My experience during a school lockdown

Posted on September 17th, 2008. Categorized under PersonalNo Comments

Reading about the recent shooting and lockdown in Toronto brought back my memories of a school lockdown, and I thought a few people might be interested in hearing what it’s like.

Shortly after the Virginia Tech shootings a year and a half ago, a man in our town went to church one night and confessed to the pastor that he had desires to shoot up a school.

Testing

During that time of the year, we were in the middle of our state testing. The next morning, as we were finishing up our first testing session of the day, we noticed that the proctor was closing all of the curtains, locking the door, and covering the door window. We had to wait until the end of the test to talk to her, but several students who finished early checked their cell phones.

Several had received messages from the school’s seniors (seniors were able to stay home and sleep in while the lower grades tested) who said the school had told them not to come, that there was a shooting threat.

Being in a school lockdown can be very unnerving.

As word spread around the classroom, you could feel the fear coming off of several students. Soon, the test was over and the proctor explained the situation to us. Our school (along with the others in our town) was put into lockdown, and nobody was leaving the classroom. Meanwhile, the police would be hunting throughout the town to find the man.

She hadn’t told us during the test because the administration told her “not to interfere with students testing”, hoping that our scores wouldn’t be affected. Students began to wonder why all grades weren’t told not to come to school: the school had known about the threat beforehand, so why were the seniors told and the other grades not? Students soon realized that the main priority seemed to be our test scores, not our safety. The nail in the coffin came when a voice came over the PA, requesting that the finished tests be brought to the main office in a hurry.

Lockdown

Although we called it a ‘lockdown’, it really wasn’t a thorough lockdown. Teachers were able to come and go among classrooms, and food was brought to us.

The big hassle came when parents started showing up to take their kids home. There was a massive line of parents outside of our school, and I couldn’t help but think, “what if the man showed up now? he could shoot any parent he wanted to…” But parents were allowed to sign their children out and take them home. The number of kids in my testing room dwindled from 30 to around 5. My parents were unable to sign me out.

While in the lockdown, there was little news. We hunted around online, trying to see how much exposure the issue received, but it was hard to find out anything new. Rumors would spread that the man had been found or that he had been seen at another school, but nothing was really confirmed.

The lockdown began around 9 AM, and by about noon, a plan was finally put into motion to allow students to leave. School buses were coming to take many kids home, and those that drive could leave on their own. I managed to get a ride home from a friend, and there I waited around for news.

The hunt continues

When night came and the man still had not been found, it was decided to keep the schools closed the next day as a precaution.

Late that night though, the man actually turned himself in. Apparently, he had not seriously intended to bring a gun to a school, but he knew he was still responsible. The affair ended without incident, luckily.

The Aftermath

The biggest problem with the whole affair was how poor of a ‘lockdown’ it was. Had the man actually shown up, parents would have been sitting ducks outside, something that you really don’t want.
Kids were just turned loose at the end. Sure, we were told to go wait for the buses, but we could easily have gone wherever. No circumstances had really changed: we were just suddenly able to leave.
Testing was way too much of a priority. We should never have been in school that morning.
A solid lack of communication. Nobody knew what was actually happening, so that began the rumors. Announcements and updates should have been made over the PA so that students and the proctors could better understand what was happening outside of the classroom.

Being in a lockdown like that is downright scary, especially when it’s hard to find information. Many kids were nervous, but surprisingly there wasn’t much of a panic. People tried to make light of the situation by joking about.

Our school learned a lot from that situation, and I really hope that if another situation like that comes up (God forbid), it’s handled much better than that one.

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