Ever been in a school lockdown?

Hello everyone!!!

I'm sorry if this is posted in the wrong area, please move if it is, but I was wondering if anyone has ever been at school where they were in a lockdown? I have, four times. But the one in my freshmen year was the worse. The rest were drug related or bank robbery related.

Once was my freshmen year of high school. The kid was OBSESSED with Eric and Dylan. He had their pictures on his phone lock screen, trench coat, loved the same music, etc. He even told some of us that he strives to do what they did. Anyway, he told one of us friends he was planning on doing something April 20th,(told his friend this on April 18th) and he told the cops, and we had to go on lockdown. It was a very scary experience, because at the time my class was in the library/computer lab, which has a bunch of windows and the doors don't lock. We were on lockdown for a while, but nothing happened.

The second scary one was that two prisoners escaped from prison, and they crashed their car out in front of the school and kept threatening on going into kill all of us. So, that was scary, too.


Anyway, that's my experiences. What are some of y'all's experiences?


(Again, sorry if this is in the wrong place)

I've never been in a real school lock down, but I've been in a rehearsal for one and that was kind of scary.
My mother was a teacher, shortly after 4/20 the school she worked at developed a school shooter protocol. The teachers were required to practice the protocol during the teacher planning week before school starts.

I was young and had no babysitter so I had to stay with my mom while she worked. So the practice went like this. The principal announced a code over the sound system. Then my mom went and locked the door and turned out the lights. It was completely dark and we had to be quiet and hide. The librarian played the role of school shooter. She walked around the school and tried to get into rooms.

I knew it was all just pretend, but it still freaked me out

I've been in several lockdowns, usually over kids making threats as a joke, so they were never really scary.

My high school would never tell us why we were in lockdown or even if it was a real lockdown or a drill, which resulted in none of us being afraid ever. The weirdest lockdown we had we were in the activity center for some reason and they ended up having us all sitting in rooms like under/behind the gym where I'd never been before, so that was kind of exciting I guess. Never found out what we were in lockdown over.

I work at a school now and earlier this year we did active shooter training where they shot us with pellet guns while we hid under tables. Even though it wasn't real it was kind of scary, just sitting there in the dark waiting to get shot. They were trying to show us why hiding under a table doing nothing is not the best thing to do. After that they had us barricade the doors and counterattack against the shooter, it was a lot less scary.

Never been in a lockdown, they didn't have those when I was a student and I doubt they have them today. My country didn't really have an active shooter case since the early 1920s.

ellie z wrote:

After that they had us barricade the doors and counterattack against the shooter, it was a lot less scary.

Oh that's interesting. What's the procedure now? Are you told to try to jump the shooters once they come into the classroom? How does that work?

I'm relaly curious, as while I don't expect anyone to make an office rampage in my place... well you never know.

Sabratha wrote:

Oh that's interesting. What's the procedure now? Are you told to try to jump the shooters once they come into the classroom? How does that work?

I'm relaly curious, as while I don't expect anyone to make an office rampage in my place... well you never know.

Ideally instead of a lockdown we would evacuate. The procedure used to be to lock down and stay down, it is now evacuate if possible.

If evacuating isn't possible to do safely, we are supposed to lock and barricade the doors and arm ourselves with anything available - books, scissors, fire extinguisher, whatever. The barricading will hopefully keep the shooter out, but if not you throw/hit/spray the shooter with anything within reach in an effort to distract, disable, or at the very least lower shooting accuracy.

And if it comes down to it and we are trapped in a room with a shooter with no way out, yes we jump the shooter and attempt to disarm them.

It was stressed that we can't shoot the shooter once they are disarmed.

Basically they are trying to avoid situations like Columbine where everyone has been trained to stay put and wait to get shot. They are focusing less on specific prodedures and telling us to get out, fight back, do anything to survive.

In the training situation it went well and was empowering. Not sure how it would work real life, but honestly it has to be better than "hide and pray," which was basically what we were supposed to do before.

The program is called ALICE active shooter training if anyone is interested in reading more about it.

Well, makes a lot of sence if you have an active lone shooter who is trying to get the most kills (Think Cho/Lanza). Then yeah
1) run away from the sounds of the gunfire as fas as possible if you are outside/have a clear line of escape
2) lock yourselves in the room if you are inside and the shooter is somewhere in the hallways etc.
3) if he goes in, jump him all at once with everything you have, bit hgim, throw a chair at him, gouge his eyes out with a pen while another kid bites the bullet - anything.

That'd be my advice. If you have multiple shooters like chs, things get tricky.

Yeah, for a bomb threat. I was in 7th grade. It was an empty one, though. Some angry student spray painted that he was going to bring a bomb into the school that day. I remember they had bomb sniffing puppies there too.

4everxbox wrote:

Hello everyone!!!

I'm sorry if this is posted in the wrong area, please move if it is, but I was wondering if anyone has ever been at school where they were in a lockdown? I have, four times. But the one in my freshmen year was the worse. The rest were drug related or bank robbery related.

Once was my freshmen year of high school. The kid was OBSESSED with Eric and Dylan.

The second scary one was that two prisoners escaped from prison, and they crashed their car out in front of the school and kept threatening on going into kill all of us. So, that was scary, too.

Can I ask what state (or country if not the U.S.) do you live in?

Usually just rehearsals, but in my senior year there was a shooter outside the school and instead of "cod red" being announced, we heard "intruder alert" to signal everyone to go hide. Nothing major happened or anything, but it was very scary.

Oh yeah we did have a bomb threat, but its not a lockdown here. Here a bomb threat is an evacuation, entirely diff procedure.

John Denver wrote:

4everxbox wrote:

Hello everyone!!!

I'm sorry if this is posted in the wrong area, please move if it is, but I was wondering if anyone has ever been at school where they were in a lockdown? I have, four times. But the one in my freshmen year was the worse. The rest were drug related or bank robbery related.

Once was my freshmen year of high school. The kid was OBSESSED with Eric and Dylan.

The second scary one was that two prisoners escaped from prison, and they crashed their car out in front of the school and kept threatening on going into kill all of us. So, that was scary, too.

Can I ask what state (or country if not the U.S.) do you live in?

I live in Georgia!

Nice answers, guys! I know lockdown can be very scary. Whenever we go on lockdown all I can think about is "what if it is a school shooting?"

I have never been in one, but then again in live in the UK and nothing much happens here ...

eli27 wrote:

I have never been in one, but then again in live in the UK and nothing much happens here ...

I'm in the UK too. I think we had one drill that was classed as a 'bomb drill' - it was exactly the same procedure as a routine fire drill - only we stood about 5 meters further away from the building in the school yard!

Edit to add - it was just after Manchester got bombed by ther IRA in 1996. My mum was actually on the bus on her way to Manchester that day to do some shopping. If I recall correctly I don't think there were any fatalities but plenty injured. My sister visited the twin towers the day before they were blown up too - a couple of lucky escapes for my family.

yes. They were all drills. The last one I had the class was allowed to watched videos on dangerous drivers from Poland.

I've never been in a lockdown due to an intruder. But my senior year (2011) a kid in the electrical class across the hall from where I was at the time electrocuted himself. They put the school in a lockdown so that kids in the hallways wouldn't hold up the paramedics when they were trying to get to him. All the kids from the class he was in had to come into the classroom I was in at the time. His heart did stop at one point, so he technically "died", but he did survive and make a full recovery.

At that same school, they had a lockdown the year before I went there because someone's idea of a funny senior prank was to scatter live ammunition throughout the halls. No one was actually hurt, and as far as I know there were no guns involved.

We also had several lockdown drills, but they were planned and everyone knew ahead of time.

Nah never nothing more than a drill. I did know a guy who went to another school (cousin of a friend) who was into making bombs. he showed me how to make a co2 bomb or "cricket" he ended up setting one of those off in the bathroom of his school as a prank. i know he was arrested but i don't know what eventually came of the situation.

Nope, would love to though, sounds exciting.