The Lockdown Generation
December, 2019
“After Sandy Hook, we said never again. And then we let 2,305 mass shootings happen.”
This statement is issued in the middle of a total black screen on Vox.com — a statement that is both earth-shattering and mind-numbing all at once. Or, at least, it is for the kids of Generation Z (Gen Z).
The website, www.vox.com/a/mass-shootings-america-sandy-hook-gun-violence, is dedicated to the tracking of gun violence in U.S. schools since 2013. The website’s first page features the statement above in large letters in the middle of the screen, incorporating a live update tracker of every mass shooting since the Sandy Hook incident on Dec. 14, 2012. What follows is a series of maps, plot points, graphs and other statistics that mark the drastic and direct link between guns and devastation in our country — in less than a decade.
If for no other reason, this statement affects Gen Z both the most and the least because we were born in it. Raised in it. A whole generation of kids raised either to live a life of helplessness as the victim or to be driven so far off the edge that they become the offender.
According to Counseling.org, since 2002, 69% of gun violence incidents within schools were committed by people between the ages of 10 and 19. The next closest demographic sits at 15% of incidents committed by people between the ages of 20 and 29. Since Business Insider classifies Gen Z to be anyone born after 1996, the first official Gen Zs would be in their mid-20s by now.
That fact alone is what makes this threat so dangerous.
We are not the first generation to be defined by fear. As The Atlantic points out, kids born and raised in the ‘50s experienced nightmares of nuclear bombs being dropped on their heads. Three decades later, kids born and raised in the ‘80s had nightmares of being abducted in a white van just outside the school yard.
Kids now have nightmares about becoming target practice.
Unlike the previous century, there’s an element of internal unrest when it comes to gun violence within schools. It’s much easier to create an enemy and prepare for it. Students had no control over nuclear bombs dropping in the ‘50s, and while they could prepare for “stranger danger” scenarios in the ‘80s, the ultimate intent to cause harm came from factors outside the victims’ control.
While it can be difficult to sway someone else’s actions, the recurring cycle of violence our country is experiencing at the turn of the 21st century stems from ourselves. More often than not, according to Counseling.org, perpetrators are hardworking students with good grades and solid family lives who get pushed too far. It’s hard to create an enemy — an “us” versus “them” attitude — when the “enemy” could be the kid who sat next to you in math class for the entire year.
Whether or not the underlying problems can be picked apart and discussed, change takes time. It doesn’t matter what programs are put into place to improve mental health in the future because the kids who are pushed over the edge are feeling the way they are NOW.
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So, we prepare. We can and will keep our eyes and ears out for struggling family, friends, neighbors and peers. But, at the end of the day, it’s a lot harder to prevent an issue when you’re staring down the barrel of it. When it’s too late.
We would like everyone to seek help when they need it, and we would like to think that we could recognize and step in when we see something ajar. However, this isn’t always the truth. Safety and comfortability fall by the wayside during war, and that’s exactly what this phenomenon is: a war.
Over the past few years, kids as young as elementary school have begun strategizing their plans to evade the malice behind the bullets. In order to survive, we have to take into account what direction the threat is coming from and what the best course of action would be based off of known information of the threat. Much like soldiers on a battlefield, we have to act in what we judge is the best possible way to preserve our life and the lives of our peers.
We aren’t soldiers; we’re students. But we are still at war.
According to School Resource Officer (SRO) Lisa Schaps, District 214 (D214) has decided on the need for more realistic lockdown procedures starting this school year.
The discussion of this different type of lockdown drill started with former SRO — now Sergeant within the Mount Prospect Police Department — Chris Rondeau at the end of the 2018-19 school year. However, it wasn’t until Schaps went to one of the monthly district SRO meetings that she heard that a scenario-based lockdown drill had taken place and was successful at Forest View Educational Center.
As a part of D214’s new initiative, Prospect was the second school to implement this type of lockdown. Although Forest View was the first, Schaps said they were dealing with a total of about 11 teachers and 100 students, while Prospect has over 100 staff members and roughly 2,100 students.
On Oct. 23 at 9:15 a.m., Prospect went into a lockdown in which teachers were to open a scenario-based envelope illustrating where
the threat was in the building, what course of action the class should take and why. Receiving the scenarios from Forest View’s SRO, Schaps adapted and implemented new scenarios that were specific to Prospect, accounting for location and size of the given classroom. Although only specific teachers were given a scenario envelope at first, Schaps realized that teachers who didn’t receive an envelope got nervous. Therefore, every staff member was given a scenario.
Although Schaps is pleased with how Prospect’s drill went, she does emphasize that it was supposed to be more of a surprise.
“Obviously, if there is a real emergency, we aren’t going to know when that is,” Schaps said. “If everybody knows when the lockdown drill is coming, is that really an authentic response? Because I don’t think it is.”
For the future’s sake, Schaps says this will be one of their goals moving forward, as teachers were not supposed to open their envelopes before the actual drill. Moreover, Schaps also believes the drill lost its element of surprise when maintenance staff went through the building making sure the doors were locked, as well as when the officers who were alerted ahead of time arrived on campus before the drill started.
While the district is trying to introduce more realistic drills, Schaps says that these scenarios, being as progressive as they are, will probably be as far as the district will take it.
As a school, preparing students for the worst comes with a balancing act between preparedness ... and fear. Therefore, the district aims to prepare as many students and staff as possible without sparking unnecessary anxiety through acting out a live war zone.
“It’s a balance between making [the drills] feel realistic without traumatizing
our students,” Schaps said.
While we are going to stick with scenario-based lockdowns, Schaps said the scenarios will be different each time — most prominently regarding where the threat is located and what the class’s response should be given the situation.
In addition, Krozel emphasizes the feedback from parents in the community that she thinks are grateful for the extra effort the district makes to keep the kids safe and prepared. Moreover, Krozel also said that she doesn’t think there has been any negative student feedback because of how lockdown drills have become their new normal.
“[Students] are so accustomed to [lockdown drills] right now that it’s just like ... a fire drill or a tornado drill,” Krozel said.
Junior Zoe Smutko confirms this, as she estimates that she has been experiencing lockdown drills since elementary school.
In regards to the progression of lockdown, Smutko notes that they haven’t always been as thorough as they are at Prospect. She feels like, as she has gotten older, schools have progressively taken lockdown drills more seriously. Notably, Smutko appreciates the new form of lockdown as school shootings have only been increasing around the country, and it allows teachers and students alike to acknowledge and act on the
problem.
While it may be nerve-racking to think about, Smutko likes that the new drills are designed to try and get students to imagine what would happen if a real threat were to take place. Recognizing that each threat will be different and thus thinking it nearly impossible to be completely ready for it, she feels like she is better prepared because of the scenario-based lockdowns.
When the first situational drill occurred at Prospect, social science teacher Jay Heilman was located in the KLC as a study hall supervisor. According to Heilman, the scenario he received in his letter specified to shelter in place, or hide, because there were audible gun shots in the hallway just outside the KLC.
According to Schaps, each of the many scenarios incorporated the most recent Run, Hide, Fight methods for in-building threats; it is constantly developing in an attempt to stay ahead of any threats that may arise.
According to Heilman, before this scenario-based lockdown, it was anticipated that everybody was supposed to hide. Heilman says that, depending on the situation, simply hiding from the threat may not be the best precaution in preserving your life. In light of the recent progressivism in lockdown thinking, Heilman feels that other districts outside D214 may view this new form of lockdown as being a little too intense. However, he personally likes the concept and the effectiveness of the new approach.
“[Schaps] operates on a very high standard of preparedness,” Heilman said. “[It’s] something that maybe is not typical to us as teachers and students, so I think it’s good to practice that standard to help us be better prepared in the event that we have to act.”
While Heilman feels that he has always been fairly prepared for outside threats, as he takes extra time to go through an emergency plan with each of his classes, he does recognize that he might be in the minority in terms of how teachers approach the topic with their students. So, rather than thinking that the scenario-based lockdowns increased his preparedness, Heilman believes that they have simply reinforced it.
Moreover, Heilman feels that this new form of lockdowns simply forced teachers to have a conversation with their class regarding the plan of action in the event of a real threat. Like Schaps, when it comes to more extreme measures of lockdown drills, Heilman thinks that Prospect shouldn’t overdo the drills too much, as it might
cause more panic than it does a feeling of preparedness.
“There’s a very fine line between scare, fear and preparing,” Heilman said. “I think the more real something becomes, the more that line [of preparedness] gets blurred into fear.”
According to NBC News, the country has developed many more ways in preparing for potential school
disasters: most notably, making drill scenarios as severe and realistic as possible, with the idea of preparing students and staff for the worst. Some call it creative, while others call it extreme. Either way, there are schools throughout the country being exposed to blank rounds being fired in the building and students being covered in fake blood.
NBC points to Troy Buchanan High School (TBHS) in Missouri, where all students were excused for the day except for a select group of drama students. These students were drenched in fake blood and riddled with painted-on bullet wounds, while a select group of officers fired blank AR-15s through the hallways. TBHS, which utilizes many ALICE techniques in their drills (along with many other schools), are under debate over how much physical and mental strain it makes students and staff go through.
Whether or not more extreme methods prove effective, every school across the country has to make a conscious decision to either balance fear with productivity, or do whatever it takes to preserve the lives of their school population — even if it destroys their quality of life. As kids are being unwillingly drafted into a war that they have no business being in, adults nationwide have to address one question: “Do the ends justify the means?”
In terms of preparing for the future, both Heilman and Schaps agree that the first scenario lockdown was too well-anticipated. In the future, they would like to see lockdowns be more of a surprise because, in reality, no one is going to know when an outside threat will occur.
Furthermore, Schaps still plans to progress the training methods of officers and first responders in the event of a threat. Over the summer, Schaps attended an active shooter training scenario sponsored by the BGPD at BGHS. Because of this, Schaps hopes to use more local schools in training exercises so officers become more familiar with the layout of the schools, as well as gain a clearer sense of how an actual threat response would go down.
Moreover, in early September, the Mount Prospect Police Department used Christian Life Church in a training scenario to help prepare officers for shooter situations. The church, being attached to Christian Life College, contained a few small classrooms as
well as many main hallways. Using blanks, officers had to arrive on the scene and work their way through the building to locate and neutralize the threat.
According to Schaps, this was extremely helpful because it allowed the officers to think about how response time, echoing, crossfire and mental blocks all factor into a real situation.
Although the Run, Hide, Fight model has only existed and been taught for a few years, Schaps says that it is continuing to evolve as more people get involved. Schaps says that as students and staff begin to ask more questions and further formulate their emergency plan of action, these drills will become more effective.
After Prospect’s first scenario-based lockdown, Schaps says she is comfortable with Prospect’s knowledge and preparedness if a real threat were to arise. While student and staff feedback does play a massive role in the formulation of these drills, this generation has grown up with locked doors and closed window blinds.
So, while the threat may keep progressing, how we respond to it as a district, a school, a staff, a student and as people will progress at twice the rate.
“I think kids have been doing these drills for so long that I actually feel that [advanced drills] would put them at more ease — knowing that they have options,” Krozel said. “Knowing that they are not just ... sitting ducks in a room.”