Think back to the very first lockdown you can remember; you’re in elementary school, still basking in the innocence of childhood, not aware of the real reason behind the drill in the first place, and just barely cognizant of the fact that the blaring sound and hushed expressions are all meant to keep you safe.

Now fast forward to today; the news bleeds out stories of shootings and tragedies occurring in schools. We see the doors being locked, the lights being shut off, but we see more than that; the veil of ignorance has been lifted, and with that comes the terrible recognition that lockdowns are essential to our safety because the unexplainable can happen at any second, at any school.

Names like Columbine, Virginia Tech, and Sandy Hook have caused a wave of security efforts to sweep through schools all across America. New systems of security, verification, and protection have been installed in a majority of the schools throughout the country. According to the Institute of Education Sciences, in the 2011-12 school year, 88 percent of public schools in the United States disclosed that they controlled access to school buildings during school hours by locking or monitoring doors.

The push for added safety procedures  because of past tragedies are what have made lockdowns and school security much more secure. Following school shootings throughout the years, there has been as increased debate over gun laws and more controversy over teenagers playing violent video games. After Adam Lanza shot and killed 26  kids and teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012, the Connecticut legislature passed measures on requiring background checks for all people who buy guns through private sales and also created a $15 million fund to improve school security.

At LHS, there are three lockdown drills every year. The first lockdown of the year is at the beginning of the year.  Its main purpose is for practice and in this lockdown, School Resource Officer, Robert Uliks, and other LHS faculty state step-by-step directions on what to do and answer any questions teachers may have. The second lockdown is towards the middle of the year and for this drill, faculty is aware of what week it takes place in but no other information, and the third is at the end of the year and is completely unannounced.

There are two different types of lockdowns that exist at LHS: a soft lockdown and a hard lockdown, otherwise thought of as an external threat vs. an internal threat. A soft lockdown is put into play when there is an external threat, mainly dealing with something happening within the community. Classes still continue as normal but doors are locked so no one is allowed to leave or enter the building unless students have an off-campus pass. There is no senior lunch release or students driving in Driver’s Ed cars. According to Mr. Uliks, a soft lockdown was announced a couple of years ago when there was a bank robbery in Libertyville and just last December when there was a U.S. Army veteran lost in town.

A hard lockdown is the exact opposite; it takes place when a threat is identified inside the school. At this point, doors are locked, lights are shut, and everything stops until the hazard is removed from the building. Libertyville has never had a situation where a hard lockdown was necessary, but according to Mr. Uliks, a few years ago, a student was posting written threats on different places, which resulted in the school focusing on enhancing their lockdown policies.

A system that has been in use in order to prevent incidents and enhance security policies is the Raptor System, which is a new network that all schools in District 70, including LHS, now have. Every time someone walks through the doors of the school, their state ID or driver’s license is scanned by front-desk security. This then enables the national data base listing and shows anyone who is a registered sex offender.

“We can enter people’s names into our user end of this system as well, so should we have an issue with a visitor and not want them to be allowed to say walk the building without an escort, we log them into the system and when that person scans in when visiting LHS in the future, that information also pops up on our Raptor System with a note indicating what access or limitations that visitor may have with regard to LHS,” assistant principal Mr. Eric Maroscher stated.

Recently, teachers have been piloting the locked door policy. This means that teachers set their classroom doors to lock whenever the door is shut and doors are remained closed during classes. According to Mr. Uliks, this locked door policy is becoming more popular because it is one less thing to do when a school goes into lockdown mode.

Although the lockdown drill would not be possible without directions and teacher cooperation, students play a big role in the process. As stated by Mr. Uliks, the main responsibility that a student has during a lockdown is to follow their teacher’s directions. However, student’s opinions on how safe they feel during a lockdown is crucial to the school because it helps them improve their procedures.

“We get the general idea with the lockdown drills. I see a lack of seriousness sometimes, but otherwise it’s just a lack of care — I mean they [students] don’t care, go on your phone and do whatever,” sophomore Jack Stickney stated.

Thinking of students’ opinions, the LHS administration continuously goes through the lockdown procedures and tries to figure out the most efficient ways to better their lockdown mechanism. For example, if teachers realized that locking the door took too long when participating in a lockdown drill, Mr. Uliks and other LHS staff would attempt to make that process smoother for the teacher by having the door locked at all times during school hours.

“We constantly review our procedures and change them to figure out how they can be better. In the future, there’s even going to be some different types of locks installed to where it’s always locked, no matter what; you don’t even have to worry about it,” commented Mr. Uliks.