What do you know about school lock-downs?
Posted March 19th, 2008 by RonPauler
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I hear on the radio occasionally that such and such school is locked down because somebody ran from police at a traffic stop or something. I saw a snippet from a Disney Channel show that, during a lock down, the kids are confined to rooms. It always terrifies me, not for the idea that someone trying to flee a warrant is going to head for the nearest school with a gun, but for all those kids who are being traumatized by the idea that, the moment something goes down in their neighborhood, they are in such mortal danger that it's okay for the government to kidnap them and keep them from fleeing danger.
I remember a photo that was released years back of one of those police dog searches of a school. They had middle schoolers cowering along the sides of corridors as police marched vicious-looking dogs past them. It's not that the government doesn't have the authority to still do stuff like this, but they seem to be backing off on some of those Kodak moments and then picking their battles to acclimate us to outrages.
Has anyone had their children subjected to one of these government kidnappings? I mean, lock-downs? What happens? What are the kids told? Are parents allowed to pick up their own children at that point to protect them from whatever danger is being postulated?
I actually intend to homeschool, but I've been considering pre-school as an alternative to playdates. Does anyone know if private pre-schools are subject to these lockdowns? Would pre-schoolers even know anything's going on? I'm not considering the likelihood of a gunman roaming the halls of a pre-school as a reason not to take my child. If there was a likelihood, I'd be more disturbed by the idea that I wouldn't be able to go on the property myself and rescue my own child. I'm mostly concerned that my child would be traumatized by a lockdown. If the child were to be partially acclimated to the police state by the experience, would I be able to reverse the damage?
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My kids were in a lockdown
last school year, due to some genius robbing a Starbucks down the street...
I lived right across the street, and went to the school when I heard about it. There was nothing untoward-- they had staff outside the building talking to parents, they had the children just inside the school, in the lobby area. Since I volunteered nearly every day there, the teachers knew who I was and sent my kids out to me immediately.
We live in scary times, I was glad they kept the kids in....it's when they don't give you access to your child that things go to an unacceptable level.
We haved since moved, and homeschool now, so it's not an issue anymore.... :D
My son goes to Middle School
And they have locked down the school on quite a few occasions. One time a kid from the neighboring high school was running around with a gun, and eventually shot himself in the head. It is scary for the kids, I know when my son was in elementary school it scared him more, now he is used to it.
Previously known as DCALIFANO
Being that im 20...i
Being that im 20...i remember lockdowns. Mainly when some D-Bag Leaves a "Bomb-Threat" in the bathroom. They would make some silly anouncment over the PA like "ATTN: Teachers the Red Construction Paper is now in the teachers lounge" or "ATTN:Lacross Practice is now cancelled." (our school had no lacross team and we knew it) Then the teacher would go lock the doors and direct us up against the wall away from the windows. If you looked out you could see search dogs roaming and them checking lockers. It never really tramatized me. I never really was scarred of Terrorists...and i knew that some idiot probably just left a note so they wouldnt have to go to class. Some people got scarred...i dont know if its conditioning or caution. It never bothered me.
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my 2 cents on this....
First off...I have 4 kids of various ages. I am speaking from first hand experience not hearsay.
In the begining of the school year papers were sent home for parents to sign. I am a firm believer in READING completely before signing. (wish congress did that) Anyway, one of the forms we got explained policies on school lockers and the right of the school to search them.....hmmm...ok, no problem there, the lockers after all ARE school property lent to my child. In that same packet it goes on to say if anything IS found in my child's locker or if there is reason to believe that my child might have contraband on their person it is the right of the school to search my child....hmmm...wanna pat my child down...well, ok I guess...BUT here is where they lost me. If they feel that my child could possibly be hiding contraband inside their body the school can take my child to a private room and as long as there is a witness of the same sex as my child present, they can do a cavity search on my child. Oh, and I do not have to be present, and as long as they notify me of this happening before the end of the school day...we're fine. WHAT????? My child is 11yrs. old. And I'm sorry, but you are not doing a cavity search on her unless I'm sitting right there. So...we modified the text on the packet to reflect this and then signed it. (also made copies! Which I still have incase anyone here doesn't believe me, I can show you) The school Principle wound up calling us and trying for 30 mins to get us to sign new papers without the modification, saying that they would never do that to a middle schooler and that it was really for high schoolers. My reply was that it wouldn't have been written in there if they didn't want the option or he wouldn't be calling me because I modified it. He let it go, however I have been butting heads with the school about other issues ever since. Guess my child is blacklisted now. In that packet it also states that once you put the school in guardianship of your child during the day they can take any actions they deem appropriate for their safety, including removing them from the property without your knowledge. And yes, our schools participate in lock-downs.
Currently I'm looking up homeschooling options.
Of the 73.7 Million kids in the US, 800,000 go missing each year
This is children under 18 (how many are a run away, how many are taken by ex-husbands or wives)
This is 1%
I believe that it is the intention of the Socialist/Communists/Elite to have us so scared we have our children over protected.
How many kids still play outside after school? Kickball in the street? Ride their bikes around the block? What do they do?
They come home and sit in front of the TV watching propaganda, MTV Video's, or play horrible video games.
Who will be the first to be micro-chipped? Why? How scared are you, how bad do you want to protect your children? How far will you go?
Government Schools have been prisons for some time
"Lock Down" is a prison term, after all. How appropriate that it has entered the main stream lexicon.
After columbine US schoolers
After columbine US schoolers turned into prisons.
I remember my high school went to a "all doors locked at all times" policy.
No backpack in the hallways, no jackets or baggy sweatshirts, no chains on clothing, and they kicked the rifle team out of the school, and most shocking a NYS trooper armed and in the school at all times.
And this was in one of the safest least-eventful schools imaginable.
I went to a parochial school
where the boys brought their guns to school to learn how to clean them properly. It was a safety issue, too. A dirty gun or improper cleaning technique are unsafe. I bet it's hard for people who have been to schools more recently to picture such a thing happening, even picturing it in the past.
After his academics, and chores, my 13 year old
cleans the gun, loads it, and does target practice, on the days he is not practicing football. Of course we are homeschooled..........He works for his dad once in a while, and is now putting his money towards silver, instead of junk food, and football cards. Hmmmm, finally seeing some rewards of teaching at home....
I just graduated from high
I just graduated from high school and they did it every year I was in school from 7th grade to Senior year. Basically you are locked in your classroom and not allowed to leave the room. They then sniff all the lockers and stand everyone up next to their lockers while they search them. It's very degrading, especially when they find ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, which is quite often. However, they focus on the four kids or so that brought those dangerous cigarettes into school.
What do you expect?
The schools are just covering their A's.
After you drop them off, the kids are the schools responsibility.
If anything goes wrong you will blame them.
Imagine you go to the school after an incident to pick up your kid and they say "Billy? We don't know where he is, all the students just ran off!"
Or, "Billy? He ran out in the street and was run down by a frenzied parent looking for their own child."
Or, "Billy? He ran down the hall towards the shooter and..."
Or the Police show up and hundreds of kids and hundreds of parents are running around looking for each other in mass chaos, as the perp blends in and slips away for another day.
Like you all say, If you don't like it, don't send them.
If you do send them, deal with it.
although i get your point
what concerns me is the intent behind the option,,,,i know these actions are most often without true concern for the children
These are our schools!
The problem I see is that the schools are beginning to use these lockdowns as a reason to search and condition the kids for a Police State. Also remember, when you take away adults right to bear arms in any institution, the only option left for security is total Police State control. Metal detectors, searches, lockdowns, barbed fencing and cameras are just the beginning.
Your comment "If you don't like it, don't send them" is really not the answer. We tend to forget that these are *our* schools. We have been conditioned to believe that the Government is some separate entity that is all powerful and if we don't like something, we just need to tuck our tails and run.
That being said, I think homeschooling is very rewarding and has much more to offer than any public or private school. This has been true even before the lockdowns.
A
A police state ? ROFL
Every man for himself
is way better than creating a scenario where the shooter gets to figure out room by room the most efficient way of taking everyone out.
Anyway, an actual shooter in a building is almost never going to be the reason for a lockdown.
One lockdown I heard of on the radio was someone who refused to come out of their house, the police thought he might have a gun and surrounded the house. They shut down 2 schools in the middle of the school day. I guarantee you no kid in either school was in danger of wandering onto the street in question and catching a stray bullet. How close to the scene could BOTH schools have been? Why not just lock down every building that has people in it if that's the reasoning?
We all know lockdowns have nothing to do with maximizing the survivability of a worst case scenario.
because
When you leave your kids at school you trust them to keep them safe...grown ups take that responsibility seriously....better safe than one dead child
Safest Place is Home
Pull your kids out of the government indoctrination centers ASAP and homeschool. Period. They can also whisk them away to unknown locations for their safety and you may never see them again. It's not worth it, is it? Don't say, "nobody told me". Just do it.
never
never see them again, that's ridiculous
Now I'm thinking you don't have children...
your answers are too pat
3
3 kids, 6 grand kids....who the hell is going to "wisk them away so I'll never see them again"..that's absurd
Social Services
Though, you might see them, if The State is so inclined - under supervision, of course. You didn't think they were YOUR kids, did ya?
Teach them to
do whatever a government representative tells them to and you know they at least won't get shot or chased down by dogs for refusing to get in the cattle car.
100% Betterhalf
100% Betterhalf
Private Montessori is an Option
I have researched many alternatives for my kids education and made the decision to enroll them in a private Montessori school. The children start when they're three years old, and generally progress through the public school equivalent of "6th grade" (whatever that means).
The Montessori method focuses on each child as an individual, and also incorporates basic "life skills" such as personal hygiene, simple cooking, sewing, and many other things which makes the kids very self-reliant. I can't begin to explain the difference that makes.
We are very pleased at this point, and the fact that you pay for the school directly (as a customer) means the teachers are very responsive.
Prior to enrolling my children, I checked out Maria Montessori's book, "The Montessori Method," from the local library and I was immediately sold on her approach.
As a freedom-loving individual, I can attest that the method fits in perfectly with the philosophy and perspective of individual human liberty.
"Aristotle in philosophy, von Mises in economics, Montessori in education, and Hugo in literature."
All the best,
LF
The Mother-in-law offered to pay for that!
Seriously, it is way expensive as you know. I consider myself an "attachment parent" and Montessori comes to a few different conclusions than that philosophy, but, starting with basic assumptions that take the dignity of the child into account, who could really go wrong?
I'll remember to ask at our tour next week about lockdowns. I'll ask all innocent - like "what is a lockdown? I heard about them on the radio" - since I'm sure I could get knocked off the waiting list if I'm perceived as difficult,; which I am ;). I'm worried it might be something imposed on schools by outside authorities and not something they could take or leave if they don't think it's good for their bottom line.
Whatever You Would Sacrifice for Yourself
sacrifice 10 times as much for your kids...
It is expensive, but most of the private schools have tuition assistance and other flexible payment options. Please note that I am not talking about "Public Montessori" or "Magnet Schools" or any of the other government school "reform" programs, but a true privately-owned-and-operated Montessori program.
Also, as far as lockdowns and other creepy police state tactics, I did check into it, and here in my state our school is not required to participate in the standardized B.S. of the public schools. Additionally, my kids will not have to take any of the standardized state exams. If they did, I never would have enrolled them.
That said, I will be home-schooling our children once they have completed this portion of their education.
As a matter of personal philosophy and common sense, I believe that children are naturally "wired" to learn. If fact, it takes a great deal of effort to interfere with their natural curiosity. So whatever option you choose, you can't go wrong.
I hope you may find the following links useful in your search.
Alliance for the Seperation of School and State:
http://www.schoolandstate...
The Robinson Self-teaching Curriculum:
http://www.robinsoncurric...
Gary North Video Introduction - An Educational Strategy (A Must Watch):
http://youtube.com/watch?...
Gary North, "Fast Tracking" a College Degree
http://www.lowestcostcoll...
Good luck,
-LF
My mom helped pay for Montessori
my daughter loved it....learned about gardening and so many other things left out of public school. She actually enjoyed the learning process. All kids are different and you need to find out what works best for your child. All my kids are different--one liked Montessori and is now home-schooled, one graduated public school & is now in college ( she spent a semester doing home-schooling and wanted to go back to public school) another is in Catholic School.
Lockdown My Ass
I taught my kids that if they ever hear that their school is going into lockdown due to a gunman in the school to get out as soon as they can and pull the fire alarm on the way out to create confusion for the gunman. A crazed gunman wants total control and locking down kids to be hunted down like cowering dogs will make it easier for him. Additionally I told them if a gunman ever comes into their class room and starts shooting to attack him with anything possible and enlist the help of teachers and other students. No one dies instantly from being shot, especially if the targets are moving. If you read carefully in many of these cases there is multiple victims of the gunmen with far less fatalities then those actually shot. Refuse to be a victim!
They're such a joke
really we practice them at my school once or twice a term, and no one really takes them seriously, except a few teachers. What happens is the teachers lock all the doors shut off the lights, occasionally tell the class to be quite and hang a green safe sign in the window. The class is told to stay away from the door/window and we sit there waiting for the all clear. What the students, or at least my friends and I, do most of the time is talk about what we'd do if there really was a situation. Our solutions usually revolve around improvised weaponry, the spear end of a flag-pole or a rim stand from chemistry, or escape, depending on if we're in a room with windows or not. The one thing I do know is that if there really was a situation the last thing we'd want to do would be to sit there locked in with green "we're in here" signs hanging on the windows.
Looking back it reminds me of the civil defense drills from the 50's and 60's where students where instructed to take cover under a desk in case of a nuclear bomb..
yeah,
get out. Throw a desk, a chair, or your cowering teacher through the window and get out. I don't care if you are on a second or third story, jump out the window. The broken leg(s) will heal. If you are in a room without a window, leave the room, and run towards an exit away from the sound of the gunfire. If your teacher tries to stop you, punch him or her in the face, despite the consequences you may incur from such action, and run like hell.
To turn off the lights and have students hide under their desks is madness, and is only going to get more people killed. Trying to fight off an armed assailant with a homemade spear is akin to bringing a knife to a gunfight. You will loose. If this situation ever presents itself, your best chance for survival is to run.
Obviously
Obviously escape is the best option but sometimes that's just not going to work. And any attack attempt is obviously going to have to be an ambush as they walk in the door or else there's really no chance.
homeschooling FTW
Razorwind Studios is an official endorser of Ron Paul, and we will live free or die! 14th alternate to MN state!
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I was actually homeschooled for a good chunk of my life. For most of 3rd grade, and then half day for 6th and 7th, then a private school for 8th, 9th, and 10th.
My parents are both extremely intelligent people, and I have gained a lot of their wisdom. I always question authority. I always ask, "Why?" I always look for every loophole in rules, and I always look below the surface. I try to come up with a counter plan for every stupid thing I am presented with(i.e. lockdowns and the sheer stupidity of them).
My wife worked with "learning challenged" children
in one of the local school districts north of Houston. When a lockdown is declared, as part of some potential emergency condition (other than a fire or condition that requires evacuation), the response is, as the phrase indicates, part of a general securing of each individual room and the people currently in those rooms, until such time as an all-clear signal is transmitted over the system wide intercom or advised by one of the on-site school officials or a member of law enforcement.
I read the article regarding the California ruling. It is distressing to see how the U.S. Supreme Court's holding in 1972 (Wisconsin v Yoder) has been weakened to a point where the California court would issue a ruling in direct contrast to it. During the period when I was homeschooling, there were classes (biology, chemistry, physics and some other technical courses) that we sent our son to and other periodic review classes, for some of the humanities, that were established in order to evaluate our performance in teaching those subjects as well as his relative comprehension of them. They were held in various rooms of churches, during the week, and taught by various high school and college teachers who were retired. The actual cost of enrollment was quite low and, as it turned out, when our son enrolled in similar courses in college, he found that he was just re-doing the same work that he had completed during his home-schooling for high school. Look around your area for home-school associations. You should find plenty of sources on the internet. For a relatively small membership fee, they can provide a wealth of information and assistance (even legal assistance) when it comes to home schooling and the law. Most people are under the impression that the home-schooling crowd is limited to some right-wing evangelical crowd. Few things could be further from the truth. As far as the socialization aspects go, there are so many of those opportunities available to home-schoolers that you will most likely have to forego participation in most of them. It is interesting to note that, of the public school teachers with whom my wife worked, about half of them were teaching in order to make enough money to pay for their own child's tuition in a private school.
Thanks for the tip,
I think I'll look for a local homeschool group.
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The lesser of two evils is still evil!
Good luck to you
Disa.
My son goes to a catholic
My son goes to a catholic school here in albuquerque, they had a lock down about a month ago. the kids could not leave the classroom until the inccedent was cleared by the local police dept. they were told prior to the new lock down status that if they needed the restroom to use the trash cans. i heard they were chasing someone near by. they use this as often as they practice fire drills. they want your children to think its ok to be locked down when a bad guy is out. theyre just training our children for what is to come. just like in v for vendetta pretty soon will all be on lock down every time there is a "terrorist" attack. ive heard of about 4 of these so far around the city. at first the papers treated it as something new but now its routine.
Thats not all...
My daughter came home from school telling me about having to be locked in a room... I started asking questions and it would seem they are some sort of terror drills. The kids have to be really quiet and they are 'hiding from bad guys' or something to that effect. She told me she was priased for being the quietest and one little boy was so scared he was crying! My oldest son started school the year the towers went down, two schools and seven years later I find out he's been doing this his whole school life! I thought it was interesting that I'd never heard of these drills before because I get notes explaining the reasons and frequencey of fire drill and tornado drills. None dare call it conditioning?! That's exactly what I'd call it!
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The lesser of two evils is still evil!
This sums it up.....
my favorite quote from the article:
"A primary purpose of the educational system is to train school children in good citizenship, patriotism and loyalty to the state and the nation as a means of protecting the public welfare," the judge wrote, quoting from a 1961 case on a similar issue.
If you didn't read the article I have added the link....
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi...
What you describe is...
the true purpose of federally controlled government education. For goodness sake, parents take your children's schools back.
These schools indoctrinate children to OBEY THE STATE. And facilitate the destruction of families. When I was a child in school I was taught the EVIL Communist wanted to destroy the family unit to strengthen THE STATE. Wake up America!
A lost cause....
I sadly, but sincerely believe it is too late to really "take the schools back." Besides that, it has become a government training ground and is a part of mans system.
If you are a christian, you come to realize you do not want your children to be a part of that system of indoctrination!! People scream separation of church and state. As far as I'm concerned, my family and I are "the church" and they can keep their darn schools!!!
None Dare Call It
Conditioning.
Live Free Or Die
It is conditioning....I dare! :O)
Remember the old films you watched about not jumping around or playing near a bus after you got off. That little kid got squished and pretend blood went everywhere. That is conditioning I can live with, this crap is crazy. Train your kids to think there are terrorist around every corner and under your bed. Thank God we have parents, at least for now.
As a 2007 high school graduate
Razorwind Studios is an official endorser of Ron Paul, and we will live free or die! 14th alternate to MN state!
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of a minnesota public school, I can give you some insight on what goes on.
When a lock down is issued, we are told to go into the nearest room, and have the door locked. We are told to stay as far away from the door as possible. We are not allowed to leave the room until a note is passed under the door by a police officer.
For "safety reasons", parents are not allowed to attempt to pick up their children as this would make it extremely difficult for law enforcement to get into the school.
There are a few holes in the whole system:
1) a lockdown is called over the PA system. If the bad guy takes out the PA system, the lockdown can't be issued.
2) Bullets are REALLY STRONG! I have no doubt that they could easily punch through the thin walls.
3) Lockdowns don't teach kids to fight back. They teach kids how to cower in fear and succumb to the will of whoever has power.
In a really gruesome case, there is no doubt that the shooter is going to be going for kills, not hostages. That is why it is important for everyone to know how to fight back. Think about all of the sharp, pointy, and heavy items that you have in schools. Pencils, pens, scissors, books, rulers, calculators, notebooks, etc. People are going to die anyways, so don't go down without a fight!
Thanks for that insight
Do you think pre-schoolers would even know any of this is going on?
I'm basing my concerns, not on the likelihood a gunman is really in the school, but on the far more likely scenario that there is no real danger in the neighborhood and the kids are going to just be forced to go through the motions of one of these scenarios.
I've seen older people cringe when reminded of that old scenario of hiding under your desk from a nuclear blast. Re-enacting a worst case scenario seems pretty similar to me except that those older people were being lied to to let them think there was something they could do personally. The lie seems to be the opposite of that this time -that there's nothing they can do but wait to die or be rescued. Anything someone cringes at when they're older amounts to something I'd rather spare my kids from experiencing.
I'm 40--does that make me older? haha
I remember all too well having to hide under the desk in school. Today I can laugh about it. At the time it scared me to death--always thinking we were all going to die and all I could do about it was wait, hide and hope. As an aside, I am in Florida and they also would show us films about the Bermuda Triangle and how everyone seemed to just disappear. That scared the crap out of us kids too. Never really understood the point of it although I am sure they had one.
they are stupid
Fortune Favors the Bold
at my old high school (before i started homeschooling)
the procedure was, over the PA, an announcement would be made that the visitor from the redwood school district was in the building. This was the code to have all the teachers lock the kids in the classroom. Of course, since most school shooters are students, the shooter wouldm know the "secret code." Secondly, all the kids would be locked in rooms, making easy targets. This was the brilliant scheme the school board, or possibly the state, came up with.
Legally...
Schools are the same as prisons. Student have no rights there. Period.
This is well established law. Don't like it? Don't send your kids there. Period.
All I'll say is this.
My children have fully functional brains, and I encourage them to use them. Teaching your child judgement is to teach your child NOT to obey ANYTHING blindly.
Teach your kids to question authority. If you don't, the 'authorities' will most certainly teach them to be be blindly obedient.
I second that.
It is what I preach constantly around here. I guarantee I unravel 100% of the garbage that my kids get fed. It's my job as a parent.
No
No one kidnaps them, that's ridiculous..If it's during regular school hours the kids often don't even know..Do you want your kids standing at a bus stop while a fugitive is on the loose and possibly a high speed chase is in progress ? Man, talk about paranoid !