strange observation

yesterday at school we had a fire drill. because we are a whole school, pk-12, we had a whole school fire drill and everyone lined up on our turf field to wait for the all-clear signal. i have NEVER seen a fire drill like this, it felt absurd to me in comparison to everything i have known of school drills. without any prompting, the students were dead silent and kept that way. every class lined up single file on the field with their assigned fire drill teacher and each teacher stood at the head of the line with a special colored signal to show the superintendent they had all of their designated kids. all the school staff lined up in special places, the janitors in one line, the cafeteria workers in one line, the finance staff, the general services staff, the secretaries in a line. the preschool students held hands. the administrators and many other adults, i swear without prompting, stood in an at-ease military way. rigid. we looked like a child army and no one made a sound for 5 straight minutes. such a FAR cry from charlottesville high school or salem or anything else, and i couldn't figure this out. then my 'steward teacher' lissa made it all clear when she explained that international schools serve the kids of all the ambassadors from all over the world and they don't mess around when it comes to emergency drills. these families have known real emergencies, some of them. lissa and her family were teaching/attending a school in saudia arabia 2004 when al qaida (suspected) terrorists bombed the school and nearby residences. one of my 8th grade students was one train ahead of one badly hit in the london bombing a few years ago, and one was in bali during that bombing - they shared in their 'personal history timelines' this week. so they know real risk, and they are serious about the drill.