Pampered Mommas: Mom2Mom: How do you communicate with your kids?

So Monday was a big day for our family, it was the day my husband and I were going to meet our son's teacher for kindergarten. What I liked the most about it, was that it was just us. Parents were asked to come in for a few hours and meet the teachers, learn about the school etc. I can tell you honestly that I struggled with my son going to public school, which sounds crazy to me, because I went to public school (on the Eastern Shore) but things are so different now. After much research (and the realization that private school tuition was out of our range) we became happy with the decision. Our son's school came highly recommended. So off to Kindergarten we go.

After the initial meeting of the administrators, we move on to our son's classroom, where we get to meet his teacher, see the room etc. We leave there and are both feeling relieved, sure that he is going to love kindergarten, his teacher AND his new school.  We decide while we have some quality time to grab a bite to eat and while at the restaurant, I hear about the shooting at Perry Hall High School. Like everyone, I am sure, I was so shocked, sad and scared for what those parents were going through and I immediately said to my husband: "How do we keep our son safe while he is in school?" WHY is this question even coming to my mind, school is supposed to be a safe place for our children right?  It breaks my heart to think that one day, I may send my sons to school and something like this could very well happen. It scares me to say the least..

Which brings me to this question..How do you communicate with your children about situations such as this? Our boys are young, but with one starting school, do we share with him what to do in a dangerous situation? The last thing we want to do is scare him, but at the same time, I feel the need to let him know that bad things do happen sometimes.  I would love to hear your thoughts on how YOU have talked to your kids about this incident, or any other incident that has involved violence in schools,obviously this isn't new, but this one certainly hit close to home.  How can we make sure that while preparing our kids, we aren't scaring them? Please share your thoughts!!!