When My School Cancelled Classes Due to Threat Years Ago
Image: Pixabay/@Skitterphoto. CCO
Late 70s Istanbul I was going to a private elementary school in the middle of the city…
I was a 9 year old kid, 3rd grade at that time in Istanbul, Turkey. I was going to a private school (Kultur Koleji).. my accommodation was with a school bus every day and afternoon, it was all day long school because it’s private, not half day classes like public schools.
Late 70’s Istanbul… I was witnessing some negative news from TV’s, magazines and newspapers of course even at that age.. lots of anarchic protests from left and right sides, and everyday too many young deaths, high school and college students were on the news…
Especially one dramatic seen I never forget, an afternoon or weekend when I was in the city center with my mother in a cold dark afternoon… probably high school students were walking with a long cortege. They were holding wreaths, banners and a casket of their friends to the Bakirkoy Cemetery probably… While I was holding my mom’s hand tighter, looking to understand the event…
And one day I came to the school as always with school bus… after the first or second classes… there were announces and running and a kind of panic started at the school… teachers, supervisors, school director are telling us that “all classes canceled, go to your homes!”
It was in late 70’s and still not every households had telephones even in Istanbul but either our home, my granddad’s home and our offices we had telephones, so probably every other kids had telephones at their homes and dad’s offices too in my school, remember it was a private school.. but there were no time to call all kids parents probably. I still don’t know what was the threat that day made it to school?!
I remember like it was yesterday… everybody were at the school parking lot, when every day we find our buses… there were no bus at that hour… some kids were living close to school, they immediately went their way to their homes… I was living far from school, not walking distance, not possible to walk all that way to home for me.. what I was going to do! 8 years old small, tiny girl all alone! Then I found it! My younger uncle was living close to my school, in a large modern flat… He was married to a beautiful girl and they recently had a baby girl.. so at least she must be at home… there were a few other kids were going to same direction to Bahcelievler, Calislar district.
It was a few streets away from my school, I found the building, found the apartment and ring the bell! You can imagine of course the shock of on my aunt’s face.. I never came to their home before alone! I explained what happened… she called my uncle and told him what happened.. asked me if I am hungry, feed me, and let me play with my newly born niece Hande…
Afternoon ours when my uncle came, he bring me to home with his metallic grey sport Ford car (not remember the model now), even he has a small Tv in front of the car, which made it the car more cool for that times… but Istanbul nights in those days stayed at my memory silent and a bit weird feeling, not exactly but like a kind of scary movie, we were waiting like something can happen…
After day, many students and their parents at the school for complaints! Most kids had their feet hurt badly because of long distance walking, mines was ok, not that bad… I remember the fat girl who bulling me for no reason, hurt bad and still crying…
Why I am telling this memory of me today… The news, “Los Angeles schools cancel classes due to threat”… Classes were canceled Tuesday for the Los Angeles Unified School District after what the district’s superintendent called a “rare” threat that comes amid new concerns about security nationwide and Los Angeles shut down more than 1,000 schools and order 640,000 students to stay at home.
I understand that kids’ feeling now very well… I had the similar experience… but I saw a comment on social media, a man from Los Angeles, was yelling to a common friends also from California who lives close to Los Angeles, that why he is not care about the kids situation… maybe because he hasn’t kids…
First of all we’re lucky that nothing happen, and if anything bad happen whether national, or international events generally we care about… This is not problem of the US only, all over the world everyday many negative things happening and unfortunately lately we’re not feeling much that were living in a happy, peaceful world… some unhappy ignorant terrorizing rather happy place to get attention… This is another subject for another time…
Anyway, you can’t expect from anyone to feel same as you, and yell at them if they don’t! Are you going care about him, when he has being childless problems later? I don’t think so… Accept the life as it is, and don’t project your own stress to others… Wishing safety and peace for everyone.
Nil Taskin