Run a quick search on “school locked down” and it seems that this has become a commonplace occurrence lately. Sometimes the lockdowns make sense: a violent crime is committed nearby and the perpetrator is at large. Someone makes a threat. Someone reports seeing a student with a possible firearm. Some of those reports turn out to be hoaxes. That part is nothing new; when I was in junior high school in the 1970s, we were evacuated several times for bomb threats. We would stand around in the parking lot or on the playing field while police searched the school, then file back to class while making jokes about someone just wanting to get out of a test. We knew the odds of the threat being real were near zero, but administrators can’t take the chance when faced with a specific threat like that.
I don’t fault schools for following lockdown procedures in the face of possible violent threats, but I am troubled by our overweening sense of protectiveness these days. It shows on playgrounds, where monkey bars are removed lest a child fall. It shows in our reluctance to let kids play outside or bike to a friend’s house unsupervised, lest a predator snatch them. It shows in the way we are turning schools into virtual fortresses… or prisons.
And it shows in panicked administrators without a lick of common sense or sense of proportionality, who lock down entire schools for a known “threat” like… a thermometer. The old-fashioned glass kind, with mercury in it. The kind that your parents probably stuck in your mouth when you were feverish, and neither they nor you worried about it. But at a school in Florida, a student brought in just such a thermometer as part of an assignment to show examples of elements from the Periodic Table… and the school was placed in lockdown, and a hazmat team called in to deal with this “threat.” Think about that: the administration called a hazmat team to deal with an ordinary household item that is still manufactured and sold today (never needs batteries!). Not to mention that every fluorescent light bulb in the building is actually a worse mercury-exposure hazard, if it breaks. So how about this instead: “Timmy, I’m a little uncomfortable with this thermometer because it could break and spill the mercury. I’m going to keep it for now and you take it home at the end of the day.” Hey, the kid managed to get it there without breaking it – but if we’re still too scared to hand it back to him, there is also this: “… and I’m going to ask your parent to come pick it up.” Ta-da! Threat eliminated. No hazmat team. No disruption of classes or waste of taxpayer dollars or diversion of first responders to a place where they are patently not needed.
The six-hour lockdown of a Long Island school over a 911 call about a student with a gun is less cut-and dry. SWAT teams, bomb squads, and canine units all got in on the action. Slight problem: according to the New York Daily News, “Nassau County Police found a toy lime green and yellow ‘Nerf’ gun in a student locker that fit the description of the original call.” Please, have a look at the Daily News story and photos. Students and parents were traumatized not by a stupid lime-green Nerf gun, but by the heavy-handed response. I’m not sure who bears the greatest responsibility for this particular debacle – the 911 caller? I can’t really blame the 911 dispatcher or the police, because actually… I am sorry to report… Ruger, Walther and Glock actually do make… lime-green guns. Real ones. Still, I have to ask: do these two images look that much alike? Would you really mistake one for the other?
Then there is this: when confronted with a glimpse of some kind of lime-green plastic something sticking out of a backpack, do you automatically think “toy” or “gun?” If you automatically think “gun,” that’s a sign that our culture has become waaay too steeped in blind fear. Lime-green weapons (and other colors) do exist, but they are not exactly common.
We need to do better than this. This kind of over-reaction is harmful, and contributes to that sense of blind fear, which in turn promotes more over-reaction. We need to just stop. Take a breath. Be more deliberate and controlled, and less panicked. Use our sense of reason, if we have any left at this point. We all need to open our eyes so we can report real threats before they cause harm; this was the failure in the Sandy Hook case, and at Columbine. But we also all need to open our eyes wide enough to not report or act on non-threats, and avoid the kind of damaging havoc that yields… nothing. Just more fear.
UPDATE: Here’s another one, 29 January in the Bronx: Cops lock down school after a 12-year-old is overheard talking to a classmate about his TOY Nerf gun. Parents rush to the school in a frenzy. One is quoted in the New York Post: “The worst part is just not knowing anything or getting any answers. My husband, Ed, was running out in the park looking for our daughter. It’s nerve racking. There are police officers here with assault rifles and there are helicopters flying around. It’s really scary out here.” Once again, havoc and panic for nothing.
Cover photo credit: Craig Warga / New York Daily News
supashmo
January 30, 2013
More fear does not create more safety. It just creates more restriction. Restriction and safety aren’t the same thing. Good post.
gmerrian
January 30, 2013
the guns are already in the wrong people hands, how are we safe and our kids!
gmerrian
January 30, 2013
I think that everybody entering the school should be walking through a metal detector scanner ok!
rndyduran
February 17, 2013
better yet, schools should hire armed guards
reformedmanofgod
March 5, 2013
Better yet, abolish state indoctrination cent… I mean public schools. Put the care of the children back into parent’s hands Let fathers be fathers again and protect their own children. The criminals can’t shoot up schools and take out dozens of children at a time if schools don’t exist. Why do we still religiously cling to the idea of public schooling when the state is doing such a horrible job of it?
anbrooks2013
January 30, 2013
I think it’s ridiculous that people can be expelled for a fake gun. Sometimes administrators don’t use common sense. They are just a light version of Javert.
Xraypics
January 31, 2013
Everyone agrees, everyone says the same things, but authorities are terrified they will be criticised for missing something and be sued. It is part of this litigious society, until people stop suing for every perceived infringement of their rights the situation won’t change. Tony
hunt4thought
January 31, 2013
Took the words right out of my mouth. It never ceases to amaze me how easily our society is thrown into hysteria about the next big thing to fear. It happens so quickly and feverishly, spreading like a plague with no vaccine for the ignorant. I mean you better look out becuase you next door neighbor maybe a witch, pinko commie, black, japanese, gay, or worst of all a gun owner. I mean seriously PIPE THE @#$% DOWN!
Related: http://huntforthought.wordpress.com/2013/01/25/murdering-logic-without-a-gun/
modernteacher27
January 31, 2013
What is the real cause? I think that people are afraid to ask the hard questions. We keep wanting bandaids instead of communication and looking at the core values of what is needed for young people including the foundation of families and parenting.
. Unfortunately due to the press build up, the negative effect can happen with people making decisions from the outside instead of the inside. I am also concerned with less and less people going into education due the many restrictions, fears and changes that are currently happening.
keepitschool.wordpress.com
lauren davis todd
January 31, 2013
Good post on a very current situation. What I feel is lacking in the whole lock down situation at schools is the over commitment of the schools to take responsibility for the kids and the under commitment of the kids to learn to take responsibility for themselves. It is not at all balanced.
Kids who do not walk or ride their bikes six blocks to school out of parental fear, don’t climb trees or do normal kid things, aren’t being taught the simple basics of responsibility for self protection. As a teacher, I had far too many children who had never learned to keep their mouths shut and their heads up while crossing the street. We were not allowed to let a kid have a five minute “time out” outside the door of the classroom in a very middle class, suburban neighborhood, because the parent was afraid for their safety. I am talking 8, 9, and 10 year olds. I had so many “bobble headed” kids who hadn’t been taught to carry scissors properly, I was just waiting for scissors to be outlawed in the classroom. And, the fact is, sh_t happens, and most of the time everyone gets over it and learns from it. No Child Left Behind laws command that teachers teach kids to take tests and memorize answers, but they are not being taught to think and act responsibly. It’s up to the school and teachers to take care of them, as if they were infants, or out come the lawyers.
The Color of Lila
January 31, 2013
Dang, Lauren, way to push my buttons!! I totally agree! In the past decade or so, I have seen young people coming into the work force with no clue about much of anything – and these are college grads! No surprise, since there has been plenty of press about kids going off to college ignorant of such basics as how to operate a laundry machine.
In some college anthropology class back in the Olden Days, we noted that toddlers in stone-age societies in Australia, Papua New Guinea, the Amazon etc, were routinely allowed to play with knives and fire. They very rarely injured themselves even at ages two or three. We do the opposite, make a big deal out of everything, don’t let our kids get any experience at all, and then they have to START growing up at age 18 or 22 when they finally leave home.
Or they join the growing ranks of 30-year-old adolescents in their parents’ basements.
odetolamode
January 31, 2013
I’m in high school now and, honestly, I have no idea what could happen. We had a lockdown in middle school (I go to the same school now as I did then) when an armed man ran across campus–definitley a good enough reason. But if there was someone trying to hurt us, nothing was stopping him from going into the building where we were. It’s a pretty scary thought. I guess that veers off what you were saying, but I also agree with your point. I can’t imagine all the fear the younger kids go through just because another kid brought a thermometer. A thermometer?? That teaches them to be scared of everything. What is going to happen when these kids go out of school and see that a broken thermometer is the least of their problems? What if it’s a REAL gun? I just can’t imagine seeing every little thing as a danger–it’s no way to live a fulfilling life.
Notes To Ponder
February 1, 2013
This Canadian worries about the level of paranoia and stress placed on American children. The only thing my children had to fret about in school were earthquake drills. Somebody needs to put the brakes on this run away train.
aket95
February 1, 2013
You’ve opened my eyes to the irrational fear in the world nowadays! I can’t believe what’s happening, it’s absolutely ridiculous,especially ridiculous that authorities would shut a school down because some kid brought into school a mercury thermometer. I am curious to know where these lockdowns are happening. Am I right in saying you’re talking about America? (I would like it if you could get back to me on this.) Also I wanted to say congrats on being Freshly Pressed, I hope for the same to happen to me some day. I am a KEGS student in Chelmsford, UK and I’m pretty sure my school will never shut. Even in the winter of 2011 when all literally all the schools in Essex (maybe even South East England) were shut, we were one of the few schools left open.
The Color of Lila
February 1, 2013
The lockdowns seem to be happening just about everywhere in America. The thermometer lockdown was in Florida.
Some teachers have commented on this article. One says she has been through many lockdowns for various reasons, and they are no big deal; lock the door and continue to teach. Another disagrees, saying they are scary and make kids fearful. A third says her school practiced lockdowns, which meant locking the door and getting under the desks (like the old Cold War drills!).
It seems that there are a lot of different definitions and practices, but I think in all cases it must be disruptive, distracting, and fear-inducing. If nothing else, it cannot avoid sending the message that “bad people want to kill you,” because that is exactly why they started having lockdowns.
In the old days, all we did was one or two fire drills per year, and if someone called in a bomb threat, then the fire alarm would sound and we would evacuate the same way, stand around while the police searched the school, then go back to class. No one offered us counseling, the school did not shut down, we did not weep and wail and curl up in a fetal position.
I think what we are doing today, running around with our hair on fire over every LITTLE thing, will end up warping the kids’ sense of life’s hazards in general.
aket95
February 1, 2013
Completely agree! You’re a great blogger. I’m pleased you’ve responded, I wouldn’t have thought that a blogger with so many hits would care enough to write such a detailed response to a nobody like me. Thanks!
I would also appreciate it if you could check my blog out at: http://internationaleconomicmatters.wordpress.com
The Color of Lila
February 1, 2013
Great blog, I will be back to check out your articles!
wildstar84
February 2, 2013
Lockdowns – (that’s what they do in PRISONS) – just conditioning the sheeple at an early age to accept a police state.
Lisa Marie
February 2, 2013
I agree with this article however I can also see the need for school lockdowns in the event of real threats like a gunman on campus. Calling a hazmat team for a glass thermometer though, is extremely over the top. Kids today are over-protected in some respects, but they also have more danger around them than previous generations ever did. Drugs, gangs, increased abductions, sexual abuse, domestic violence, cyber bullying, increased access to guns, anger issues, and emotional problems. Kids are essentially raising themselves and living in single parent, step-parent households or in foster care. They are more lost then ever. More and more kids have diagnosed and undiagnosed mental illnesses such as depression, bipolar, ADD, ADHD, defiant disorder,antisocial personality disorder, etc) As a result of all these factors, there has been an increased violence in schools and increased criminal activity. There is great pressure on schools to take more precautions as a result.of school violence and things have swung to the other extreme. A balance needs to be achieved for sure, as well as individual and community responsibility since this is a societal problem.
I’m not sure what the solution is for all this, but unfortunately we live in a fear-based society and these school lockdowns are the end result. .
The Color of Lila
February 2, 2013
Lisa Marie, first, I am SO glad not to be a kid these days. Your post hits a lot of points that I wonder about.
As far as some things, like abductions, I am not so sure that they are increasing, or if they might just be more publicized. Back to my junior high school years, I recall my Dad worrying a bit due to the news of the abduction of Katherine and Sheila Lyon, age 10 and 12, about my age at the time and not far from where we lived at the time. http://www.wusa9.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=98861 They were certainly not unique, but it wasn’t until later cases (Adam Walsh – 1981, Etan Patz – 1979) that we started to really see the media frenzy that changed our thinking.
Drugs, domestic violence, and anger/emotional problems were certainly around during my childhood years too. I expect sexual abuse was as well, but not talked about. Remember, Betty Ford was hailed as courageous for daring to put her human face on breast cancer; if we couldn’t talk about breast cancer, we SURE couldn’t talk publicly about sexual abuse in those days.
I do agree with you that all kinds of illnesses and disorders are shockingly on the rise. Some is definitely just over-diagnosis but what can explain the higher rates of obvious, measurable things like allergy, asthma, autism? Huge percentages of children are now on chronic medications. Why? Something is definitely wrong, and it’s not just cultural or media- driven.
Lauren Davis-Todd
February 4, 2013
An important thing to recognize with regard to the ADHD kids and those with other impulsive, antisocial disorders, is if they are not receiving appropriate intervention while they are in grade school, they are quite likely to act up, be noisy, not follow directions and put everyone around them in jeopardy if there is a reason for a lockdown.
kodonivan
February 2, 2013
I am a parent and I also work in a school…and I completely agree with you.
lythya
February 4, 2013
SO true.
eunoic
February 6, 2013
Couldn’t agree more. I do think that schools should have well practiced system in place for emergencies but I guess the protocol for what is an actual lock-down situation has been skewed. This fear is most definitely a symptom of the recent school shootings and an attempt by administrations to prevent them at all costs. It’s admirable and well-intentioned but proving ineffective in these cases. Great post!
crispyindeed
February 7, 2013
Excellent post.
damagodiva
February 8, 2013
Great blog!
Our society has been turned into hysteria because of the media. It is ridiculous that a school would shut-down for a Nerf gun but what bewilders me is that a school would be shut-down because of a mercury thermometer. That is over reacting at the fullest.
The Color of Lila
February 8, 2013
DamaGodiva, I agree that the media really feeds the frenzy but I wish that the public would show a little more common sense too. That also goes for the related post on over-using the word “terrorist” even to describe children just being children. The adults of America need to get a friggin’ grip and quit running to the SWAT team for for every little hiccup.
ericksongibbie2016
February 8, 2013
U Bette go to ur class and lock the door.
dave w
February 9, 2013
I hate to think what current school administrators would have done 30years ago when i started school. Everything we did would have gotten us expelled. No playing war, or even star wars with finger guns.Half the stuff we brought in for show and tell would get the school closed for a week. But the real question is, who are these morons in charge and how did they get jobs in the first place?
looseningapronstrings
February 10, 2013
Good post. It is a scary tightrope that we have to walk to ensure our children are safe but not traumatized by overreacting to everything.
DouglasMB
February 12, 2013
great write!
hrosez
February 19, 2013
I’m also have the same opinion that all this over protection is quite silly. Honestly, I walked to school in downtown Albuquerque, NM (in the states) when I was a kid. I drank out of the hoses, and I was gone from dawn til dusk. I was home when the street lights came on… and I’m ok.. for the most part. ;) I think we overreact quite a bit, and that’s why the media gets all up that business when there actually is an incident. Then they point fingers at ‘not enough security’… things are going to happen. That’s the sad fact. Protection is necessary, but we don’t need it shoved down our throats, do we?
aviets
February 28, 2013
I’m a former teacher, have three kids in school, and my husband still teaches. I’m extremely anti-gun and I was just as saddened by recent school shootings as anyone. But I think the measures schools are suddenly taking to “prevent school shootings” are pointless. Kids are exponentially more likely to be shot accidentally in their own homes than to be in an incident at school. Recent school shootings do not increase the likelihood that my child in my neighborhood school will be involved in one. Thanks for being a voice of reason.