Dangerous person in school?

[WhinnieThePoohHead]

I’ll preface this by saying I know it’s not a AIBU, I just want to use the voting option :)

Met Friends for dinner today. One friend, a teacher, mentioned that her school does ‘lockdown drills’ as well as fire drills. I asked what they’re for and she said in case someone dangerous gets into the primary school. They lock the classroom door, shut the blinds, turn the lights and screens off and hide under their desks silently. My friend told me that all schools do these drills the same way they do fire drills. this is in the U.K.

YABU- yes all schools do this, you’re out of touch
YANBU- schools in the U.K. don’t do lock down drills

Ds moved from one lea to another in the UK, we had never heard of lockdown drills and thought it alarming. However after the drill his reaction seemed worse than that of his peers who were used to doing drills. I am in favour of these in the same way I am supportive of a fire drill

yes we have these at my school. We have a drill every year but we have also had two occasions where we have had to use them in real situations. One was an incident in the local community and the other was an incident in the school itself.

I agree with @100thname that it probably on balance doesn't make children safer but does scare them and teaches them the world is dangerous.

Yes we routinely do lockdown drills the same as we do fire drills. In my school

How do they get in?

Surely since Dunblane it is really hard to get in except through the front door which is locked?

It's fairly standard. We check our doors annually, lock mechanisms etc. There are code words to help us understand what is happening.

Where I uses to work we once had a police warning that a father of one of our children had just got out of prison and had said the first thing he was going to do was get his son, even if he had to kill teachers to get him. He never turned up but we did a drill the same day so it was fresh in our minds.

I don't know if all schools do it but there are a lot that do.

My daughter’s old primary did them. She’s at secondary now and I don’t know if they’ve done them.

There was a case a few years ago here where someone had caused an incident with a knife - not sure if actively attacking people, but definitely threatening, and they were at a house in the same street as a primary school. Armed police were called to respond. Just being realistic, even if the person had no intention of going into the school and attacking people, you wouldn't want primary school kids out in the playground and doing PE outside or whatever while that was being dealt with just down the road. So the school was in effect 'on lockdown' till it was resolved. A sensible approach to take.

DD’s secondary school (south coast) do them every few months. I’m glad they do because last summer they had to lock down the school for real due to a guy being spotted nearby with a shot gun.
While it was obviously really scary for the kids, they all knew what to do which was a good thing.

Yes, DD local secondary has a drill recently. It’s a bit sad but probably good practice.

They started several years ago. IIRC correctly it started after either threats were made or someone armed entered a school.
Many schools have the policy written on their websites.

I used to work in a sen school and we didn’t go under tables. It was a case of all external doors locked, windows locked, blinds pulled down, classroom doors locked and their windows covered, and moved out of rooms that didn’t have window covered, and everyone back in the building.

It’s very sensible.
There was a lockdown situation at a school my children were at (not uk) and it went on for several hours after the school day was over. Thankfully mine were absent that day.
iirc it was due to a faulty alert system rather than an actual intruder, but the school was fully stormed and searched by armed special police and emergency vehicles were on standby.
Because there was some level of preparation for this event, staff managed to keep the children calm and entertained, so although parents gathered outside (for hours) were beside themselves, inside children were pretty calm and reassured. In fact one of the big issues was that lots of children needed the toilets and obviously you can’t access these if you’re in lockdown . I guess most teachers don’t keep a porta potty in the supplies cupboard but it would have been handy on this occasion.
I also remember my primary school going in to lockdown in the 80s, when a drunken parent involved in a custody battle went on a rampage threatening the teachers. We all had to sing songs in the dinner hall until the police arrived.
So…. Better to be prepared!

We're in London and yes my DCs did this at primary school at one time. Not sure if it was anything to do with the terrorism threat levels at that time but it was a requirement that schools had lockdown procedures and practiced them in our LA. Not sure that is still the case.

@Nanny0gg the local junior school is all ground floor level and in the summer often has ground floor doors open (into playground) so would be scarily easy to get in.

I’m in my thirties and we had these at my school, I remember being in year 11 and trying to fold myself under an exam desk!

It’s important children know what to do, things that are routine are also less likely to be scary. I know my sons primary do them as he always finds sitting under the table quite exciting, its the only thing he tells me about if I ask him what he has done at school, otherwise its the standard ‘nothing’.

Yes, the schools I’m aware of that do this are Jewish faith schools. David Baddiel showed an example of a London school doing one in his programme on antisemitism .

In Primary it should hopefully be done so that the children don't realise, so they don't get worried. My understanding from when I was Clerk to the Governors of a primary school was that it is part of expected health and safety protocols.

All schools should have an evacuation and invacuation plan.

When we practice bringing children in from the playground we tell them it's incase an dangerous animal comes in to school. I guess that's less scary than a man with a gun/machete. If necessary we will take children from the classroom into the corridors, and close all blinds. Sometimes we take children into the corridor and read them a story, so if we ever did have to do it because of a dangerous person they wouldn't find it odd.

During a fire drill the children face away from the school incase it explodes, and facing the school gate so we can set off to a neighbouring school for shelter if necessary.

There are other scenarios we plan for, such as a child behaving dangerously, or even just a child projectile vomiting in the classroom. Funnily enough we do know what to do in an emergency when looking after lots of small children, we don't just make it up as we go along.

Not a "thing" in my children's school in Scotland.

People confidently proclaiming that these things happen regualrly in the UK are usually people who don't realise that England, Scotland, Wales and N Ireland all have separate education systems, and that even within countries of the UK, policies vary between local authorities, or state and private and so on.

Our local primary does this, we're semi rural and people do have gun licences. Because farms, hunting etc.

Also had a dad threatening to shoot a teacher and the head a few years ago.
Resulting in huge fences and gates around the school, strict release of children to parents they know and are registered to pick up, no exceptions! You have to text the teacher if anyone else is going to pick up your children.

Same dad also picked up his child despite a court order and non molestation order. And threatened to Jill him and himself.

I worked in a primary school for 15 years and it was never practised there. There was supposed to be a three sharp whistle code to get the children inside quickly that was never practised and we certainly didn’t have an indoor lockdown procedure. Not that it would have helped much as the classroom I was in had massive windows at one end with no blinds and not enough tables for the children to get under anyway.

Mine did, and it was activated once - guy with a gun running around the neighbourhood, never actually went onto school property but didn't take chances. Police marksmen shot the guy dead but it was gone 5pm before they let the kids leave and the police came to talk to them the following day letting the children ask questions and express fears, police liaison officers were brilliant, so reassuring to the children

My kids did this at nursery

Everyone saying al school do this? Do they do it with the children? Just wondering because I’ve never heard of this. I’m wondering if my kids school do it with just the teacher.