BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — There were some anxious moments at Lake Shore High School last week as a classroom full of students was accidentally left unattended during one of the school's required lockdown drills.
In a message sent to parents the Lake Shore Central School District said that a substitute teacher did not make it to their assigned classroom before the lockdown drill began, leaving the students unattended.
Without a teacher in the room, students inside the classroom had no way of knowing that the event was only for practice.
"They were absolutely terrified, they had no idea it was a drill," a parent of one of the students involved told 7 News Anchor Jeff Russo. "The kids started panicking, and a couple of the students closed the blinds. The kids weren't sure how to get the door locked so they started moving desks and putting them in front of the doors."
The parent who shared their concerns asked not to be identified.
"It's not different than any other type of PTSD kind of reaction," said Lynne Shine, a mental health counselor with Audubon Counseling Center. Shine says while there are benefits to lockdown drills weighing the mental health of students is important.
"To do a lockdown drill where they are saying 'who's going to take care of the lights, who's going to take care of the corner', four very basic steps, those things can be very beneficial, the problem I have with lockdown drills is they are recreating trauma, that's the part I have a concern about."
Schools in New York State are required to hold four lockdown drills each year, and Michael Cornell, the Superintendent of the Hamburg Central School District and President of the Erie-Niagara School Superintendents Association tells 7 News that he believes there is a path between weighing mental health while addressing school safety.
"We have to figure out how to deal with that," said Cornell. "I think we're sensitive to that fact, again, there is this kind of ambient anxiety that comes with the fact that we have to do these things, and you know we try very hard to be sensitive to it. As a Superintendent the obligation I have is to serve as a parent to 3400 kids every single day."
Cornell added that he believes the number of lockdown drills required is appropriate and allows schools to prepare for different scenarios.
"The reason I think it is important is it allows you to simulate a variety of scenarios that are like real life in school. You can do one during a passing time, you can do one when you have kids in a cafeteria, you can do them when they're unannounced, where not even the principal knows that it's happening," said Cornell. "Having four is valuable for all of those reasons because should something terrible happen on a given day in your school, you're going to want to be prepared for any of those scenarios because there is no convenient time for something terrible to happen."
Lake Shore school officials declined an interview request but released the following statement to 7 News.
Statement from Lake Shore Central School District
Learning to be prepared, instead of panicking, is the reason for New York State’s required surprise lock-down drills in public schools. Recently, several Lake Shore High School students experienced a surprise lockdown when their substitute teacher was not in the room. And they knew exactly what to do.
When a fire drill, or lockdown or shelter in place is called, students may be in restrooms or in hallways. In fire drills, students know to exit the building because they have practiced the procedures. In lockdown drills, they also have practiced the correct procedures. That is the reason for the drills, so in a true emergency, everyone knows what to do, whether there is an adult present or not.
”These students used their years of training and they did all of the right things: they closed and barricaded the door, moved out of sight and followed all of the directions they have been taught in previous drills,” said Principal Dr. Katy Berner-Wallen.
“In a real lockdown crisis, the goal is to seek immediate safety - with or without an adult. These young adults demonstrated the ability to work together under pressure and to collectively solve a problem on their own. While some may have panicked, these students used their training and did exactly the right thing.”
Although no school district could ever guarantee that a similar incident would never occur in the future, Lake Shore is reviewing its safety procedures to determine if any improvements can be made that could further reduce the chance of a recurrence.
