It was a normal routine moment between father and daughter. The father, Josh Rolnick, was reading a book to his 8-year-old daughter. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - that was the book in question.
But at a certain point in the book, the script for the day changed.
"How scary. It reminds me of the simulation we did at school," says the child, in a text written by her father on the Slate portal.
The drill wasn't one of those usual fire drills, or training for a possible earthquake.
The case is quite different. It's a security lockdown.
An exercise in what to do if, one day, an assassin breaks into the school.
The child's account begins: "We closed the door and turned off the lights. We created a kind of snake against a wall, passing through the corner of the room" - where they would be seen by anyone on the other side of the door, the father thought.
They're crouched down with the lights off: "If a real person came into the school and the lights were on, it would look like we were in a normal classroom. And that would be very sad, we'd be in serious danger," says the child, naturally.
Nia Tipton
Continuing naturally: "The killer couldn't get into the room, there's no key. And we also have good security. We'd be safe, the security guards would catch him and take him to prison."
But the child admits that she and all her second grade classmates were scared.
"Wedidn't know if it was real... We heard footsteps in the corridor. We thought it was a murderer. I said to my best friend: 'If it is a murderer, I'm with youall the way'." The child squeezed her friend's hand: "I'm glad she's strong, Dad".
At this point, the father doesn't even know how to react.
The person's footsteps become more and more audible and the child says: "We were acting calmly, but we were panicking inside".
Then, still crouching in the dark, they hear someone put the key in the door of the room and open it. But it wasn't a murderer.
Now the father's reaction, the next day: "I wanted to tell my daughter: this is not possible. She can't turn to her 8-year-old friend, hold her hand, and say to her in a dark classroom, on a normal Tuesday: 'If it's a murderer, I'm with you all the way. This didn't happen. It couldn't have happened.
