May 26, 2006
D.C. Schools Locked Down in Wake of Capitol Scare
It was an air hammer, not a gun. But no one seemed to want to take any chances, as evidenced by this token from a Post article on the chaos that ensued earlier this morning after shots were reported in the garage of the Rayburn House Office Building:
Meanwhile, all public schools in the District briefly went into lockdown as a result of the situation around the Capitol, a spokeswoman for the school system said. School officials wanted to err on the side of caution, she said. The schools are now open.Err on the side of caution? We're all about security. But we're also about rationality. Sending the schools into mandatory lockdown over an isolated and unconfirmed event seems more a way to frighten children and parents than a way to protect them. We'd understand locking down schools in the vicinity of the U.S. Capitol, but what does a school in Tenleytown gain in security from locking its students in during such an event? Not much.
Washington has to become better at balancing threats and reactions. Not everything merits the panic that this, umm, air hammering caused.
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As a parent at one DCPS elementary school who works in another, I have to say I think DCPS handled the situation very well. The lockdown was handled as discretely as possible at both schools-- indoor recess was announced as a precaution with few details provided. There was no panic.
Parents prefer to err on the side of caution. If simply keeping students indoors will avoid even the vague possiblity of danger to my child when a gunman might possibly be on the loose in the city, then just-in-case lockdowns are absolutely appropriate.
"handled as discretely as possible"
Um... that's "discreetly" -- sorry!
A gunman might possibly be on the loose in the city any day (and there was zero indication that one was on the loose today, much less that one was targeting schools), so I guess just to be safe it would be absolutely appropriate to err on the side of caution by eliminating outdoor recess entirely and keeping schools locked down all the time.
Yes, a gunman on the loose is always a logical possibility. There are people who could give you a sophisticated analysis of the threat to local schools. I'm not one of them, but I think I've been around enough to make two points: First, many terrorist organizations practice near-simultaneous attacks. Incidents reported in one part of the city are not necessarily isolated. Second, we did see a school targeted by politically-motivated terrorists in Beslan and by a crazed racist gunman in LA (a day camp). Also, even if the situation doesn't really fall under the heading of terrorism, it doesn't take long to drive from one part of this small city to another. If there's an unresolved report of gunfire fairly nearby, and it sounds like the potential motive might be to attract attention, it is completely appropriate to quietly bring the children inside and limit access to school buildings. It's a relatively painless precaution, and there's just too much at stake.
This is one of those things where you don't know wweather to laugh or cry. It is utterly absure to lock down the DC schools whenever there is a security caniption fit at the Capitol, every time there is an unexplained noise of a staffer leaves a gym bag somewhere. What possible relevance could it have to DC schools?
This is one of those things where you don't know wweather to laugh or cry. It is utterly absure to lock down the DC schools whenever there is a security caniption fit at the Capitol, every time there is an unexplained noise or a staffer leaves a gym bag somewhere. What possible relevance could it have to DC schools?
This is one of those things where you don't know wweather to laugh or cry. It is utterly absure to lock down the DC schools whenever there is a security caniption fit at the Capitol, every time there is an unexplained noise or a staffer leaves a gym bag somewhere. What possible relevance could it have to DC schools?
you guys would be the first ones to criticize DCPS for not locking down the schools if something bad happened. Yet, when something like this happens (which turned out to be an unfounded threat) you are the first ones to critcize. Obviously there is a fine line between caution and overreaction, however, I find it unneccessary to criticize DCPS for reacting this way unless there becomes a pattern of overreaction. As long as their actions didn't cause direct harm (or prevented harm in the event of an attach, which didn't happen) then we should be happy that they took steps to protect our children. This is the world we live in now...don't forget that in the 50s/60s schools were doing fallout drills during the cold war in case of a nuclear attack. The world and threats haven't changed since then....the people have just become more afraid and protective of the unknown.
Did schools in Arlington or Bethesda lock down? After all the "gunman" could have driven there easily as well. Hell, the gunman could have driven to Philadelphia. Just to be safe, we should have locked down all schools on the east coast.
And we need to issue bulletproof vests to all students and have them wear them all the time. After all, something might happen, and then we'd regret that we didn't.