Last week's fatal shootings at Faye Galloway Elementary in suburban Henderson reinforced the reality of modern life: violence can happen anyplace, anytime. (In the school's parking lot, police shot a gunman who'd killed a man believed to be his ex-lover's boyfriend; the woman fled unharmed).
But when mayhem does occur on or near Clark County School District campuses—local numbers show a drop in drugs and gun incidents in the 2002-2003 academic year but a rise in gang allegiances, especially in middle school; a 2003 study by the National Center for Education Statistics notes that teachers are frequently targets of violence—school officials act swiftly.
Every school has a site-specific crisis-response plan, says district communications coordinator Pat Nelson, and all schools perform safety exercises, from practicing fire drills to emulating lockdown procedures in case of violence.
During lockdown, everything's closed and all movement's halted—students remain in classrooms and enclosed areas. "Lockdowns can occur for different reasons, if there any immediate dangers in the neighborhood near schools or at a school such as violence or gunfire," Nelson says.
If there's a chemical problem, shelter-in-place drills spring into action: "We close off heating and cooling systems and stabilize the environment. We evacuate affected places and go to designated areas."
Gunfire occasionally rings out near Booker Elementary, across town from Galloway. When it does, word spreads from the hall monitors to administrators to teachers to pupils. A modified version of shelter-in-place then goes into effect, something principal Beverly Mathis refers to as "get down and stay down." Also at work are facets of the closed-campus system adopted by high schools last year—locked outer gates, which force visitors to come to the main office; the buddy system (students aren't allowed to walk the campus alone); and old-fashioned eagle-eyeing—from the pupils, who are encouraged to report any visitors without name tags, and from teachers, who stand in their doorways when bells sound ending class. Cops from the nearby Bolden Area command visit frequently to mentor and build rapport.
"[Our safety procedures] are not in response to danger on campus, but danger in the community" says Mathis, noting that parents welcome the added scrutiny. "Children in this neighborhood aren't afraid of gunshots because they are such a real part of what takes place in some of their lives. We've been really blessed, we've only had two lockdowns in the last nine years."
Depending on the situation, Nelson says, the local police jurisdiction will augment school police. Following traumatic incidents, crisis intervention teams are dispatched to counsel students or staff. A day after the violence at Galloway, Nelson says a parent called to say her daughter was uncomfortable going to school.
"When I told her about the crisis intervention team, it made her feel better," she says.
Carson Elementary is also located in a tough-luck neighborhood in West Las Vegas. At the sound of gunshots or other major trouble, campus monitors alert the office, which issues a "code red" intercom announcement, directing teachers keep doors shut until they hear principal Linda Gipson's voice. "They're not to let anyone in, even me," Gipson says. "I have a key, I can get in." Carson has had few lockdowns in the past nine years, most of the problems occurring after school hours and involving outsiders. "There's only been one time when I thought we couldn't release kids on time (because of a lockdown), but we got them out on time."
As a result of the violence near Galloway, Mathis plans some changes at Booker.
"Because of the Galloway incident, our Safekey program will be locked, and parents will have to provide proof of who they are," Mathis says. Last week's shooting occurred at 4:45 p.m., as dozens of children took part in Henderson's Safekey after-school program. "Every incident causes us to be more aware … this is something that could have taken place anywhere."