Local schools to re-address 'lock-down' procedures

A man who burst in to a Whangarei classroom this week saying he wanted to tell a young teacher and her staff about love - but could just as easily have been wielding a weapon - has given fresh urgency to planning for "lock-downs" in Whangarei high schools.
Police had pursued the man through the city in a stolen car at speeds of up to 140km/h. After blowing out the left front tyre going in the wrong direction around the Tikipunga roundabout, the fugitive ditched the car and ran into the Tikipunga High School grounds.
 Principal John Garelja said Monday's emergency had tested lock-down procedure, which worked well. Everyone had followed instructions and responded promptly to the bell alarm. "We were very pleased," he said, but added that he was not too sure there were perfect answers. "All you can do is to minimise risk as much as you can."
Senior management at Whangarei high schools are all fine-tuning plans for "lock-downs" - emergency strategies for dealing with imminent physical threat within the school grounds - but say a comprehensive lock-down plan is much more complicated than a fire evacuation drill.
In the case of fire everyone moves to evacuation points away from the buildings. Lock-downs are the opposite.
Teachers lock the classroom doors, close the windows, draw the curtains and hit the floor along with their students.

 Kevin Dean, deputy principal at Whangarei Girls' High School, says the school will start trialling lock-down procedures next term. Planning has included advice from police and getting an electrician to trial sirens that could be heard around the school grounds, attached to the school bell tower.
 Mr Dean said the  team was still grappling with what the best strategy would be if an "imminent threat" happened at lunchtime.
"By calling students inside we could be putting them into more danger than if they stayed away from the buildings," he said.

 General communication during lock-down would probably be through computer (which are in 99 per cent of classrooms).
Mangakahia Area School went smoothly into lock-down a couple of years ago when an armed offender ran through the school grounds during a police pursuit.  Mangakahia deputy principal Bill Morgan said classroom doors at Mangakahia lock automatically from the inside and there were  telephones in most classrooms.
A petrol leak about four years ago at a nearby service station saw Kamo High School evacuated to the far side of the school. Kamo High School Deputy Principal John Rummery says the school has a civil emergency policy in place which varied according to what the threat was involved (gas, chemicals, fire, flood or fugitive) and if students were in class or not.
Bream Bay College has two sets of alarms, signalling whether to be inside in classroom or gym, or outside. Principal Wayne Buckland said being near to industry they had concentrated particularly on chemical, gas or fire scenarios.