After the Feb. 14 school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Wakeland, Fla., Brookfield school teachers and students approached Superintendent Velina Jo Taylor and said they wanted to practice the school’s emergency procedures.
“We haven’t done it in a while,” Taylor said.
The district held a lockdown drill Friday. All students and staff were to lock their doors, set up barricades with whatever was in their rooms and keep stone quiet.
It gets creepy when it’s so quiet, Taylor said, especially around the cafeteria, where the elementary school students had eaten lunch just before the drill.
Administrators, maintenance staff and Brookfield police walked the halls checking doors and making sure no one was in the bathrooms or other rooms without doors.
“We almost always find some doors that are not locked,” Taylor said, and Friday was no exception.
“We did find some and that worries me,” she said.
Referring to one group of students she found in an unlocked room, “They would be dead” she told her search team.
Friday’s drill was announced, but another drill will be scheduled without advance notice, Taylor said.
Students were shown videos this week on how to react in an emergency, and there will be more training for staff and students, she said.
All teachers will be taught how to use the public address system, because administrators want them to be able to call for a lockdown in the event of a real emergency, Taylor said.
High School Principal Adam Lewis said he will introduce to students at an assembly on Wednesday STOPit, a free phone app that students can download and use to anonymously report bullying, harassment or safety issues to school administrators.
“I hope they download it and use it,” Lewis said.
