Lockdown drills are done in schools all over the country including Bellevue East High School. However, students experienced a real lockdown on Dec 6, 2024 which left many things to be discovered about the lockdowns at Bellevue East.
Lockdown drills are a highly debated topic with the idea of whether they traumatize students, are even effective if schools are in a school shooting, or if students just do not take them seriously. Great Neck South High School’s school paper The Southern wrote an opinion piece about how much students do not take these seriously and how it is such an issue with these drills. While the opinion does go over the author’s experience it also goes over how teachers do not comment on the behavior because they believe students will do it right when it is real.
“During the lockdown we had, no one in my class knew it was real, not even the teacher,” junior Evelyn Carozza said, “We were doing a review and continued doing it in the dark in the corner. I even got my hair braided because we thought it was a long drill.”
According to the official Bellevue Public School website, students and staff in a lockdown should follow the Standard Response Protocol (SRP), which includes the phrase “Locks, Lights, Out of Sight”.
“First you turn off all the lights in the room, the teacher locks the doors, and you sit in a corner out of sight until an officer comes and tells you it is safe, and the thoughts that go through my head are often fear that it’s the real deal this time,” senior Alexander Pape said.
A study published in BMJ Journals showed that 45% of students feel that their classmates take these lockdown drills seriously. The study concludedthat it was uncertain ifthese drills were a benefit and not a disadvantage.
“I take them seriously enough by staying quiet and out of sight, but I don’t actually think someone’s in the school so I’m not as on alert or attentive,” Carozza said.
A research study was done at Massachusetts Institute of Technology which highlights the back and forth discussion on lockdown drills. The article talks about how some people think it is beneficial for students’ development, increasing self defense skills and learning how to deal with a situation in an emergency. The article also states how people opposed the drills because it teaches kids to hide and the practice does not say for sure to work in the real situation because of how many variations the actual thing could have.
“Some of [the students take them seriously], some of them not, depends on the person,” Sophomore Maleah Chang said, “I think it’s because when there’s no actual lockdown they feel as it is silly”
Students have been practicing these drills from very early ages. Junior Aster Hibbert says for as long as they can remember, they have been practicing these drills. Vice President JD Vance said that school shootings were a part of life which many sources agree with. According to Giffords site, people should not have to accept the drills as normal and that they should not have to accept the heartbreak and fear of their kids going to schools and something like this happening.
“I’d say people aren’t frightened by lockdown drills, probably desensitized from how often everyone has done it,” Hibbert said.
Different sources argue about if mental health is the cause of school shootings at large. The NRA argues that school shootings are caused by failure by the health care system. Along with their point of shootings being a mental health issue saying how hard it would be to round up all the guns in the country.
“Mental health matters and I think that is the root of much of violence we have in this country,” Ceremuga said.
Even with the idea of a failed health care system, Giffords argues that the problem is actually gun control, stating how truly to say it’s the health care system’s fault denies the fact that these drills and shootings cause mental health struggles in these children. Whether these drills are causing trauma to the kids is something many people are trying to figure out.
“I don’t think people are frightened by them,” Sophomore Parker Davis said, “If anything I feel like they are annoyed by them because ‘this won’t ever happen, why do we need to have them’. I’ve heard that from some classmates of mine. I’ve even said it once or twice.”
The idea of these lockdown drills is with repetition of practicing them it will become muscle memory. Students will not be unsure what to do and are prepared.
“We’ve done it so many times that if the real thing were to happen I believe people would know exactly what to do,” Pape said
According to Education Week, teachers in a survey expressed how lockdown drills made them feel. One in five teachers said drills made them feel safe. Almost 70% said they did not feel that drills made things more safe or less safe. Even the Safety and Security team at East are unsure if the drills would be effective in the long run.
“I don’t know what the better answer would be,” Advisor Abigail Ceremuga said, “I think it is important to have some sort of system in place in case we know what to do in an emergency. Sometimes I worry that how we currently have it set up is not going to be effective in the case of an actual emergency.”
According to EveryTown there is a connection 75% time to the school who experience school shootings, often the shooter is currently a student or a former student at the school. This was done on an analysis on the New York City Police Department’s review about active shootings in a decade.
“I feel like if someone’s gonna shoot up the school, they’re gonna know our lockdown procedures and work around them really easily,” Hibbert said.
With interviews with students like freshman Lilly Stanford, Davis, and Freshman Leah Liberty it can be seen that students are losing faith in positive school environments with issues like bullying. Stanford reassures she does not agree with school shootings yet also understands how students feel hurt with the environment in schools as it is. Alfred University had a study in which they asked staff and students how they believed people can help school shootings happen less some of the top answers had to do with community in schools ranging with teachers caring about their students.
“I know how they get pushed around and bullied and I don’t know if our district might recognize it as important as it should be,” Stanford said, “I feel like they put more effort in kids cussing and getting in trouble for that rather than for bullying.“
Alfred University’s study also brought up how students need to tell an adult if they hear about a student wanting to shoot people or wanting a gun at school. While this would be seen as obvious to many students, in this study it is shown that it doesn’t always get reported to the proper authorities such as teachers, administrators, resource officers, or counselors.
“I would immediately go to the principal and dean to report the student,” Liberty said, “It isn’t ok to be joking around and actions have consequences.”
According to Fentress Incorporated, the fear that comes with lockdowns for children will start to lessen as they learn the protocol. Which to reduce fear is why these drills are done so often. Stanford comments on what is most important during these drills.
“Just to stay quiet, usher people, watch and listen for what the teacher is doing, watch out for sounds, and keeping myself calm,” Stanford said, “Real or not, it is best to stay calm.”
