Schools across the state will be practicing lockdown drills on a regular basis. LPS will be experiencing some major changes not just in lockdown protocol, but also in other safety drills.

LPS has a Standard Response Protocol (SRP), to addresse any concerns of the families of elementary, middle, and high school students.

“It’s just the wave of what’s going on in the world right now,” Lori Spivey, Security Supervisor said. “It’s to increase the awareness. We’ve been lucky that we haven’t had an incident related to a shooting.”

Teachers in Lincoln have received a guide, giving instructions on what to do during both a drill and in case of a real emergency. Every school in the state will have a red folder in the classroom. Inside the red folder there will be cover sheets, action sheets and teacher guides in case of an emergency. Inside the folder is also a phone list, maps for every kind of evacuation protocol and posted instructions for shelter areas.

“Its good from the standpoint that you can never be too safe,” Duane Baack, the Student Services Coordinator said. “We want to protect our students at all times.”

While LSW is trying to avert the possiblities of an attack on the school occuring, with the drills Spivey has that noticed some students do not take the lcokdown drills as seriously as they should.  

“Students have to take the lockdown drills more seriously,” Spivey said. “so many times we hear laughing in the classrooms. If it were

a real emergency that would indicate to whoever is trying to get in that there’s somebody in there. In a real emergency it wouldn’t be us coming.”

Instead of just having 10 fire drills over the year, Lincoln Southwest will be having two lockout drills during the first and third quarter, two lockdown drills during first quarter, and third quarter and two shelter drills sometime in March or April.

“Security is everybody’s responsibility,” Baack said. “There’s a lot more things that students see and can communicate to administration. That would be very beneficial.”

It’s encouraged that if students see something, or hear something that doesn’t sound right, to tell a teacher or administrator. There is also a LPS student services number that can be called. The number is 402-436-1650

“With every event in our society we become better prepared,” Baack said. “But I would like that to happen ahead of time instead of after the fact.”