To think it's very depressing that school children need to learn this

[Eastie77Returns]

DD's school is producing a video showing children what to do in the event there is an intruder in the school and they need to go into 'lockdown'. I found out as she has been asked to take part in the video production.She is in Y7.

DS is in Y4 and he told me they did a practice drill at his primary school where they followed the steps they needed to take in a similar situation.

Honestly it makes me feel very sad. I understand in the current climate it's necessary and in countries like the US it's standard but I never thought I'd see something like this here.

Highly possible!

My children have all left school & finished university & had anti intruder practices when they were at school. One of them was at school when an intruder got in.

I was at school in the 80s and we had bomb scares.

I haven’t read the full thread.

I’m glad schools are doing it.

Taking the recent case of Nicholas Prosper, can you imagine if he did indeed manage to get into that primary school? He even said he would finish what he started if he ever got out, everyone always thinks it won’t be them till it is. I can’t imagine what those poor parents felt when they realised how close their child came to death. In a world where radicalisation is becoming more common drills are super important.

Tornado? 🤯

Also, wrt mitigating harm - the schools my DCs attended all had an external doors locked during the school day/ entry only by buzzer policy from the early 1990s. Internal doors (to classrooms, offices, loos) were not locked but could be locked manually by teachers inside the rooms in one school, and in the other, could be centrally locked.

No parents ever entered the school during the school day, including drop off and pick up, unless you were escorting a child who was late, or picking up a child who was sick and waiting in the office, or if you were volunteering in some capacity.

The one actual lockdown my DCs experienced occurred after a nearby bank robbery when the robbers were on the loose. The lockdown occurred to prevent any possible hostage or fortress situation, which would have been immensely traumatic to all the children, far more harmful than doing the drills.

Yes, tornado drills. I am in the US in a state where tornadoes occur during spring and summer storms. We have never experienced one in the locality where I live, but it is extremely important to be prepared and to act quickly without panicking.

When I was at Primary School we used to have a drill to prepare for a nuclear attack! We used to go to the gym because there wasn’t any glass windows to shatter on us.

It was in the early and mid 1980s.

I also remember bomb evacuation drills took place at least once a term - a hand bell would be used to signal the bomb drill rather than the electronic school bell!

Each generation goes through this!

My year 7 had their first lock down drill this week. We’re in Cornwall so probably depends on your area

My dc 18 & 20 both did this at school. In my school days (I’m 54) we did drills in preparation for a nuclear attack.

Sorry to serial post - dropped my phone...

Tornadoes are far more real and frightening to everyone here than anything to do with guns. A storm passed through two evenings ago that generated tornado warnings and activated the local sirens.

My children's school had armed soldiers guarding it st one point as it was on a Terrorist target list.

The novelty for the children wore out quickly and they just accepted it. It the adults don't make a fuss, the children trust them.

Where is "here"?

After Dunblane, they did that in every single primary school in my region...but not in the secondaries. It took about a good while before they installed such systems in the school where I worked.

One day after school, I found two adults at my classroom door. They'd come in the back door instead of the front, so the office had no idea that they were in. They were friendly enough, but I reported that to the HT as a security issue.

Nevertheless, it was some time before the council supplied the necessary security upgrades.

The thing is, since the beginning of the 20th century school children have had to do things which are unpleasant but necessary…. Like learn to use an air raid shelter, (zeppelins ww1, bombs early in ww2) duck and cover ( questionably useful)….and yes, it’s desperately sad they should be learning about sheltering safely from intruders/harm…but children are resilient, and so much better safe than sorry….

I recall our HT telling children to challenge people without lanyards. TBH, that idea made me uneasy - I reckon that it's safer for the children to tell the nearest known adult.

Lockdown practices are fairly common in our local primary schools here in the UK.
My children had a couple of them over the last 4 years. My sister in law, who is a teacher, had a real lockdown situation two weeks ago after a letter was sent about an imminent attack on a primary school in the area.

....bombs early in ww2

Most of WW2 - rather less in the early part, in fact.

I think the only way to prevent these things is to seriously invest in mental health services to identify and hopefully prevent sick (or evil) people from acting on their urges.
Telling a child to get under a table for protection just isn't enough, is it?
No amount of drills would have prevented the Southport massacre. Properly monitoring and treating the perpetrator, who was already known to be a risk, might have just stopped him.
Better risk assessments are needed too. No one should be able to walk into a dance studio off the street. Locking the doors would have prevented access. Our local Brownie unit is like Fort Knox.

Getting children to hide under a desk just risks distresses them and in reality, how effective is it going to be.

They do it very politely- "Hello, can I see your ID please" - it's usually only the older kids that do it, but one of the year ones challenged the Y5 teacher once, and told her off when she gave an excuse!

Ours were less than polite the one time they did encounter an intruder...

YANBU but this has been happening for years here. My DC’s both did it and they went to a little village school. The year before my daughter went to secondary school a mentally ill lady tried to get into the secondary school before wandering off to the local primary with a kitchen knife. Luckily the secondary called them and they had already locked down.

I remember when I was at secondary back in the 90’s and we did bomb scare drills with all the troubles fear. I suppose schools prepare based on the world they are living in. I also remember every few weeks there being messages about attempted kidnaps or vans driving around, it doesn’t seem like that happens so much anymore.

It’s not new but schools are practising more now because of the boy in Luton who was going to his old primary school with a shotgun.

Have you not seen the news this week? Google Nicholas Prosper.

That wasn't the OP's point. She stated she felt it was depressing school kids need to learn lockdown processes nowadays. I agree with her.
Complete lack of control over borders and law and order over the last few decades to blame.

Well I’ve written multiple messages about my DC attending school in London. So you could deduce that “here” = UK.