Newtown legacy: Lockdowns, locks and fear
Coy Ferreira stood inside a rural California classroom, more than a dozen 5- and 6-year-olds huddled in the corner as a gunman sprayed bullets at the school and tried to break his way in. Ferreira was terrified that people would die.
But the doors were locked and all of the children were inside, part of a school plan the staff and students had practiced in drills and knew by heart. They barricaded the school in 47 seconds that morning in November, probably saving the lives of countless people at Rancho Tehama Elementary School.
“They all knew what to do,” said Ferreira, who was dropping his daughter off at school when they heard a gunshot nearby. “No one stumbled. No one was hiding. They just ran to their classroom, like they had been told to do.”
The near-flawless response to what could have been a bloodbath during a deadly shooting rampage Nov. 14 came nearly five years after 20 children and six teachers were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. That attack, which involved a mentally unstable man using an assault-style rifle, shattered the sense of security felt in the nation’s elementary schools.
The massacre on Dec. 14, 2012, led to calls for gun control, as families mourned the loss of their children. Five years later, little about the nation’s federal gun laws has changed.
But the Newtown shooting forever altered the way U.S. schools approach safety and assess risk, ushering in an era in which schools feel particularly vulnerable to the threat of shootings and students must know what to do in case one happens.
The result is that for America’s students, lockdowns like the one that helped save lives at Rancho Tehama Elementary and active-shooter training is now as commonplace as fire drills. Buzzers and locks have fortified school doors that were once left open. The sight of police officers, even in elementary schools, is now common. And some districts allow staff members to carry weapons at school for what they believe is an added layer of security.
“There was something about Sandy Hook,” said Telena Wright, superintendent of schools in Argyle, Texas, whose district has stepped up security measures since that shooting. “It was such a massacre that I think it captured the attention of school employees and school administrators and police officers that work in schools across the nation.”
One of those places was the Corning Union Elementary School District, which includes Rancho Tehama Elementary, an hour northwest of Chico in northern California.
“I have no doubt that the experience of Sandy Hook informed our response as a district, to any emergency event and to this one in particular,” said Superintendent Rick Fitzpatrick.
The era of the school lockdowns started in 1999, after two students killed 13 people and themselves at Columbine High School in Colorado. High schools started drills where doors are locked and windows are secured — actions meant to be replicated should there be an emergency.
After the Newtown shooting, lockdowns became a regular part of school for younger children. So, in some places, did armed officers in elementary schools.
Sandy Hook also created a new, controversial approach to school safety: the armed assailant drill, when schools run a scenario involving a mass shooter, sometimes including police in the exercise. The practice has drawn scrutiny, some criticizing it as being potentially traumatizing for students, especially those in younger grades.
In Akron, Ohio, schools started active-shooter training around the time of the Sandy Hook attack. The shooting also spurred the district to retrofit some schools with secondary doors, buzzers and thick glass.
The district now runs active-shooter drills four times a year, drills that are tailored to each age group, said Dan Rambler, the district’s director of student support services and security. Parents are invited to watch training videos and give input.
In younger grades, the issue is addressed as one of stranger danger. But children, he said, often know what is happening: Rambler’s son was in kindergarten during one of the first training sessions and told his father that while it focused on bad people, “there are people who go to schools and shoot people,” Rambler remembers the boy saying.
Jeff Fritz, superintendent in Clay County, Ind., said that when he started his career as an educator 35 years ago, the “doors were wide open” at the school where he worked. No more.
The county’s 4,000 students now drill for an active shooter. Fritz said students are taught to run, hide or fight — with fighting being the last option.
“It’s no different than we do with tornado drills or fire drills,” he said. “This has been in the forefront. I tell our staff and our students our No. 1 priority, above test scores or building projects ... is school safety.”
Some states and districts allow staffers to carry weapons at schools. At least eight states allow concealed-carry permit holders to have a firearm at a K-12 school, according to the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence.
In Argyle, Texas, signs outside schools say staffers are armed and “may use whatever force is necessary to protect our students.”
It was a decision, Wright said, that stemmed from Sandy Hook.
Some of the parents of the children killed in Newtown have channeled their grief into making schools safer.
Michele Gay and Alissa Parker co-founded Safe and Sound Schools, which looks to improve school safety through training, discussion and partnerships. They lost daughters at Sandy Hook; Gay’s 7-year-old, Josephine, and Parker’s 6-year-old, Emilie. Gay said there has been a shift in the way schools think about safety and plan for the worst, with parents and students now heavily involved, and much greater collaboration between different agencies and groups.