Echos of Uvalde: Parents swarm school during lockdown

[dixiehack]

This doesn’t quite fit the running shooting thread because there was no shooting. Doesn’t quite fit cops gone feral because they did their job right here. But it should be noted that society is breaking down in little ways because of the knock-on effects of those trends.

SAN ANTONIO - Unsubstantiated reports of a shooting at Jefferson High School on Monday afternoon led officers to lock down campus and investigate.

It also briefly turned into a brawl between some parents and police - with one man now in the hospital.

Madness ensues after parents rushed to Jefferson High School’s lockdown

 

[MileHigh]

Had something similar here earlier this week. Lack of communication from the school district from the hoax call.

 

[bigpern23]

I’m a little surprised that Uvalde hasn’t sparked a serious rethink of “lockdown” procedures across the country. I think it has proven that locking down and sheltering in place simply keeps the school a target-rich environment.

It seems to me that if a gunman enters the school through one door, the entire damn school ought to be escaping through the nearest doors, windows, vents, whatever. Set a rally point that kids should eventually retreat to, but they should scatter immediately and make it as hard as possible for the gunman to hit a moving target.

 

[qtlaw]

I've never really thought about a lockdown situation until now. Yes, chaos appears to make more sense than just hunkering down. However, that's dependent on knowing where the shooter is located right? Maybe even so, panic is better?

 

[bigpern23]

I've never really thought about a lockdown situation until now. Yes, chaos appears to make more sense than just hunkering down. However, that's dependent on knowing where the shooter is located right? Maybe even so, panic is better?

Yeah, I mean, obviously you don't want to accidentally run toward the shooter. But, generally speaking, run away from the sound of gunfire. There's more to it than simply chaos, though, because you certainly don't want kids getting trampled. So I would think they would need to drill on how to escape quickly, but somewhat under control. Organized chaos, I suppose.

Installing windows that can be used to escape from each classroom would also go a long way toward getting the kids out, without risking sending them into the hallways. This, of course, will not be feasible in all schools (many of which were built long ago and may have classrooms without windows), but moving forward, schools should be designed with this stuff in mind.

And, as I mentioned above, you'd need to have some sort of rally point well away from the school so that the kids can be safely returned home.

 

[sgreenwell]

At least when I was a substitute teacher, the district I was at in Rhode Island didn't have one lockdown procedure - I think they had three. One was locking down in a classroom, while the other two were "silent" evacuations to a field outside the school, or to the gymnasium. They'd announce over the loudspeaker which one you were in, and it was the only sheet of paper that they gave you every single day. (By the way, fire drills as a sub were one of the few anxious parts of the job, since you have zero familiarity with the kids, and you're trying to keep track to 10 to 30 of them at once.)

 

[SoloFlyer]

I’m a little surprised that Uvalde hasn’t sparked a serious rethink of “lockdown” procedures across the country. I think it has proven that locking down and sheltering in place simply keeps the school a target-rich environment.

It seems to me that if a gunman enters the school through one door, the entire damn school ought to be escaping through the nearest doors, windows, vents, whatever. Set a rally point that kids should eventually retreat to, but they should scatter immediately and make it as hard as possible for the gunman to hit a moving target.

The story in the original post highlights the problem with evacuation plans superceding lockdown plans, however.

The lockdown was because of a fight. Not a shooter. Misinformation led it to be treated as an active shooter situation. But lockdowns are critical safety and containment measures because they enable administration to limit the number of students outside of classrooms. So if there is a fight, a lockdown prevents students from other classes joining in and escalating the situation.

If you go to an evac procedure instead of a lockdown because of a fight, that fight could expand once the students are outdoors.

 

[bigpern23]

The story in the original post highlights the problem with evacuation plans superceding lockdown plans, however.

The lockdown was because of a fight. Not a shooter. Misinformation led it to be treated as an active shooter situation. But lockdowns are critical safety and containment measures because they enable administration to limit the number of students outside of classrooms. So if there is a fight, a lockdown prevents students from other classes joining in and escalating the situation.

If you go to an evac procedure instead of a lockdown because of a fight, that fight could expand once the students are outdoors.

Glad you posted this. I overlooked this. Clearly, lockdown is more of an appropriate reaction to a fight or some other such incident.

I admittedly leaped to my thoughts about evacuations because my kids' schools recently sent out a notice about drills they are going to be conducting in the coming weeks that are the same ones they've been doing for the last several years (ALICE drills, I believe they're called). Essentially, our school district is not changing their approach to active shooter situations, which I think is a mistake. When I saw this story, I viewed it through my own lens of watching my kids' school district not changing their procedures at all.