Lockdown drill at daycare

[kmmr]

My DS is 3 and goes to a daycare which posts little updates online during the day about what they are doing. Yesterday we got one showing them doing a lock down drill.

Photos of the kids going to the store cupboard, and then hiding quietly until there was a knock on the door and they were allowed out. It was just, weird.

I'm very about it. I can see in theory it may be needed, but surely its more likely to just make them fearful of things that are so so very unlikely.

I've tried to hide my fear of spiders and generally not build phobias into my son, and I just feel this is a bit off. I don't know what they said to the kids and I don't want to ask my son so I won't know until next week.

Is it weird? Or am I over thinking it. I'm in Australia for full disclosure. No gun problem and in a secure building with card only access for parents.

thinking about it, we did have to have a lock down when 2 dogs were running loose just outside the school grounds. they had already ripped apart another dog and bit a person. The police asked our school to follow our lockdown procedure to keep the children safe. They also didn't want the children to witness the dogs getting shot.
I had completely forgotten about it as it was such a non event as we had practised regularly.

I wouldn’t bother talking to your DS about it given they haven’t raised it or indicated they are bothered. It will just make a big deal out of something that obviously isn’t a big deal when done at nursery.

I was however when my DS told me of their protocol at school. Door locked, blinds down. In junior years teacher and all kids under desks. In senior school, most kids under desks loosely arranged with boys at front, girls at back. Teacher is behind the door backed by several boys ready to engage in hand to hand combat with armed person if they get in. They have a baseball bat ready to strike as they come through, then the waves of boys (if physically able) must come from under desks to assist in subduing the intruder. Again, I was when I was told. Didn’t seem to bother DS at all, he didn’t think it in the least odd .

Given they have only ever had drills not actual incidents I don’t know how successful this approach would be.

To add, we are in what I would consider a pretty ‘safe’ country and an area of low risk.

The thing I really don’t understand is if you were determined to go shoot up a school instead of going in and starting and having a lockdown commenced, surely you would make a bomb threat. With bomb threats the school then moves out and gathers elsewhere (generally in the open) as a congregation. You would then shoot them like fish in a barrel surely? I’m thinking most school shooters must be a tad dense as well as psychotic.

Lock down drill at school for my DS. It was explained as being practice for a person or animal entering the school or for extreme weather. It was just a matter of "move away from the windows and sit quietly and calmly".

These drill are necessary and good practice like fire drills, the children need to know what to do if a situation did occur.

It’s really interesting, based on what a pp said I’m thinking of the number of times I’ve been in an emergency or genuine fire vs genuine lockdown.

Genuine fire. Never
Fire incident (burnt toast evacuation). Twice

Earthquake. Once (Not U.K., but a v earthquake prone area. Everyone was dead cool about it)

Genuine lockdown. Twice. Both times it was a disgruntled person, possibly armed and on the run from police.

My middle two kids did this at school this week. But it's always in the back of my mind that we don't live too far from Dunblane so better safe than sorry

One of the kids at school was expelled three weeks ago for an incident in class where he said to the teacher ‘what do I have to do to get attention round here? Shoot the place up?’

I’m afraid that is categorically not true. It would be impossible to expel a student for this.

Re the OP - lockdown is something we do at school, like fire drill. The kids at my school love it, because they are actively encouraged to go under the desks,get into cupboards etc. It’s enormously fun and not at all traumatising.

One of the kids at school was expelled three weeks ago for an incident in class where he said to the teacher ‘what do I have to do to get attention round here? Shoot the place up?’

No they weren't.

It is actually very difficult to permanently exclude children from education now. There has to be evidence of persistent disruptive behaviour or incidents of actual violence and aggression, bringing drugs/weapons onto school property etc and even then it's not an easy process. There's no way a school could get away with permanently excluding a student for one comment, no matter how inappropriate it was.

Lol ok. Well he hasn’t set foot in the school since the incident in the classroom. And the teacher lasted two more days in class (in an obvious state of distress) before disappearing at least until the end of term.
The police were called at the time.
I suppose technically no one has actually said he has been expelled. Perhaps just excluded until the end of term? Unfortunately he absolutely fits what has now become the norm for this type of shooter. Which is really unfortunate, because it will make it hard for him to be accepted back in and not become even more alienated from his peer group. Which presumably will make his feelings of alienation worse. Catch 22.
We’ve had a vague message saying Mrs X’s classes will be covered by a sub until the end of the year. (With no confirmation she will return in sept) Her daughter has also disappeared from school.
While the kids are obviously not the purveyors of all truths, their understanding is x has been expelled and will not be returning. I don’t think schools ever report that information to parents, so here we are.
It’s very interesting. I don’t usually pay much heed to general flapping and am the one that shrugs and says ‘nah, don’t be daft’. But on this occasion I am actually concerned that this kid may present a threat. If not originally, then because of the exclusion and subsequent treatment. I’m not demonising a child. I’m recognizing that the school are stuck between a rock and a hard place, and that their role is to protect all of the students. Including him (or not, given that he is no longer at the school).

Mam if you’re a parent at the school, it’s highly unlikely that you’d have all the information about a pupil - or a teacher.

I’d stick to ignoring the flapping - sounds like a good policy!!

I find the boys before the girls hidden in a classroom a bit bad. But hey

Absolutely. And def not flapping. But when your kids witness an obviously disturbed kid threatening to shoot the school up, and he then disappears, it’s not unnatural to retain an element of unease about possibilities, however unlikely. I’m the least likely flapper. You just have to hope that the school and the authorities are giving the kid enough support so that even the passing thought of violence disappears.
Just musing on how we deal with kids who are potentially violent who have been ostracized. To me it seems counter-productive, and more likely to trigger an incident. I hope not.