Should the National press report on primary school lockdowns?

[Lazytiger]

Why aren’t the national press reporting the primary school lockdown near Birmingham? Only GB news and local news outlets reported it. I haven’t seen anything in the broadsheets/TV news.

AIBU to expect the National UK press to report things that happen in the UK?

In the last two days two school lockdowns have been reported, but only locally.

One was a report of schools in Weston-super-Mare that locked down due to a suspect person with a knife. The second was a school near Birmingham called Shireland Hall primary Academy. Where a gang wearing balaclavas and carrying weapons entered the school and threatened teachers and pupils.

Am I being unreasonable to expect the press to report what is happening in this country?

You may argue that the first schools didn’t come to any harm so perhaps nationally reporting something that would just cause concern is the right thing to do (I don’t, but understand others might) But the second school, I feel, should have been more widely reported. Perhaps it will be. But it happened on Tuesday and it is now Thursday.

Googling the school in Birmingham I was surprised to see Birmingham live have reported several lockdowns over the year and other schools in other areas come up in the search too.

I recall a while ago that we had rolling news on the fires in California. Other than telling us there had been fires in California the 24-7 News coverage wasn’t adding much detail. There were plenty of complaints at the time that this was to distract the population from the ongoing Rotherham case. Something that was of far more interest to the UK population. Thankfully the media didn’t succeed and people didn’t forget about those girls.

Is this the same reason for the under reporting - race relations?

Regardless of the worry these incidents may cause in the wider population I feel it is the job of the UK press to report these and to not, on our behalf, decide what we should be told and what we shouldn’t.

We had to listen to how many people died ‘with’ covid on a daily basis, yet there seems to be zero interest in reporting ongoing threats to our children.

Someone saw something and the police didn't find any evidence that is not the same this as someone talking nonsense.

Yes, I want to know how many lockdowns are happening in schools across the country. I don't think that is a big ask when I'd fed a diet of the Beckhams and Jennifer Aniston in the, supposed, broadsheets. I'm sure they could squeeze it on their online offering somewhere if they tried.

I don't want to suddenly do a google search and be surprised by the numbers of lockdowns happening. I thought lockdowns were a blue moon event (I consider these to be when the police is notified). Turns out they are not. I'm not going to turn into someone who sits at home googling all the local papers to see if a lockdown has been reported but there seems to be a big divide between those who think lockdowns are nothing to worry about and those who aren't even aware they are happening.

No they are not. Security is for prevention, a lockdown is to deal with an immediate threat.

I've got to get on now and will mull over my own feelings on the matter. I've learned a lot from the responses on here, so thank you.

It's almost like GB News might have an agenda that could make it worthwhile to lose money up front.

https://www.business-live.co.uk/enterprise/gb-news-suffers-huge-loss-31101820

You sound quite anxious OP, do you suffer from anxiety usually? If so, I think that might be at play here. If you don’t, maybe ask yourself why you are so focused on this. Why don’t you want your children practicing lockdown drills? Wouldn’t you rather they knew what to do in an actual emergency rather than panicking and being terrified?

No the press doesn’t care if you protest or take your kids out of school. In fact that’s just more news for them. It’s likely that other stories have just been prioritised from a public interest POV

No. A lockdown is to deal with a POTENTIAL threat. In the two examples of lockdowns you gave, there was no threat to the children. You cannot react to the number of lockdowns when you don't know how many of them are false alarms. Increased reporting will only increase fear without follow-ups on whether they were justified or not. And "nothing happened" isn't news, not even GB-News.

And I also disagree with your statement of "kids don't need to learn to go inside". They absolutely do, when it's outside their normal routine. Do you also think "adults don't need to practice going outside"? Why do we have fire drills in that case?

Exactly this. And GB news are stirring. Locally, we had a homeless man found on secondary school grounds looking for food in bins. He offered no resistance when grounds staff asked him to leave. But this was 'reported' as an 'illegal immigrant' - he was a black man, not an 'illegal' at all - entering school grounds to hurt children. It was so ridiculous, parents refusing to send kids to school etc.

I don't watch GB news. I got the information from a local paper. If I did maybe I would have heard about lockdowns sooner. I'm asking what our national news is for if not to report what is happening in the UK.

Our school went into lockdown about a year ago, there was a report of a man with a knife somewhere in the area. It was right at the end of the school day so they just kept the gates shut and did their lockdown procedures inside. It really didn’t feel like it warranted national attention tbh. I mean, obviously knife crime is awful, but in this situation nothing happened. So I wouldn’t say all school lockdowns should be reported.

You really think this should be National news!
in a local school recently there was a lockdown, a parent who has lost custody due to addiction issues screamed at the gates for half an hour until the police arrested them. Why on earth should that be on the six o’clock news!

The second example you give is different. And I am surprised that armed men entering a school and threatening children wasn’t reported widely.

It wasn't reported because it didn't happen!

A lockdown is when the school is locked down and the police called. Simply that.

So kids stand in the playground all day do they or have they leaned how to go inside the school during the 7 years they attend primary?

I just read the article from Birmingham Live. Read until the end- the Police report nothing happened.

Just imagine if every local news item was in the national news! We'd have 'The News at 6 to midnight' (at least).

There is a big difference between the 6 o'clock news and an article under 'education' on the online section of a national newspaper. Most things aren't reported on the 6 o'clock news as it reports on global news most of the time.

The national press never do. My nephews school has the literal swat team called in one day due to a child claiming they had a weapon (falsely). They literally came in brandishing guns scaring the kids. The same week my nieces school, in the same area was put into lockdown due to a girl with a knife. I think it’s because of the type of area. As soon as it starts happening regularly in middleclassville we will start hearing about it 🙄

I’m sure it is a bit of a shock to you if you never knew this was happening. Unfortunately @Lazytiger this is a regular occurrence in many schools. At my primary school in a large city, we had a recent lockdown due to a former pupil being on the school roof. The children were kept inside to keep them safe. Police attended, chased and caught the intruder. We practise lockdown drills regularly like we practise fire drills. The children see them as routine, nothing to worry about.

Police have been called to our school and immediate local area maybe 4-5 times in the last year. Mainly for altercations between parents and/or staff. Sometimes for pupils. Sometimes for dangerous members of the public. It’s not a massively bad area - It’s just not news when it happens so frequently.

GB News is best thought of as a work of fiction.

Schools have lockdown protocols. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-and-college-security/school-and-college-security

I was a recently qualified teacher when Dunblane happened in 1996 and remember it like it was yesterday.

But why! It’s barely even local news.

Would you expect to hear about fire drills

It’s for events of national significance, not false alarms which warrant no significant action.

As a teenager in the 80s we regularly had evacuations to the playing field because of hoax IRA bomb calls by kids who were off school. It’s nothing new.

Hundreds of thousands of things happen all day and night all across the country. We can't turn every single one into a news story. Even if we could magically have every story turned into an article no one would ever have the time to read them all or even sift through them to find what's worth reading.

A car exploded outside my house a few weeks ago and led to quite a large fire that took a few hours to put out. To me, it was a massive scary event that I had a lot of questions about. For my city? It was one of many car fires that night and nothing noteworthy at all.

There is no real public interest in hundreds of "x school went into lockdown but then nothing really happened and everything carried on as normal" stories. It would just drown out the real noteworthy events and spread fear without actually doing anything good.

That too.

I think it's safe to say that details are not their strong point.

No not at all. My children would not be at school today if I did. I suffer from wanting to know what is going on in this country, all of this country not just my little part of it.

I want to know how many lockdowns (ones where the police are called) are happening so I know if I need to speak to my children about them, I don't care the reason and I would hope all are false alarms but I want to know what is happening inside our children's schools. I'm not asking for it daily or even weekly but I've not seen anything and I watch/read the news daily. Don't we have a right to know - the data must be there why is it not being published and reported.

I don't think (as someone has said) being told to 'speak to your school about lockdown training as it will be happening' is helpful as most parents at my children's school wouldn't even know this is happening never mind know to ask (I have and they haven't so far).

I'm sadden that so many people think as long as nothing happened in the end that the increasing instances of schools locking down is not worth reporting.