This is what teachers, staff & children train for throughout the year & why we see kids standing outside a school sometimes as we drive by in a given neighborhood. Our kids are THE most important part of us & the professionalism shown in this actual (albeit false) alert makes all those practice drills worth while.

When 911 happened, Darren was at NMHS and I was hysterical for his safety. I was in Garden City, N.Y. and my wife was in Manhattan. If you don't have children in school, you can't imagine the absolute panic in being helpless where your child(ren) are concerned. Perhaps it's similar to seeing your house on fire and not knowing if your family is in the building.. Of course it would take every cop and firefighter to hold you back, because a parent's need to intervene just can't be helped.

But, as with a child's surgical procedure, you just have to let the professionals who train for this - do what they do. Just imagine a parent overseeing a surgery? gasps and tears alone would distract the physician.

Just imagine the chaos if I and every other parent shot down to school that day, blocked traffic, fire engines, emergence vehicles, interrupting the orderly and trained for evacuation of THE most important aspect of our community.

Thanks teachers, staff and Chief Papapietro for ALways being there.

And thank you Jimmy for sharing your story and insightful thoughts.