Lockdown drills are the norm in American schools. What does this mean for students?

Transcript:

Leila Fadel, BYLINE: Since the start of the new school year in this country, there have been more than 70 shootings on campuses – 70 in just over two months. That’s according to the K-12 School Shooting Database, which tracks these incidents. So here at Morning Edition, we’ve been thinking about the trauma caused by violence in a place that’s supposed to be safe: schools, but also about how we can prepare kids now for the day when it might happen to them. This includes parents on our show, like our editor Adam Bearne. His daughter came home from her first week of kindergarten and told him something she called a construction drill.

Clara: I don’t know why it’s called a construction drill because it’s really confusing.

Fadel: Clara was actually talking about the lockdown drill.

Clara: We had to be very quiet, hide under our little room, close the door, and then I was scared because I thought this was real.

FADEL: No, but her fear was. So we decided to take you, our listeners, into a school that, like many schools, tries to prepare children without making them feel that violence is inevitable.

Hello.

Amy Kujaski: Hello.

Fadel: I’m Laila.

Kujaski: Hi, Leila. Nice to meet you.

Fadel: Nice to meet you.

Kujaski: I’m Amy.

FADEL: That’s Amy Kujawski, the principal of St. Anthony Middle School, which she calls Sam’s Middle School. It is located in a suburb of Minneapolis. As you can hear, she has the energy of a remarkable middle school principal and is able to lead with such a positive attitude even when things may feel bleak.

KUJAWSKI: We will emphasize belonging, security, love, care and warmth.

FADEL: On this day, her school is undergoing the first of five state-mandated lockdown drills, the first since the mass shooting at nearby Annunciation Catholic School and Church.

How far is the Annunciation from here?

Kujaski: Oh, my God. Very close. Yes. I have nieces and nephews who work there and they have friends there. Yes. Yes.

FADEL: There are posters on the walls of Kujawski’s office with messages you might expect, like, Hate is loud; Love is strong. But there’s also a laminated sign with the school’s safety protocols, like signs for every room in the building.

Kujaski: Lockdown. Locks, lights, invisible.

Fadell: All kids know the language and what to do in a medical emergency or worse. In Katherine West’s classroom, teachers prepare 12- and 13-year-old students for lockdown drills.

Katherine West: We wanted to stay away from the window next to my desk. So if you can see that window, you’re in a bad spot and you should move closer this way. Yeah, I think you’re fine, Henry, because you can’t see the window from there. So I think it will be good. Yes. We just have to sit with this discomfort for a while.

FADEL: When it’s drill time, an announcement comes over the loudspeaker.

UNIDENTIFIED STAFF: Could you please pay attention? This is a lockdown exercise. Teachers, please make sure your students are in the classroom. This is a lockdown exercise. Thanks.

FADEL: The classroom is dark. The corridor was quiet.

Do you want to check every door to make sure it’s locked?

Kujaski: Yes. I also provide feedback to teachers if I can see or hear them.

FADEL: Principal Kujawski again. She doesn’t shake the doorknob too much, so the students don’t think there’s a real intruder. Back in West’s classroom, she quietly reassured her students.

West: They’re checking to see if our door is locked.

FADEL: After clearing the floor, Kujawski listens as other staff members inspect the rest of the school. Then she spoke into the intercom.

(SOUNDBITE OF INTERCOM BEEPING)

KUJAWSKI: Are we all clear? I guess we could call it that.

UNIDENTIFIED STAFF: Please note. Lockdown drill all clear. Lockdown drill all clear.

(crosstalk)

FADEL: The school got loud again and we chatted with a few students as everyone moved on to the next class.

Phoebe Strode: My name is Phoebe Strode and I am 12 years old.

RAEGAN DUNKLEY: Hello. My name is Raegan Dunkley (PhD) and I am 12 years old.

Fadel: Okay. Please describe to me what you just did during this lockdown exercise.

Phoebe: Well, we’ll go to a wall or a bookshelf or a space, and if someone comes in, they won’t be able to see you through a window or any space or anything like that.

FADEL: But does that make you feel like you’re ready?

Regan: Yes.

Fadel: Really?

Regan: Yes.

FADEL: Does that scare you? Or does it make you feel…

Regan: No, because – well, I mean, if this were a real-life situation, it would be absolutely horrific. But thankfully, there is a police station next to our school. So if there was a lockdown drill, the police would be here within minutes.

FADEL: So these workouts feel normal to you. They are just part of life. Fire drill…

Phoebe: Yes.

FADEL: …lockdown drill.

Phoebe: Yes. You start it in first grade or something because a kindergartener probably won’t enjoy dealing with it or anyone younger than that.

FADEL: Lockdown drills aren’t all the measures schools are taking to protect students. The classroom is locked during class. There is bulletproof film on the windows, and nearby police and fire departments are aware of the school’s safety regulations. West, that teacher you heard about before who was coaching her kids? Well, it bothered her that it was all so normal.

West: You hurt me at a very vulnerable moment because my brothers and sisters were sending all of their children to the Annunciation.

Fadel: Do they?

WEST: So they were all involved in the shooting there. My brother was there, and so was my brother-in-law—who happened to be attending mass that day. So six of my family members participated in a mass shooting this school year. And then the next week, I’m back here working.

FADEL: What was it like doing the lockdown drills afterwards, knowing…

WEST: To be honest, this is normal. You know, these drills are like the law requiring us to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. Like, this is what happened.

FADEL: West was a student teacher when Columbine happened 25 years ago, so she’s been teaching in an era of mass shootings in American schools.

West: We went through different waves in terms of how to respond and what the drills were. Of course, now I always think, well, shooters go through all this training.

Fadel: Oh.

WEST: So, I don’t even know, you know, how effective they’re going to be. They don’t shoot at us when we’re locked down in the classroom. When we went out for fire drills, they would shoot at us. The kids are all in the same place, and the teachers are all in the same place. I always think about, okay, how can I save the most lives in this situation, right? It’s crazy, it’s just part of the job. Like, that’s not why I got into teaching in the first place.

Fadel: Yes. What do you teach?

West: English.

(laughter)

West: I love reading and writing. I really don’t want to teach how to escape an active shooter in a school.

FADEL: Have your ideas changed in terms of preparing kids or how to…?

West: Yes. Over time, the drill changed. I worked at a school where they wouldn’t tell us if it was real or fake, which I thought was really cruel and unusual. So lockdown drills will happen and kids will ask, is this real? I’m like, I don’t know. Listen to the sirens.

Fadel: (Gasps).

WEST: Like, if we hear a siren, it’s real. If we don’t, then it’s not.

FADEL: Is there anything you want to say or talk about when it comes to preparing these kids or you do have to prepare them?

West: Well, I really hope the right people take action to stop this. I don’t think this is fair. As a school teacher who starts out making $30,000 a year, you know, and never makes more than $100,000 a year, it’s like, my job shouldn’t be to save your kid’s life. I know the statistics don’t prove it, but it feels like a “when” not a “if.” Like, if I’m lucky, no matter what happens in my 40-year career, I’ll be 24 years old. So, if I live to be 40 or whatever, I’ll be lucky if the shooting happens on the other side of the building instead of where I am.

(SOUNDBITE OF PHILIP GLASS AND PAUL LEONARD-Morgan’s “STORY CYCLE”)