why blame the schools for the lock downs? the cops told them to do the lock down. from both of these articles it seems we have a bunch of goverment buzy bodies who are truely government nannies and want to micromanage our lives. Original Article Schools deal with lockdown quandary Maggie Galehouse The Arizona Republic May. 20, 2005 12:00 AM A four-hour lockdown this week at Scottsdale's Desert Mountain High School forced students to urinate in sinks and trash cans because they weren't allowed to leave their classrooms to use the toilet. Last week, children at two Phoenix elementary schools in the neighborhood where Phoenix police Officer David Uribe was killed were locked down for so long that school officials ordered pizza for their dinner. The two cases illustrate the tightrope schools must walk between protecting students and detaining them for so long that their physical well-being becomes a concern. The incidents also highlight the widely varying standards schools use in determining when a lockdown is necessary and when to sound the all-clear. At Desert Mountain, high school students missed half a day of lessons because someone made up a story about a group of skinheads who were planning to shoot students and school personnel. Nathan William Swann, 18, was arrested by Scottsdale police Tuesday. Investigators say the high school dropout fabricated the story to impress a girl at Desert Mountain. Parents said they wish schools would be more discerning about lockdowns. "I talked to the principal at length," said Donna DuPont, whose son is a senior at Desert Mountain. "I said that I didn't envy his position; however, he's got to temper his decision to take these drastic measures with some sort of logic. Overreacting has been part of our process since Columbine," she said. It seems that every week, in every big city, a school bolts its doors because of a threat or security breach. "Lockdowns do occur frequently," said Layton Dickerson, a state school safety specialist. "When things start happening too much, we always run the risk of people becoming blas." Students say it depends on the length of the lockdown. "No one really gets too worried," said Max Gitenstein, 18, a Desert Mountain senior and veteran of four lockdowns this year. "No one thinks anything of it at first. But after 20 minutes, people start to wonder what's happening." Lockdown decisions are made by individual schools, ideally in consultation with district officials and police. "We don't take any chances with our kids," Washington Elementary School District spokeswoman Nedda Shafir said after last week's lockdowns because of the Uribe shooting. "It's very scary." Arizona schools must have emergency response plans and are required to train staff and students in emergency procedures at least once a year. School resource officers work with schools on evacuation plans for various scenarios. Because each situation is different, responses vary. At Desert Mountain, Principal Brian Corte followed the wishes of the Scottsdale Police Department and withheld details about the threat until the lockdown was over. Darryl DuPont, 18, wanted to know details after two policemen pulled him out of a classroom Monday and searched his pockets, car and locker. He said they asked him if he had any scars or tattoos relating to Nazi or Neo-Nazi groups. He was sent back to a different classroom with no explanation. School safety experts recommend giving older students at least some information. "It doesn't hurt them to know the basics of the situation," said William Lassiter, a specialist with the Center for the Prevention of School Violence in Raleigh, N.C. "It gives them more confidence and clarity about what's going on." Dickerson, the state safety expert, agreed. "Three or four hours of not knowing why you're in a lockdown has got to be pretty stressful," Dickerson said. "I also think students are more apt to follow instructions if they know the type of threat." In Monday's incident, students' cellphones were the only link to the outside world. Safety experts don't know whether that's good or bad. "We meet with school security chiefs around the country, and cellphones are liked by some and hated by others," said William Modzeleski, assistant deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools. "Sometimes cellphones are the only mechanism to reach out. They ease parents' minds. But you don't want half your parent population coming to a school because there's a problem." Although Desert Mountain left a phone message on the school's answering system about the lockdown, some parents said they did not get it. "I think that's the thing that troubled me the most when I got my first communication from Darryl," DuPont said. "He'd been detained for two hours, and they wouldn't allow him to call anyone to tell them what was going on." Nancy Wigton of Scottsdale, whose son is a junior at Desert Mountain, also said she had to call him directly. Experts say emergency response plans should always be open to modifications. One possible addition to Desert Mountain's plan, said Dickerson, is providing some sort of access to a toilet. "We also recommend that classrooms have an emergency kit," he said. "A lot of schools use five-gallon paint or pickle barrels that can be used as a toilet." In the Washington district, for example, classrooms have water and a portable shelter and bucket so children can go to the bathroom. At Desert Mountain, a number of students with health needs received medication during the lockdown. "Our school nurse was standing next to me holding a pre-organized box that listed all students on medications and the times the medications needed to be administered," said Corte, the principal. Still, there are no state or federal provisions for handling health needs in a lockdown. "If you have a student who needs to be medicated every two, four, six hours, you need to have those discussions with parents and school," Modzeleski said. Since schools do not report lockdowns to the Arizona Department of Education, there are no statistics on the numbers of such incidents. Mesa school officials said about a dozen of their 84 schools were locked down this year because of incidents near schools. Chandler school officials said they've had a handful of incidents this year, most because of burglaries or possible suicides in the area around their schools. Reach the reporter at maggie.galehouse@arizonarepublic.com or (602) 444-6868. Reporters Holly Johnson, Karina Bland, Anne Ryman, JJ Hensley and Doug Carroll contributed to this article. like this seventh grader is really going to kill these people????? http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/0520Evschool.html Tempe student disciplined after hit list is discovered Katie Nelson The Arizona Republic May. 20, 2005 12:00 AM TEMPE - A list of names of 18 students and six faculty members got a seventh-grader removed from McKemy Middle School. She told investigators it was an "assassination list," but police said a search of the school and the girl's Tempe home showed she probably didn't have any means to carry out an attack. No weapons were found. It's the latest in a string of threats at Valley schools. On Monday, Scottsdale's Desert Mountain High and Mountainside Middle School were locked down because of an alleged shooting threat. Last month, a Basha High School student was arrested in Chandler for allegedly plotting a shooting spree. In Tempe, a note was sent home Thursday with McKemy students telling parents about the alleged threats. "I want to assure you that we are taking this situation seriously," wrote Principal Ardie Sturdivant. "The safety or your children and the McKemy staff is our primary concern." Vice Principal Lyn Lizardi learned of the list during the last school period of the day Wednesday, Sturdivant said. Lizardi and Sturdivant immediately notified the district and the school's on-site Tempe police officer, Larry Baggs. Three other seventh-graders also were involved, police said. They have also been disciplined and removed from the campus, said district spokeswoman Monica Allread. School officials could not go into detail about the severity of the students' discipline. The girl's mother has been "very cooperative" with investigators, police said. She willingly allowed a search of her apartment Wednesday evening. At the same time, McKemy administrators contacted those who were named on the list late into the night, Sturdivant said. It took more than three hours of phone calls to reach the staff and most of the parents of the children. The one parent who wasn't reached Wednesday was contacted Thursday morning. There was heightened security Thursday at the 930-student school nestled into a central Tempe neighborhood. But the school day ran smoothly, with no unusual incidents. Counselors and the school psychologist were on hand as students learned of the news. Some McKemy students said they weren't scared for themselves, but about what might happen to the girl and her alleged cohorts. Lauren Trim, 13, said she's a good friend with the girl through school and church. "I'm sure this was just a bad, bad joke," Trim said. "She's not like that; she's really nice, just a little rough around the edges." Reach the reporter at katie .nelson@arizonarepublic.com.