I'd like to start this blog post by having you imagine the following scenario. ​ 

You're 5 years old. You're new to this school experience. You're away from your family all day for five days per week, maybe for the first time in your life. Everything feels new to you. You're very excited about your new Elsa backpack and matching light-up school shoes. But, maybe a little nervous, scared and unsure of what this school thing is going to be like. You're paying close attention to the adults and the environment to make sure it's a safe place for you. You really like your teacher. She is very kind and funny. After the first couple weeks of school, you're just starting to feel like you can trust her and that this is a safe place. After all, your parents wouldn't send you here unless it was safe, right?

Then one day a loud sound goes off in the hallway that hurts your ears. The teacher says not to worry that this is just a practice lockdown drill. She tells you that the whole school has to practice this drill in case a dangerous person comes into the building and tries to harm everyone. But, don't worry she says, "the likelihood of this happening at our school is very small." She locks the door to the classroom, turns off the lights, maybe puts a barricade in front of the door, instructs you on where to hide, and stresses that you must not make a sound. By the tone of the teacher's voice, you can tell that this is very serious and that you better listen and do what she says. You stay in that hiding place for what seems like an hour, but is probably only a few minutes until you hear the announcement that the lockdown drill is over. Then you are instructed to get back to your schoolwork. ​

After putting yourself in those light-up Elsa shoes, how do you feel? As a 5 year old, does even the slim possibility of a bad guy coming into your school terrify you to your core? Especially when you are not around your caregivers that you trust to protect you? Did you even hear or understand the part when the teacher said this is not likely to happen? Do you feel confident that you have the capability to sit still for an unknown period of time and not make a sound? What if you sneeze,  get the hiccups, have to go to the bathroom, or giggle when your friend does something silly? Will the bad guy get you then? After all that happens, are you able to go right back to your letter sound paper and be able to think of which pictures start with that letter? Are you wondering now where your mom is and why she sent you to this place where bad guys come? Are you wondering now if this school place is safe, after all? 

In 2019, 95% of public schools and many private schools practice mandatory lockdown drills. The methods for lockdown vary widely, with some methods being more traumatizing than others. But, make no mistake, ALL methods are damaging to our children. Anxiety in young children is at an all-time high and these procedures are exacerbating this issue. Besides young children, children with trauma histories and special needs are especially vulnerable to trauma from these procedures. 

As a therapist, my usual mode of handling difficult explanations with young children, is to be honest and provide just enough information that they can developmentally understand and process. However, this lockdown situation feels different to me. I feel that just the vague and simple explanation of the possibility of a bad guy entering the school and hurting them is inappropriate and unduly frightening to young children. Therefore, I feel that an age-appropriate fantasy situation in order to review this mandatory procedure with them is appropriate.   

​A friend of mine and kindergarten teacher, Alicia Stenard, put on her light-up Elsa shoes and struggled to perform these mandatory drills with her students. She became very concerned that their first experiences with school were going to be scary ones and that her precious, young students would experience fear and anxiety, even after school. Due to this concern, she came up with an idea to minimize the trauma for her students. She took into account the playfulness and imagination of children of this age and made up a story to get her students through these drills. This way, she was able to perform the mandatory functions of the lockdown drill without telling the "Why?" of the drills, which they are too young to process. Ms. Stenard found so much success in using this process with her students, she decided to publish her story, The Elephant in the Room, as a means of helping other teachers, school staff and parents protect their students from this traumatic experience. 

In this adorable story, Ms. Stenard tells a tale of a circus train that gets flat tires in front of a school. The animals escape from their cages and barge into the school. They are hungry and want to steal the children's peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. After all, the children are celebrating National Peanut Butter and Jelly Day and of course, elephants and monkeys LOVE peanuts! The children are then instructed to go through the procedures of a lockdown drill to prevent the animals from stealing their sandwiches. Eventually, the clowns are able to lure the animals back into the circus train and all is well. The illustations done by Mr. Matusic are charming and fun! Through this story, Ms. Stenard is able to review the components of a lockdown drill in an age-appropriate manner, without frightening the children.  
 
This important book is a MUST HAVE for ALL teachers and parents of students in primary elementary grades. I encourage teachers to read it aloud in their classrooms and use it as a tool to perform their lockdown drills. I recommend this book to parents who feel helpless as their children have to endure this traumatic experience at school. It can be useful, even if not used in their school, to provide an entertaining alternative that children can imagine during the school lockdowns. I encourage all parents to advocate the use of this book to their children's teachers and school administrators to help protect our children from further trauma. I look forward to the day when we, as a society, can move forward on a solution to end gun violence in our schools and the need for these drills, and this book, is totally eliminated. 

Mr. Matusik and Ms. Stenard have developed an activity book that can be used as an addition to a lesson plan for lockdown drills to go along with the readings of The Elephant in the Room. To learn more about the issue of lockdown drills and how these resources can help, check out the author's website at https://aliciastenard.com/.

​The book is available for purchase at 
https://www.amazon.com/Elephant-Room-Lockdown-Story/dp/1733992960/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1576190813&sr=8-2