Today's Dispatch editorial:
Drop the drama
School lockdown drills shouldn?’t turn into scary simulations
Monday, November 20, 2006
School officials trying to prepare their staffs and students in case of nightmarish violence scenarios deserve sympathy and support. Few people who aspired 10 or 20 years ago to be principals ever imagined that episodes such as the Columbine shootings or Amish school killings would join their list of daily worries.
Those who try to prepare students with drills are doing the right thing, but they should avoid turning the exercise into an overly disruptive and potentially traumatic spectacle.
Pickerington Central High School recently canceled plans to subject students to a ramped-up version of the school?’s regular lockdown drill, in which students are gathered inside locked classrooms as they would be if a real threat occurred.
In the proposed, more-intense drill, someone acting as an intruder would have entered the school and fired fake shots, others would have acted as victims, and Pickerington police would have rushed into the school in response.
Although students were warned, somewhat vaguely, to expect a ''more realistic'' drill in the first week of November, some certainly would have misinterpreted what was happening. Teens aren?’t known for carefully heeding school instructions. The result could have been real trauma.
Even worse was a recent exercise at a Wyoming, Mich., school in which police entered two classrooms in riot gear. Students weren?’t told it was a drill and were taken from classrooms by the police officers and patted down.
Pickerington parents, trying to interpret the vague warning and no doubt concerned about just such a scenario, complained to the school, and the principal postponed the exercise. He said he hopes to reschedule it after he figures out how to avoid panicking anyone. He should reconsider.
Exposing students to such drama isn?’t healthy or necessary.
Students should be drilled in the fundamentals of how to respond to a crisis: not to panic but to listen to instructions from teachers and other adults. That can be covered in standard drills. Little is to be gained by attempting to stage an incident that, while upsetting some students, probably couldn?’t come close to emulating what a real crisis would be like.
Police, paramedics and other responders, however, can benefit from real-life runs to a school building ?— learning the layout, spotting potential traps and getting a feel for how many responders would be needed to cover the building. Such exercises should be staged with full explanation to students in advance. Any role-playing exercises to benefit responders would need only a few student volunteers.
Students?’ only responsibility in a horrific crisis should be to follow directions, and they don?’t need to be traumatized to learn that.
Drop the drama
School lockdown drills shouldn?’t turn into scary simulations
Monday, November 20, 2006
School officials trying to prepare their staffs and students in case of nightmarish violence scenarios deserve sympathy and support. Few people who aspired 10 or 20 years ago to be principals ever imagined that episodes such as the Columbine shootings or Amish school killings would join their list of daily worries.
Those who try to prepare students with drills are doing the right thing, but they should avoid turning the exercise into an overly disruptive and potentially traumatic spectacle.
Pickerington Central High School recently canceled plans to subject students to a ramped-up version of the school?’s regular lockdown drill, in which students are gathered inside locked classrooms as they would be if a real threat occurred.
In the proposed, more-intense drill, someone acting as an intruder would have entered the school and fired fake shots, others would have acted as victims, and Pickerington police would have rushed into the school in response.
Although students were warned, somewhat vaguely, to expect a ''more realistic'' drill in the first week of November, some certainly would have misinterpreted what was happening. Teens aren?’t known for carefully heeding school instructions. The result could have been real trauma.
Even worse was a recent exercise at a Wyoming, Mich., school in which police entered two classrooms in riot gear. Students weren?’t told it was a drill and were taken from classrooms by the police officers and patted down.
Pickerington parents, trying to interpret the vague warning and no doubt concerned about just such a scenario, complained to the school, and the principal postponed the exercise. He said he hopes to reschedule it after he figures out how to avoid panicking anyone. He should reconsider.
Exposing students to such drama isn?’t healthy or necessary.
Students should be drilled in the fundamentals of how to respond to a crisis: not to panic but to listen to instructions from teachers and other adults. That can be covered in standard drills. Little is to be gained by attempting to stage an incident that, while upsetting some students, probably couldn?’t come close to emulating what a real crisis would be like.
Police, paramedics and other responders, however, can benefit from real-life runs to a school building ?— learning the layout, spotting potential traps and getting a feel for how many responders would be needed to cover the building. Such exercises should be staged with full explanation to students in advance. Any role-playing exercises to benefit responders would need only a few student volunteers.
Students?’ only responsibility in a horrific crisis should be to follow directions, and they don?’t need to be traumatized to learn that.
