School Lockdowns: Are They Democratic?

Posted in on Jul 22, 2010 - 08:51 PM

This video is a snippet of a lunch lock-down. I thought my former school was the only one that practiced it with this specific term. Similar to a loss or restriction of lunch recess due to teacher displeasure with behavior, a lunch lock-down is a disciplinary spin on regular lock-downs. The typical lock-down is a procedure of restricting everyone's movement on the campus to protect against threats, assaults and violence. If there's word of a gun on campus, the campus immediately goes to lock-down mode while bags/lockers/desks are searched. If a burglar or criminal gets near or on to school grounds, the school is locked down - no one can go anywhere until the issue is resolved. Same applies to major disasters or anything else threatening.

Now I'm not sure if this is legal, but my former high school and many elementary schools restricted lunch/"nutrition"/recess access because the teachers or principals/administration were displeased with student behavior. At my former high school, many of our lunch lock-downs were caused by an excess of trash on lunch grounds. In other cases, isolated incidents such as lotion being sprayed on the boy's restroom walls resulted in lunch lock-down for all male students. If teachers were upset with numerous disruptions or if the principal demanded confessions regarding rumors and incidents, lock-downs were threatened or enacted. We could still go get and eat our lunch, but it must be done inside, in silence. One time all of the freshmen were under a lock-down. Since my school was small, the principal was able to line them all up in an oppressive line, and watch them silently get their food before returning to their classrooms to eat. They were on display as she loudly described why they were being punished. It was a game of pride and power for her. I wish I could have documented it without getting in trouble. It wasn't fair at all. It came to a point that when lock-downs were legally necessary (for protection), we all thought we were being punished and tended to not take the lock-down seriously. Students would be excused to the restroom at times because teachers experienced some confusion as well.

At the elementary school where I tutored and at my brother's former middle and elementary school, a similar situation of restriction was done. Talk "out of turn" too often - no recess or lunch recess. Remain out of your seat - same thing. This only made the 2nd graders more restless, cranky and upset. Monitors to put people in the "red, yellow or green" got special privileges. Rush to the teacher with a social problem, play too much, do not complete the packets upon packets of worksheets, same thing, or you are sent away to another room and gotten rid of. More often than not, punishments are doled out before the situation is investigated (if investigated at all).

Guilty until proven innocent. No hearing with witnesses or a jury to weigh the situation. No mediation or conflict resolution. Why, that's a fine way to treat citizens of a democratic society isn't it?

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