Locked down: Safety threats disrupt education

Published: October 6, 2008

Since the massacre at Colorado’s Columbine High School in 1999, "lockdown” has become more that just another buzz word in education circles. Lockdowns are an all-too-common and scary reality. Recent weeks in Oklahoma are proof.

Two weeks ago, U.S. Grant High School was locked down after authorities said a gun-toting student threatened classmates. The student was arrested on a Monday, but the lockdown and an increased police presence continued through the week. Students stayed locked in their classrooms.

Then on the same day last week, Capitol Hill High School and Tulsa’s Booker T. Washington High School were put on lockdown. At Capitol Hill, students said they saw who they thought was a student with a gun on a street near campus. In Tulsa, police recovered three guns and ammunition from a backpack and classroom.

A day later, some schools in Moore were locked down temporarily amid reports of a camouflage-clad man carrying a rifle. The man was found at a park with a plastic rifle.

It’s one thing to tighten security amid an outside threat. It’s quite another to have a student pointing a loaded gun at a classmate and finding out that multiple guns and ammunition made it onto a high school campus virtually undetected. We can’t imagine it’s easy for students or teachers to focus on their tasks when they’re wondering what the next crisis might be.

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