Lockdown: protecting students from a threat inside

A lockdown is used when there is a threat of violence inside the school or on its grounds, such as a person with a weapon or someone behaving in a way that puts people in immediate danger. The aim is simple: put locked doors and distance between students and the threat, keep everyone out of sight and quiet, and wait for law enforcement to resolve the situation and release each room. Lockdowns are rare in real life, and the great majority of schools will never have a real one. They are drilled often because, when one is needed, there is no time to think, and the actions have to be automatic for staff and students alike.

This lesson covers what staff do in a lockdown. It does not discuss attacks themselves in any detail. Its focus is the protective steps that keep students safe, and how to practice them without frightening children.

How a lockdown is called

Anyone who sees or hears a threat inside the building can call a lockdown, usually by phoning the office or 911, or by using the school's alert system if it allows staff to trigger an alert. The district uses the Standard Response Protocol (SRP), in which the lockdown directive is 'Lockdown! Locks, lights, out of sight.' The announcement uses plain language, never codes, because substitute teachers, visitors and new students may not know a code, and because there is no time to work out what 'Code Red' means in this particular school.

Staff should not wait for permission or certainty. If a teacher hears what sounds like gunshots or sees a person with a weapon, the teacher locks down the classroom immediately and then tells the office. A lockdown called by mistake costs a few minutes of disruption. A lockdown called too late can cost lives.

What staff do

The steps are the same in every room, and they are practiced until they are automatic:

• Bring students in from the hallway nearby, quickly and without leaving the room to search.
• Lock the classroom door. Most district classrooms now have doors that lock from the inside without stepping into the hallway; older rooms may need a key, which is kept on the teacher at all times, not in a desk drawer.
• Turn off the lights and close blinds if it can be done quickly.
• Move everyone out of sight of the door window and any interior windows, into the area of the room that cannot be seen from the hallway.
• Silence phones and devices, and keep everyone quiet.
• Stay put. Do not open the door for anyone, including people claiming to be law enforcement or students asking to come in, once the lockdown is in place. Law enforcement will unlock the door or use a key.
• Take attendance quietly and note anyone missing or anyone extra.
• Wait for law enforcement or an administrator with law enforcement to release the room.

Each classroom has a safe corner or wall, chosen in advance, that cannot be seen through the door window. Teachers identify it at the start of the year and show it to students during the first drill. Some rooms have no good safe area, such as rooms with glass walls or doors that face long corridors, and those rooms need a plan, such as covering the door window with a pull-down blind or moving to a nearby room with better cover.

Rooms that are hard to secure

The gym, the cafeteria, the library, the auditorium, shops, portables and outdoor areas all present problems. They have many doors, large windows, or no lock at all. The plan should set out what happens in each of these spaces:

• Gym: move students into locker rooms or equipment rooms that lock, or leave by the nearest exit away from the threat if that is safer.
• Cafeteria: move students into the kitchen, storage rooms or nearby classrooms that lock.
• Library: use the workroom or offices, or the stacks away from windows.
• Portables: lock the door and stay out of sight; portables are usually treated as classrooms.
• Outside: move away from the building to a pre-set off-site location, such as a nearby church or community center, and call the office to report the class's location.
• Washrooms and hallways: students go into the nearest classroom or lockable space, and the teacher there accepts them.

Students who are in a washroom when a lockdown is called are told to go to the nearest classroom, or, if that is not possible, to lock themselves in a stall and stay quiet. Teachers near washrooms should check them quickly if they can do so without leaving their own students unsupervised.

Staff judgment

Lockdown is the default action for a threat inside, but it is not the only option, and staff need permission to use judgment. If a class is outside, it should not walk back into the building. If a teacher knows exactly where the threat is and has a safe way to lead students out of the building and away from it, leaving may be safer than staying. Many school systems teach staff that, in addition to locking down, they may evacuate away from danger if they can do so safely, and must then call to report where they are. Students should hear the simple version: follow the adult and stay quiet.

The district's procedure reflects this. Some Minnesota districts train staff in options-based approaches that add other choices for adults when the default is not possible. Riverbend's training keeps lockdown as the default, allows staff to evacuate away from danger when that is clearly safer, and tells staff that their first duty when separated from students is to get to safety and call 911.

A fire alarm during a lockdown

One of the hardest decisions in a lockdown is what to do if the fire alarm sounds. Fire alarms have been pulled deliberately to draw people out of locked rooms, so the default during a lockdown is to stay put. But a real fire can also start, so the rule cannot be absolute. The district's procedure is:

• Stay in lockdown when the alarm sounds, unless you see or smell smoke or fire in or near your room, or are told to evacuate by an administrator or law enforcement over the public address system or radio.
• If there is smoke or fire, evacuate by the safest route away from both the fire and the reported threat, and call to report your location.

This is discussed openly in staff training, because it is a decision staff might have to make alone.

Ending a lockdown

A lockdown ends only when law enforcement say it is over. In many cases, law enforcement officers go room by room, unlocking doors with keys, checking each room and escorting students out to a safe location, sometimes in groups and sometimes with hands visible. This can take a long time, often hours in a real event. Staff should expect it and prepare students: law enforcement officers may enter quickly and give loud instructions, and everyone should follow them, keep their hands empty and visible, and not run toward law enforcement officers.

An announcement over the public address system that the lockdown is over is not enough on its own, because an announcement could be made by anyone. The district's rule is that a room stays locked until someone opens it with a key, or an administrator known to the teacher confirms in person or through a pre-agreed method, such as a text to staff phones from the principal, that the lockdown has ended.

Drills

Minnesota law requires every public school to hold at least five lockdown drills each school year, as part of the crisis management policy each school board must adopt. The district holds the five drills spread through the year, varies their timing, and invites the local police department to attend at least one to observe and give feedback.

Drills are announced as drills, with plain words: 'Lockdown drill. This is a drill.' The district does not run unannounced drills that simulate an attack, use fake weapons, sound effects or actors playing intruders, or tell students it is real. These practices have been widely criticized for causing fear and distress without making students safer, and child-safety and school-psychology organizations recommend against them. A good lockdown drill teaches the actions, not the fear.

Drills for young children need extra care. Teachers use simple language, such as practicing being 'as quiet as mice' in the safe corner. Willow Park's kindergarten teachers read a short story about the drill the day before and talk about it afterward. Students who are anxious are reassured, and students with past trauma may need individual preparation. Families are told when drills happen so they can talk about them at home.

Checking rooms during drills

During a drill, an administrator and often a law enforcement law enforcement officer walk the halls and check each room: Is the door locked? Can anyone be seen through the window? Can students be heard? Are lights off? The results are recorded room by room. Over time, the records show which rooms have problems with doors, locks, windows or noise. The program below summarizes the checks from Pinecrest High School's two drills last year.

# Lockdown drill room checks: count problems by type across two drills.
checks = [
    # (drill, room, door locked, out of sight, quiet)
    ("Oct", "101", True, True, True), ("Oct", "104", True, False, True), ("Oct", "Gym", False, True, False),
    ("Oct", "Library", True, False, True), ("Oct", "Portable 2", True, True, True), ("Oct", "212", True, True, False),
    ("Apr", "101", True, True, True), ("Apr", "104", True, True, True), ("Apr", "Gym", True, True, True),
    ("Apr", "Library", True, False, True), ("Apr", "Portable 2", False, True, True), ("Apr", "212", True, True, True),
]
problems = {"door not locked": [], "visible from door": [], "noise heard": []}
for drill, room, locked, hidden, quiet in checks:
    if not locked: problems["door not locked"].append(f"{room} ({drill})")
    if not hidden: problems["visible from door"].append(f"{room} ({drill})")
    if not quiet:  problems["noise heard"].append(f"{room} ({drill})")
for k, v in problems.items():
    print(f"{k:18} {len(v)}: {', '.join(v)}")

door not locked    2: Gym (Oct), Portable 2 (Apr)
visible from door  3: 104 (Oct), Library (Oct), Library (Apr)
noise heard        2: Gym (Oct), 212 (Oct)

The library appears twice for visibility: its glass wall to the corridor gives no safe zone. The fix was a set of blinds that drop over the glass with one pull and a revised plan moving students into the workroom and stacks. Portable 2's door failed in April because the lock was stiff; it was replaced. Doors that do not lock reliably are one of the most common findings and among the easiest to fix, which is why they should be reported to the custodian the same day.

Physical security that supports lockdown

Lockdown depends on the building as much as on people. Controls that the district has put in place over the last decade include classroom doors that lock from the inside, a single main entrance with a buzzer and camera during the school day, numbered doors and windows that match the floor plans held by law enforcement, window film or blinds on door windows, and a public address system that reaches every space, including portables and outdoor areas. Staff help by keeping exterior doors closed and never propped, wearing identification, and asking unfamiliar adults to report to the office.