How safe are we at La Plata High School?
Many students are concerned about their safety during school hours, believing the mandatory safety drills to be myopic and ineffectual.
Not every classroom has a door, so during intruder drills teachers must block their classroom entrances with small, removable boards. They then have students sit on the floor against a wall where an intruder supposedly would not be able to see them. If we were to ever have a real intruder, the flimsy board obstructing the view to the classroom could easily be kicked down and allow an intruder to enter any classroom they wished.
And what would happen if an intruder came in during a lunch period? The cafeteria is an open space at the center of the school, with easy access and no barriers to protect students from danger. If an intruder were to come, then there would be no order, only chaos in trying to find safety.
So why have we never had any safety drill during a lunch period? Since students eating lunch are the easiest targets in the school, it would seem to be the time when a safety drill is needed most.
Although the intruder drills are good practice in a society where it is not uncommon to regularly hear about school shootings and bombings, we should practice or at least know what would happen if an intruder were to enter the school during the middle of the day, when several hundred students are huddled like sheep in the commons.
For if even during mandatory safety drills students do not seem to be safe, how could we be out of harm’s way in a real emergency?
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