Safety or Stupidity?

There's currently an uproar in our sleepy little burg. We learned at dinner time that our childrens' school has instituted a "lockdown" policy when an "unauthorized" person is discovered in the school building. The children are to remain in their classrooms, and are instructed to move to a location away from windows along a wall (or so I could gather from my kindergartener and my second grader; take from that what you will).

Apparently they had a "Code Red" drill (that's what they announce over the loudspeaker when the "unauthorized" person is discovered) today, because that's what the kids told us happened at school today. We were not informed of this policy at all, no notes home from the school administation, no notice in the weekly Communicator (the notices they send home with all the school-related news like school lunches, field trips, etc).

Now, first off, I have a fundamental problem with the "ostrich" instructions, namely that that is precisely the mentality that brought about 32 dead at Virginia Tech. All staying put does is make you an easier target for the nutjob with a grudge against the world and a Glock. I'd much rather the policy be "When you heard Code Red, run like the little sugar-fueled maniacs you are".

However, I am not so naïve as to ignore the glaring problems with this plan, particularly the difficulty in practicing (yeah, you want to chase after 175+ high-velocity elementary school kids?) as well as walking the razor-thin line between scaring them unnecessarily and not giving them enough information to make their own informed decisions. The devil is in the details; where's the happy medium between "huddle in the corner and hope he runs out of ammo before he gets to you" and "run like a startled gazelle into the woods behind the school so you can eventually die of hypothermia"?

I also wonder if the "huddle in the corner" plan was chosen for ease of implementation. It's pretty simple to tell the kids to get in position and don't move if the Code Red is called. They can document the plan, have twice-yearly drills, and fulfill the requirements for the lockdown plan that was required after the Columbine shootings. It's a lot hard to properly document the "run at maximum velocity in 1,500 directions" policy and even harder to practice it.

And, finally, in the statistical analysis, they're not bloodly likely to encounter a real school shooter scenario. They're more likely to have someone try to get past the front office, in which case the lockdown/Code Red and resultant plan is pretty solid - the Code goes out, the teachers lock the classroom doors, the police are called, the "unauthorized" person is located and removed from the scene. It's a small town. The cops know everyone, and I'd wager in case of an intruder at the school they'd be on site in less than 4-5 minutes.

It just irks me that the first I hear of it is AFTER the first drill. A quick note in the Communicator stating that the school would be instituting the lockdown policy and having a drill in the near future would have been nice. Better still, of course, would be to have an information night in conjunction with the police department to answer questions and calm fears - not to mention quelling rumors.

There's no real good answer here. There are lots of unanswered questions.

That is all.