My Thirteen year old daughter texted me this morning that her school was locked down and she was locked in the lab with three other girls. They were all scared and crying. She said they had been hiding under a table for over twenty minutes and nobody would tell them what was happening. I was sent pictures of county sheriffs cars along with city police cars from two neighboring cities and a K9 unit that were parked in front of the school. She called me crying. As we were talking she abruptly hung up. I called her back a couple of times but it would go to voice mail. She finally texted me back that she couldn't be on the phone.

I called the school and the office lady wouldn't give me a direct answer about what was going on. All she kept saying was there was no threat. I asked if it was a drill. "Umm yes that is what it is" is the answer I got. So I called the Sheriffs non emergency number and was told nothing was going on and they had no officers in that area. I told her I had pictures of the deputies at the school and she transferred me to dispatch. They gave me the same story. When I told them they did in fact have deputies at the school they said they would find out and call me back. Never got the call back.

I went to the school and checked my daughter out. I did have to wait a little bit before they would release her but other than that no problems getting her. It appears now they were doing a surprise drug sweep. I get that but I feel it could have been handled a little better. Those kids were scared to death. After my worry dissipated I'm pissed. I'm not sure if I should address this with the principal, the school board, or the Sheriffs Department. Or just forget the whole thing.

I mean 25 years ago when I was in high school we had drug searches but the school wasn't "locked" down in hiding under tables and we new exactly what was going on. The only ones who were scared was the kids that had drugs in there lockers. I feel the whole secretive scare tactic was uncalled for but I'm just a parent looking at it through a fathers eyes not a LEO's point of view.

Seems like a really odd way to do a drug sweep. Why wouldn't they tell the kids they were not in an active shooter event?

Once all the kids were "locked down" couldn't they have gone over the PA and stated "There is no DANGER".

The Teachers could have simply kept the kids in their rooms and continued with teaching.

EVERYTHING today seems to be taken overboard when it comes to schools. Frankly OP I think that was A ridiculous way to handle this.

Same for the SO/PD. Dispatchers should be apprised of the situation...assuming they would get calls from concerned Parents. Poorly handled.

Well when I went to school there was no cell phone. Parents would have heard about it at the end of the day, no big deal. Now kids break the rules- no cell phone use to call mom and dad. They don't know how to handle it on there own, help is just a phone call away. There was drug searches when I went to school, and the only way we knew what was going on was to talk to the janitor and get the inside scoop.

for my high school, they did a "fire drill" if they wanted to do a drug sweep in the school to take dogs through the locker bays/classrooms, so all the kids were out of the school.

If they were doing a drug sweep in the parking lot of the cars, they would do a "lock-down test" and have teachers lock the doors, put the green card (all okay) in the door window, and keep teaching but make the students stay in the classrooms.

They did these two things to prevent the druggies from running to flush their drugs or leave the school quick. They were surprises, but also normal "drills." We could only tell the difference if the fire drill went on for longer than usual before they let us back in the building or if the lock-down lasted til the end of the period (usually 30-ish minutes; we had 90 minute classes).

Of course everything has changed since I graduated as far as attitudes and atmosphere of all these "drills" but for a drug sweep, why make it so dramatic??

I'd take issue with the principal and school district. Causing undue drama and fear to the students in this panic-media atmosphere is complete bullshit, IMO.

As soon as it commenced there should have been a PSA of some sort. The surprise effect was over. IMHO, of course.

My gut tells me you should give them a proper blistering. I'd do it in person to both the sheriff and the principal, and then I'd call my school board representative, I'd call my local legislator, and I'd call the local news affiliates and raise hell with all of them too.

I'm of mixed feelings about drug sweeps in schools, as I recognize the legality and seriousness of the issue, but as someone who takes privacy and the 4th Amendment seriously, I on't like it much. I do think it's unacceptable to deny a parent information about what is going on in an age of cell phones when kids will be calling their parents, and when the mass media has made all nervous about school shootings, and other violent events.

I suspect that some of our officers on the board will have a different opinion on this, primarily because of the facial legality of a dog walk through the school, the seriousness of drugs in schools, the tactical and evidence risks of passing information out during a raid or sweep, and the practical inability to effectively put out information on something like this while it is occurring.

Not sure where you are located, but these things happen in larger cities with more frequency than others.

As a fellow parent I totally understand your emotional state.

Realize this - it will happen again. What can you both learn from this? Did tears help calm her or her classmates?

We never know when shit goes south, but brother it happens way to fast. How we deal with it is what defines us.

Cheers~

I'd be livid.

quote:

Originally posted by slyguy:
Not sure where you are located, but these things happen in larger cities with more frequency than others.

As a fellow parent I totally understand your emotional state.

Realize this - it will happen again. What can you both learn from this? Did tears help calm her or her classmates?

We never know when shit goes south, but brother it happens way to fast. How we deal with it is what defines us.

Cheers~

Small rural school with Pre-K through 12th grade basically down one long hall.

Wow, seems like the six figure salaried administrators who run the public school systems are morons. Shocking!

No you're not being irrational about it. The whole secret squirrel aspect of this thing is nothing less than horseshit.

Our high school simply went over the PA and announced that no one was allowed outside the classrooms until the drug dogs were finished with their search.

Easy peasey.

Frankly if staff can't be honest about lawful endeavors...well what CAN they be honest about?

I can't imagine such a thing, but when I went to the lower grades (1940s) nothing like this ever happened. Drugs were not a big issue then, no one had a cell phone (still don't think kids should have them at school), and the only "drills" we ever had were fire drills. I was even before the "duck and cover" drills (which were stupid on the face of it).

flashguy

yes it was inconvenient and scary.
it could have been done better.

but without you and 12 other parents involvement ,it ain't gonna change .

get together with 12 offer parents once a week for two hours and after two or three months ,
draft a plan and attend a p.t.a. meeting and the school board meeting with the l.e.o. offercer's in attendance.

ask them 6 questions , get it on the record ( your concerns)

What is the legality of a school being locked down when no threat is present? This seems like detainment by school officials. Is it lawful?

Small rural district, not up to speed on handling big city problems when they come knocking. Most likely they were trying to prevent people from telling the kids there were targeting what was going on to prevent them from hiding evidence.

Granted probably could have been handled better but the media has society on a constant edge of panic so everyone over reacts. I'll bet kids will be talking about it as the worst experience of their lives.


In my day it would have been "cool" to be in a drug sweep lockdown. Who got busted??? Awe duuude saw that coming!

quote:

Originally posted by vinnybass:
What is the legality of a school being locked down when no threat is present? This seems like detainment by school officials. Is it lawful?

Ummm, that's how a drill is done. Nor does it sound like some drug sweep. Sounds like...a lockdown drill.

I'm not being a dick, but clearly none of you work in a school. That's how lockdown drills are done.

You don't tell the kids. It's not a drill if you tell them. Trust me, the reactions are radically different if you tell them "drill at 10:00" vs. not telling them.

They are told a set of procedures, and you drill them to see how they react, if they follow the procedures and how you can improve. It's the same as a fire drill, just different procedures.

1) They aren't supposed to use phones. I can almost guarantee that's part of what they're told. The reason your kid said she couldn't talk and then didn't answer he phone is because someone probably saw her using it and told her to stop.

2) They shouldn't be going to the windows. Also directly the opposite of what they're told.

3) The police DO show up. They're part of the drill. I'm not sure how many show up in your area, but when we do a drill, we get 2 or 3. Those police come around and check that the procedures are being followed, including checking for locked doors, seeing if they can get kids to let them in without the right code phrase, etc.

4) It usually takes us at least 15 minutes to get the all clear.

Who knows, maybe something happened and there's a coverup, but, as someone who does this several times a year, you're overreacting.

Sounds largely like SOP.

Now if the kids have no idea what the procedures for lockdown are, then there's a bigger problem, but otherwise you're just talking about what is now the new normal in many if not most schools these days.

I'd be pissed off something serious. Zero reason they couldn't announce there is no danger, stay calm, this is a drill, whatever. No reason to instill panic in everyone.

I would be having a word with the school leadership.

quote:

Originally posted by PorterN:
for my high school, they did a "fire drill" if they wanted to do a drug sweep in the school to take dogs through the locker bays/classrooms, so all the kids were out of the school.

If they were doing a drug sweep in the parking lot of the cars, they would do a "lock-down test" and have teachers lock the doors, put the green card (all okay) in the door window, and keep teaching but make the students stay in the classrooms.

They did these two things to prevent the druggies from running to flush their drugs or leave the school quick. They were surprises, but also normal "drills." We could only tell the difference if the fire drill went on for longer than usual before they let us back in the building or if the lock-down lasted til the end of the period (usually 30-ish minutes; we had 90 minute classes).

Of course everything has changed since I graduated as far as attitudes and atmosphere of all these "drills" but for a drug sweep, why make it so dramatic??

I'd take issue with the principal and school district. Causing undue drama and fear to the students in this panic-media atmosphere is complete bullshit, IMO.

WE had "fire drills" too. A real fire would have been bad as the side and back doors were usually chained shut.

MHO but I'm OK with both the lock down and drug sweep as this is the times we live in but what I'm not OK with is the trauma they put the kids through. Todays youth are not conditioned to handle things like this and people like the very ones involved are in a large part responsible. I would be raising Hell with everyone for the lack of assurance to the kids and the way they were left in a state of panic with no adult supervision. Small town or not the lack of responsible adult supervision is unacceptable.