RUTHERFORD COUNTY, Tenn. (WTVF) — One day during Rutherford County School Board Member Frances Rosales's day job, she got the call that teachers dread.
"I'm a substitute teacher at a different public school system, and one day when I was teaching, we had an unplanned lockdown procedure," Rosales said.
Someone unknown to the school staff had entered the school.
Everything turned out fine, but it still led to some tense moments for Frances.
"I had kids that were crying, the tears were really there," Rosales said. "They said 'I'm going to die.' What do you do at that moment, because you don't know either you don't know what's going on?"
Making matters worse, Rosales says, as a substitute teacher, she had never received the lockdown safety training that regular teachers at the school had.
Rosales says each classroom has a manual detailing the procedures, but actual training for subs wasn't required.
"Who has time when you're in that moment to go to the desk and pick up the manual and read it?" Rosales said. "There's no time in that moment, especially if it's a real thing that's happening."
She dug more and says she found that lockdown and safety training for substitutes isn't required in several school systems across Tennessee.
"That's when I said something has to change," Rosales said.
She's now pushing for funding in Rutherford County, but taking it further and trying to get a bill sponsored at the state legislature to mandate this kind of safety training for substitute teachers statewide.
"I'm having conversations with our representatives about it, and there seems to be a lot of interest in there, Rosales said.
All, she says, to make sure every teacher—substitute or not—knows what to do if the worst happens.
