Hi all, I am expanding on a chapter in my novel, and need some help or advice. In the scene, my main character is in class when two students are involved in an altercation. One is severely injured, the other (protagonists best friend) is suspected of having a weapon -- but no one knows what happened at this point. It's meant to be the set up for ongoing mystery. I have asked my friend, who is a primary school teacher, what procedure would be. She said to evacuate students and isolate the one with suspected weapon. But I remember my school having codes Red/Blue/Yellow/Black/Green, plus teachers having walkie talkies for emergency situations. I also found this from some research, but not much else: http://www.hobbsschools.net/UserFiles/Servers/Server_6/File/Operations/Admin%20Handbook/Emergency%20Codes.pdf Does anyone know what the correct codes are, or any alternatives to how the teacher would handle this scene?
This is going to vary heavily from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and possibly even from school to school. Write what fits your story needs.
Different schools and districts will have different codes or procedures, however the trend now for danger internally (Active Shooter) is to escape/flee the building rather than hide in place as the first option. Otherwise for other concerns, such as a fight, or drug dog search, etc., it can be as basic as Level 1: Clearing of hallways for mild disturbance Level 2: Close and lock doors. No movement in hallways, except change of classes Level 3: No movement in halls for any reason, lights turned off in classroom (door locked), all on floor away from door, electronic devices turned off/sound down. Announcements go over the PA system. Some districts may have code words instead of straight forward.
Being in high school still, I can definitely confirm this. My school has walkie talkies, each teacher has one, and they're supposed to have them on and know how to use them. Ultimately, I do think it varies from school to school, so I think if you find a few different procedures online then you can just pick whatever one would fit or you like best.
There was actually an on-campus shooting at a middle school in Los Angeles yesterday (Feb 1), with two schools being put on lockdown. You might look for eyewitness accounts from students and teachers. The media were all over the story yesterday live as it happened. One of the stations that covered it live was ABC7 Los Angeles, and another was CBS2 Los Angeles. I've linked you to some stories about the incident. The shooting was caused by a gun going off in a 12 year old girl's backpack, but that info wasn't known until last night, well after the incident was over.
When I was in school, we didn't have walkie talkies or color codes, we had the simple "Lockdown," Which was Lock the door, turn off the lights and shut up, "Lock Out" which was you could roam around the school but if you went outside you could not come back in. otherwise, the teachers and the school officer took care of it.
Two incidents I've personally witnessed/been involved in in the past year or so: One was in a middle school (6th through 8th grades). It began when one of the teachers came into my classroom (where I was the sub), asking me to keep the students in the room when the bell rang and not let them into the hall. A short time after that, the principal came on the PA and directed us that that period was to be extended, the doors were to remain closed, and no students were to be allowed out, even to use the restroom. That was fun, I can tell you. About five of the 11 or 12-year-old sillies I had in charge, all of them boys, started running around the room screaming at the top of their lungs that there was a shooter in the building, they knew who it was, and we were All Gonna Die!!!!!! I tried to get them to shut up, pointing out that if there really was a shooter (which I doubted), they were making so much noise he'd come get them first. They were too loud for me to be heard. As it turned out, a student in the first teacher's class had passed out from a diabetes-related condition and the admin didn't want the kids moving around the halls while the child was being removed in an ambulance. The other one happened about a month ago in a high school in a different district than the first. In that case, a few minutes into 7th period lunch the principal came on the PA and said there was an emergency, that teachers on the three lower floors were to evacuate with their students and proceed to the middle school down the hill, and the teachers on the top floor (which is at street level, the building being built down the side of a steep hill) were to go to the elementary school on other side of the campus. Teachers like me, who were on lunch or prep, were to herd the kids in the cafeteria over to the elementary school as well. The regular teachers all had an app on their phones on which they could get emergency information. Me, I had no chance even to try to download it, as I forgot to put my phone on charge the night before and the battery was dead. Information was kept to a minimum; all I heard was that the evacuation was triggered by a threatening note found in one of the restrooms and something referring to possible violence that had come up on Facebook. I'm assuming it had something to do with a possible bomb or bombs. At any rate, no one was allowed back into the high school that afternoon, not even for their car keys or to change out of their gym clothes. I was darned glad I'd put my laptop into my briefcase before evacuating, or too bad, I would have had to do without it. For your purposes, though, the PA announcement by the principal was key in both situations. In the second one the fire alarm was not sounded, which, ironically perhaps, told me it was not a drill. But I'm wondering something, @AmeliePoptart: If the POV character is in the classroom where this all takes place, why and how is it a mystery as to what has gone down? Either the kid who is injured shows signs of being hurt by a weapon, or he doesn't. If he's severely injured, that will likely take some time and the other students and the teacher will see that the other kid is armed. Or are you saying he might have a weapon in addition to whatever it was he hurt the injured kid with? Interesting. Anyway, if the assailant kid remains in the room, it's time for some gutsy behavior on the part of the teacher to get him to give up the weapon and not hurt anyone else. If he runs out of the room (which I suspect is where you're going with this), the first thing is for the teacher to ring the office and alert the admin and the school security officer, if any. And if the secretary is on lunch break and the principal is off dealing with some other issue, heaven help us. Believe me, it happens.
Hey everyone, Sorry for my late reply (I have been getting log in errors for a while). Thank you to everyone for the advice, especially ones who have drawn from personal experience or knowledge (particularly @Catrin Lewis ). You've all given me a pretty good idea of what to do with the scene, and the questions I should be asking myself. Cheers
