Hard Lockdowns are becoming unfortunately more common in recent years. Wallin ES recently had a hard lockdown on the very first week of school. It thankfully was a false alarm but left many wondering; what if it was real?
Hard lockdowns happen for a multitude of reasons whether it is an active shooter on campus, or really any threat to a student’s safety inside the school. Many parents’ worst fears are their children being trapped in hard lockdowns. Anonymous Wallin parent explains that upon hearing that her child was stuck in a hard lockdown she was “freaked out a bit because the only way [she] knew is there was a weird little bell that played but it didn’t say anything. Then all of a sudden they (staff members) locked the doors and a second gate as well and then didn’t say anything and walked away.” This safety precaution should provide peace of mind for all parents but if an explanation is not given it can be extremely worrying. Siblings of Wallin students also voiced their worry for their siblings. Isabella Malpartida, a tenth grader here at Liberty, was there when the incident occured. School had just ended but she heard the alarm go off and stood by for 20-30 minutes. She says that all she wanted to do was “go in there and get [her] brother”
She then says that her brother came running out in tears explaining what happened.
Wallin Students have also voiced how scary it was thinking the lockdown was real. Anonymous Wallin student voices that
“It was really scary they made us all huddle in the corner. I thought it was real.”
Another student agrees.
Wallin has many safety precautions for this sort of thing. Wallin parent explained that the school “had double locked doors and nobody could get in or out of the school. The police also showed up and did a sweep of the school.” However a proper explanation was not given until about an hour after the incident. Wallin parent establishes that “ [She] was worried because [she] didn’t know what it was for! Like somebody said there was a gun on campus and then somebody else said there was a predator on campus. LIke nobody knew what happened.”
Lockdowns are a serious issue that needs to be addressed. Even though this one was false, who knows when a real one is to occur. Something needs to be done in order to prevent such things from ever happening.
