Texas shooting prompts renewed focus on security for teacher

SANTA CLARA — A South Bay teacher reacting to the horrific Texas school shooting is now keeping escape plans and unusual safety supplies in her classroom as a precaution.

Like many of us, Lindsey Couto was rattled by this week’s horrific news. But unlike most of us – the pain, the terror at Robb Elementary is a daily, ever present worry – she’s a high school English teacher. 

“The grossness of it feeling normal almost – because we have this happen so often and then there’s the heaviness of trying to wear the brave face so that the kids feel like they’re safe,” Couto told KPIX5.

Safety is something she thinks about every time she walks into a new classroom. “There’s a back window on the back side of our class – when I got my class this year – I immediately recognized that’s the one I’m going to kick out if I need to and how far would I have to jump out of that window and what would be the path to the nearest street,” she said.

But, it’s not just the windows.

“If you come into my classroom, there are zip ties and shoelaces in my drawer. Kids just think I’m overprepared, but if you wrap them around the spring hinge of the door – you can’t open that door,” Couto explained.

She runs lockdown drills every year with her kids, but, when her son, who is a student in the same district she teaches in – had his first drill – she broke down in tears. “His very first lollipop came from his kindergarten teacher – when she gave them suckers so they would stay quiet for practice drill. But, thank god it was a practice drill. But, that’s my memory of his first lollipop…And then I went and got a bag of lollipops for my high school students.”

Years after Columbine, after Sandy Hook, after Parkland and now Robb – Lindsey is angry, infuriated even – that this problem hasn’t found a solution, or the political will for one. “I signed up so I could be a part of somebody’s story of growth and triumph. I didn’t sign up to throw my life on the line for them. I would. But I didn’t sign up for that.”

Graduation is June 1st for Lindsey’s students. She says there’s relief in the summer break. But, come fall she and others will face the hope and potential of a new school year and the ever present lockdown drills and threat of tragedy once again.