School Lockdowns Are a Sign of Perilous Times

When I was a child, it was "breaking news" for us to have a tornado drill or fire drill at school. I could not wait to get home and tell my loved ones all about the adventure we had experienced earlier in the day. I remember giving a blow-by-blow description of what we were doing in class when the alarm sounded, how we got into a single file and went out into the hallway with our teacher, and what events transpired thereafter.

Times have certainly changed since then, and the drills that prepared us for catastrophic events that either never or rarely occurred have been replaced by real-life tragedy in today's schools. This is so much the case that even my own children have personally experienced lockdowns along with their classmates. For this reason, the question "Do you know where your child is?" is one that I take to heart and think about frequently as I read about school violence in the newspaper and hear about acts of violence in schools on the news.

When a school lockdown takes place, all outside doors to the school are locked and no one is allowed to enter or depart from the premises. Some lockdowns even require that students stay in their respective classrooms for a specified period of time. In general, lockdowns are initiated by school officials and are implemented when something or someone poses a threat to the safety of those who are in the building. This is a similar concept to the lockdowns that are characteristic of prisons when there is a threat to the safety of inmates and/or prison personnel.

Already this school year, my 15-year-old stepson has experienced a lockdown at his high school. It was initiated following the stabbing of a fellow student, whom he happened to know. As the details of the stabbing unfolded, it turned out that the stab wounds had in fact been self inflicted. The mere fact that a student would stab himself is mind boggling, but as a parent, I couldn't help but wonder, what's next?

School lockdowns are not just practices within inner-city public schools, as some people tend to believe. Since the violence that renders them necessary is a microcosm of a much larger problem in our society, these lockdowns occur in all types of institutions and affect children of all different ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds. And lockdowns are unfortunately becoming so common that websites such as www.lockdownalert.com have been created to allow parents to keep up with lockdowns in their children's schools or other schools within their district. Headline-making tragedies such as the Columbine High School shootings and the killings at Virginia Tech have all heightened the awareness that schools are no longer a safe place for children to learn.

So what's a parent to do? Unfortunately, there is no magical solution. It is important however to have a frank discussion with your child about school lockdowns and let them know that in the event of such a situation, they should notify you as soon as feasible. Some teachers will allow children to call or text message their families when there is a lockdown at their school but if this is not an option, you may just have to wait it out. A conscientious school administration will ensure that parents are notified one way or another when a school lockdown occurs.

Most importantly, it is wise to avoid extreme reactions by either living in denial that a lockdown could ever take place at your child's school or having a panic attack and requiring that they call you in between each and every class. These are perilous times that we are living in and overreacting or not acting at all will only serve to make matters worse. All parents should education themselves on the lockdown policies at their children's schools so that when an emergency arises, they will be fully aware of how things will be handled.