By DELANIE MUNRO
RIDGEWOOD – It is random, and once the high-pitched ringing goes off over the loud speaker, the students know to get in the corner, turn off electronics, and to stay quiet. The teacher turns off the lights and locks the door. This is what a lockdown drill looks like in the Benjamin Franklin Middle School.
Every school in the nation is required to have one lockdown drill. This adds to the stress for many students and teachers and if the drill takes longer than five minutes, students get worried.
“Many students are frightened over a lockdown drill. Even though it is a drill, the idea of what could happen if there was an active shooter in the school, brings these images to life for a twelve year old when we are practicing,” Kathleen Clarke-Anderson, an English teacher at BFMS.
Schools have taken on a new procedure since so many school shootings and terrorist threats have become the norm in the United States. In the schools in Ridgewood, New Jersey, the pre-K, six elementary, two middle schools, and high school, practice lockdown drills along with fire drills every month.
Some have been true lockdown emergencies and most have been practice. Due to the high rate of lockdown practice, the students and teachers are used to the drills now; however, there is always a little bit of dread that follows each drill according to students and teachers involved in hiding in a small space while remaining absolutely silent while people shake the door knobs to see if everyone is secured in the classroom.
Following rigid procedures is imminent during these drills. Everyone has to follow the same rules. If a student is in the hallway and does not make it back to the room, they must go back to the bathroom, they cannot be let back in the room. No teacher can let anyone into a classroom unless the police are with them and they state an earlier agreed upon password. The drill is not over until the all clear bell is sounded.
According to the NJ State Law 18A:41-1, every principal needs to have a school lockdown drill each month. This any summer months during which the summer school is held or community school, any instructional programs. All teachers have to wear IDs while in the building and all visitors have to check in with the main office and be identified. All doors to the building must be locked and visitors must be buzzed into the building. Students must be safe and secure at all times.
In the beginning of March, schools in New Jersey were under lockdown due to alleged threats made against the school. At least one school in the Garden State has been put into lockdown a day since the Feb. 14 mass shooting at a Florida high school, Seventeen students were shot and killed by a former student at Parkland High School. On December 14, 2012, twenty children in an elementary school in Sandy Hook were shot by a teacher’s son.
In wake of the Parkland High School shooting in Florida back in February, schools all over the country have taken more precautions. when it comes to visitors. At BFMS, no one is allowed to come through the entrance in the back of the school from the parking lot unless they are a teacher with a key to get into the building. Every visitor needs to sign in at the main office and also sign out when they are leaving.
Students in school today and graduating from college have all grown up with these drills. Most kids who are graduating in 2018 were in first or second grade when the World Trade Center came down so terrorist attacks and school shootings have been in their lives for their entire school careers. School lockdown drills have been a part of that education as well. If anything, it has shown a white, male, American school shooter what he needs to be prepared for when attacking a school.
At BFMS, school officials prepare for different emergency situations.
[Watch link below to see a student’s reaction to lockdowns in her school]
What happens in an emergency
Greg Wu (left), the assistant principal, explained the lock-down drill step, which include coordinating with law enforcement.
“First we call the Ridgewood Police so they know it is a drill. In the past, if the police are not called, they would immediately come to the school if the lock-down bell is pushed,” Wu said.
Sometimes, the BFMS administration notifies local police so they can give them tips as to how to make the procedure better. Next they sound a special alarm on the PA system.
“The assistant principals have designated areas to check and all the doors to check to make sure they are locked to determine if anyone is ‘in sight,” Wu explained.
“After about 57 minutes we sound another special alarm, different form the first, and a person in the main office states, ‘thank you for your cooperation, the drill is now complete,” he said. “Sometimes the drills need to be practiced during lunchtime, passing time, recess, or while a class has physical education.
“Those can be more stressful overall, but extremely important. There is no set time for a lockdown,” said Wu. “We have to mix it up for everyone’s safety.”
“Every school should have a SRO (school resource officer) and/or security person. This would be ideal, but I don’t think this will ever happen due to budget constraints. I believe the Ridgewood District has come a long way in just a few months” Wu said. “We did hire a School Security officer who is a retired police captain. He is a parent and resident in Ridgewood. In addition, we are on schedule to employ at least one SRO we may get more. We haven’t had a SRO in almost ten years.”
Clarke-Anderson responded to teachers carrying guns on school, “while I do know how to shoot a gun, and while I will protect my students with my life, I will not carry a gun in school,” Clarke-Anderson said.
“I have played this scenario out in my head a million times. I have sharp, big scissors on my desk and I would take those and start throwing them like a ninja,” She added. “I would run screaming at the person and take the gun and stand on his/her neck with the gun pointing at his head until help arrived.”
Options for the schools
Putting kids as young is pre K in a traumatic situation like a lockdown drill can potentially make kids more anxious in the classroom. Parents are often told very little about the details of the lockdowns until their kids come home and tell them about it. It is actually considered better to tell the parents about the drill after it happened, the school superintendent sends a letter home after every incident to inform the parents what happened during the school day and why a drill took place.
One parent, Ben Ran said he and his wife follow their children’s lead. “The kids don’t talk about them very much at all, so my wife and I take the lead.” He had been reading about many districts moving to the ALICE method so he was going to investigate that. ALICE stands for Alert Lockdown Inform Counter Evacuate and it is a more proactive towards violence taken against a school or other organization.
These lockdowns have brought up the questions from parents and teachers: to give students a general approach to these drills so they understand what to do; to go to certain locations for safety on campus, and find the safest place to be. Many of these decisions are not up to the students and they must follow the directions of the administrators, the teachers, the police and firemen.
Each situation is different and depending where a shooter is at a specific time or place, stairs, hallways and doors may be blocked so students and teachers need to stay put to listen to directions in the chaos surrounding them.
Each teacher is equipped with a Share911 app on his/her phone to stay in contact with the administrators in charge and can get information on how to proceed and what to do. Each teacher can let administration know who is with him/her and who is missing. All precautions are being tested every time there is a drill so all students and teachers are kept safe and in control of any situation that may arise. Everyone prays that never happens.
Very informative article, I learned a lot about the unseen side of school lockdown procedures and drills. It was also good you got input from a variety of expert voices in the teacher (Clarke-Adnerson’s interview was a nice lighthearted touch), principal, officers, etc. The only issue is some of the charts are difficult to interpret due to the sizing.