School’s Handling of the Lockdown

opinion Column by Anthony Chavez

A couple months back at my school I had to act in a lock down drill. I personally feel as if there is room for improvement. The school needs to fix some of the issues that some classes had. For example, some classroom doors would not lock properly. This allows for an intruder or threat to come into the certain classroom. Many students feared for their life if this was the case with their class.

Another issue that took place in my classroom is that the teacher could not calm the kids down enough for them to be quiet. This allows for the students to be heard from the outside the building.  I feel as if teachers should be trained to deal with these kind of situations.  I felt exposed to any outside danger that might be nearby. The school should be well prepared for any kind of danger even if they think that the probability of something happening to be very low.  This would make me and most students feel more safe just in case something were to happen again.

One last issue I had was the fact that the administrators felt that they didn’t have to send kids home after a possibly traumatizing event. Most kids felt as if their life was in danger and that would cause trauma throughout the rest of the day.  Several kid’s parents came to get their children but there were also many that could not leave.  Even teachers were fearful for their lives.  This was even frightening enough for adults to feel traumatized.  What I am trying to say is that school should have been canceled afterwards and everybody should have gone home.  In conclusion, the administration should have better policies in place for how things are handled after a lock down.