School Lockdowns: Minimize the Chaos

So, I recently experienced one of the most chaotic and stressful events to ever take place in all of my years of teaching. The school in which I teach went into full-on lockdown, under crisis. Now, I’ve experienced lockdowns before, but never at this level of intensity, lengthiness and police presence. As you can imagine, working in one of the largest schools in the state (2200 students), it is a daunting task to navigate a crisis. Thankfully, after taking every precaution, the lockdown was lifted and no one was harmed; however, in light of all of the recent campus shooting, the entire situation left teachers and students exhausted.

Like all districts, we have a crisis/lockdown plan. After experiencing it, I want to share things that I believe individuals can, and should, do better. I’ll break it down by groups and explain the importance of it. I’m not suggesting changes to our crisis plan. I am stressing that the plan must be followed. While our incident ended with the determination that there was no intruder, and there was no gun, and no one was in danger, any person who did not follow the crisis plan, to the letter, was potentially in imminent danger.

TEACHERS

I completely understand the overwhelming anxiety and feeling of being in danger. It is normal. It is vitally important that you try your best to remain calm and in control of your little world. Here are a couple of things that will help.

• Assume every lockdown is real until you know otherwise. Use reasoning skills. Drills can be planned, or unplanned, but don’t usually occur during times of chaos like class changes, lunch, while raining, etc. Assume every lockdown is real, until you know otherwise.
• Be prepared and know the safest place in your room for your students to be. Away from doors and windows. If you are unsure of the safest place, ask your resource officer to assess your room.
• Allow students with phones to contact their parents to let them know that they are safe.
• Do not, under any circumstances let a student leave your room because their parent is there to get them.
• If you have a student who was out of the room when the lockdown was called, find a way to communicate to the office that you have a student unaccounted for.
• Reassure your students in whatever way you can. If they want to pray, let them pray. Encourage them to pray, together. Pray with them.

STUDENTS

It is human nature to want to be with your parents during times of crisis. It is okay to feel that way, but it is not okay to let that feeling get in the way of your safety.

• Assume that every lockdown is real until you know otherwise. Joking around and not taking it seriously could cost you your life.
• Listen to, and follow, the instructions given to you over the PA system, or by the teacher and/or adult in the room.
• Do not, under any circumstance, attempt to leave a room you are safely secured in.
• If you find yourself not able to get to a secure room when  a lockdown is called, try to remain calm and move to the closest room, or find a place to conceal yourself.
• If you encounter a police officer while trying to get to safety, comply with their commands. Do what they say. Period.

PARENTS

Here’s where things are going to get sticky, and some parents will get upset, but it is important that we be cognizant of how our actions can contribute to the chaos, and potentially, place your child in danger.

• Pay attention to the reason for a lockdown. A “reported gun on campus,” and “gunshots fired,” are two entirely different situations. Once a heavy police presence is on campus, the only people in danger are the one with the gun and anyone who doesn’t strictly adhere to the lockdown.
• Don’t immediately rush to the school. My school has 2200 students. If every parent went to the school, emergency vehicles would not be able to get there.
• If your child has a phone, attempt to make contact. If your child responds, great!  If you don’t get a response, don’t assume the worst. They could be in a room that doesn’t get a signal. They might not have the phone with them and are unable to get to it. There are many reasons they might not respond, immediately. Also, consider that some children don’t have phones. Their parents are already way ahead of you on the worry scale.
• Do not attempt to enter a campus to pick up your child while it is on lockdown. Insisting that your child be called down, so you can take them home, only puts them in danger when they leave the safety of the room.
• Do not attempt to circumvent the lockdown by driving around to other entrances. In a lockdown situation, your vehicle moving around from entrance to entrance looks like a getaway car to a police officer.
• Do not text your child and tell them to leave the room and meet you at the back gate. Your child trying to leave campus during a lockdown looks like a suspect to a police officer. If the suspect is unknown, a vague description like “white male wearing a school uniform” puts every white male student at risk of being a suspect if they aren’t adhering to the lockdown procedures.
• Don’t expect the authorities to give a detailed accounting of the incident while the school is still on lockdown. These situations create many questions, and even when a suspect is in custody, many questions have to be answered before the lockdown is lifted.
• Resist reading and/or interacting with “live” social media posts. Rest assured that a play by play isn’t being broadcast over the PA, so any person making claims from within the lockdown is only making assumptions or contributing to rumors.

I am a parent, as well. My child attends a school just down the street, and usually, when an event causes a lockdown, the nearby schools go on precautionary lockdown. I knew that if my son knew they were on lockdown because of an incident at my school, he would be worried. I texted his teacher to let him know I was fine.

I don’t wish it upon anyone to experience a crisis, whether there is a presence of danger, or not. I do want to emphasize that regardless, there is a tremendous amount of chaos and stress, and we must all do our part to minimize, as best as we can.