Everybody Stay Calm!

Here’s a scenario. You’re in the courtyard during lunch. An intruder enters through the courtyard gates. What do you do?

A. Run inside and tell an administrator

B. Immediately leave that area and find a place to hide such as a classroom or room that can lock.

C. Go tell the important people at our school and say, “Hey, there’s somebody here who’s not supposed to be here!”

D. Go hide in the locker room or where lunch is served

How about this one? It’s a secure hold, meaning there is an intruder outside the school. You are coming back from Sonic during your lunch period. What do you do?

A. Lock your car doors and just keep your head down.

B. Stay in your vehicle and leave campus. Wait for any messages from the school via social media indicating that everything is good and safe for your return. 

C. I don’t know

D. Drive away from the school.

You’re in the bathroom and it’s the middle of 7th period. There’s an announcement saying the school is going into a lockdown. What do you do?

A. Stay in the bathroom and hide in a stall. Try to lock the bathroom if possible. 

B. Go to the nearest classroom that’s open.

C. Lock the stall door, get on top of the toilet and hide.

D. Stay in the stall bathroom

Last one. It’s the passing period between 1st and 2nd period. You are going from a classroom in downstairs F to upstairs Q. You’re in the middle of the hallway near the library and a lockdown is called. What do you do?

A. Go inside the library and hide behind a bookshelf. 

B. Go to the closest gallery, classroom, office, library, etc. where you have access to a door that will lock.

C. Either squat really low to the ground or army crawl to a nearby bathroom

D. The auditorium’s really close. Go hide in there. 

If you didn’t pick the correct answer, don’t worry. You’re on the same page as some of your fellow students-though maybe not the right page. The highlighted answers are the official guidelines given by the administration for these specific scenarios. 

Right now, the school does not do intruder drills during lunch or passing periods. Principal Rebec says this is “out of convenience” for students, “to not interrupt their lunches.” 

In fact, a lot of students and teachers agree with this. 

“That’s the only time we get to talk to friends or eat,” freshman Lilian Cameron said. “Especially if it’s just a drill, then that’s taking out of our time.”

“Drills in essence are great,” geometry teacher Ms. Shull added. “but I think for the purpose of knowing where to exit, doing it during class time is more structured.”

However, this will soon change.

“We will be adding lunch periods for future drills because we need to make them more realistic,” Ms. Rebec explained. 

Junior Aaliyah Malik Aranda thinks this will be beneficial. 

“You never know the possibility that somebody’s going to come in during a passing period or lunch,” she said.

However, this discussion can open up a can of worms and lots of other questions about drills and school safety. 

What about the realism of drills? Should there be police officers banging on doors and causing a commotion?

Freshman Kaitlyn Hall says yes.

“It would help us be more prepared,” she explained. “Maybe if we think it’s real, we’ll all treat it real.”

But sophomore Drake Foster disagrees. 

“I feel like that would make people even more scared and worried,” he said.

Biology teacher Mr. Walker has a way to fix this. 

“You want to make it as real as possible but don’t want to scare people,” he explained.  “You need to notify parents and people prior to it happening. Maybe right before to let them know it’s a drill but it’s life-like.”

What if an intruder makes it inside a classroom? The school’s police officers are armed, but what about teachers or students? The use of weapons, specifically heavy books, baseball bats and other classroom items could make a difference in a real situation. But do we need to practice getting weapons in a drill?

“We should,” Lilian said. “One of my teachers grabs a screwdriver and stands at the door.”

Drake had another idea.

“I’d move a bunch of desks by the door and barricade the door,” he described.

Ms. Shull isn’t sure if practicing during a drill is necessary, but she isn’t turned off from the idea of talking about it with her students either.

“Some [teachers] have talked about moving bookshelves in front of the doors during the drills,” she explained. “I have talked about it, and I have told students it’s not a bad idea to think about it.”

The administration is currently “in the process of working on and updating all communication devices,” and principal Butler, who’s currently in charge of drill scheduling this year, says if something happens on school grounds, all students should be notified.

“There is a mass communication that goes out, and as long as all emails are valid, they will receive a message,” he said. “We reflect after all drills and address the concerns that are identified and try to come up with solutions to solve these problems.”