Lynn schools pass lockdown drills with flying colors

LYNN – Police gave 30 public and private schools in the city exemplary marks in recently completed lockdown safety drills, with every school earning a “good” or above for the first time.”The protocol was followed, we couldn’t see anybody in the classrooms, the lights were out, and all the doors were locked – it was like the school was abandoned … which is what we want,” Lynn Police Officer Robert Ferrari, school security and emergency planning liaison, said Monday.Lynn Police and Lynn Public Schools conducted lockdown drills at all 27 Lynn Public Schools during October and November. Police also conducted drills at St. Mary’s High School, Sacred Heart School and St. Pius School, at the request of those schools.Ferrari described a lockdown as a protective measure to ensure the safety of faculty, staff and students when there is an armed perpetrator approaching the campus, on campus, or in the school. The lockdown can also lead to school evacuations. Students, staff and police are also trained in secure-and-hold orders, where the school is not under threat, but nobody can enter or leave the school building due to potentially unsafe activity in the surrounding area.”Anything you can imagine, we try to address it – whether a bomb threat, or a weather situation…or the worst-case scenario where you have an intruder who becomes an active shooter,” Ferrari said.While the actual drills can be done rather quickly, Ferrari said the process of planning, observing and evaluating the drills has involved years of planning and efforts by the schools and police.”We’ve made some great strides in improving the safety of the schools: new doors, card access, visitor-management systems, cameras. (The schools) have done a great job incorporating safety measures,” Ferrari said. “Now we have to be sure that they work if we have an event.”Ferrari plans the drills with members of each school’s emergency response team (usually three or four members of the school staff), so that students and majority of the school staff do not know that the tests are only simulations.Prior to the drill, police officers assigned to the school’s neighborhood meet outside the school to ensure that their identification cards allow them inside the school – something that was incorporated this year (everybody passed, Ferrari said.)The officers then discuss the school layout and consider any students who may need extra care due to disabilities or special needs.Officers and members of the school’s emergency response team then position themselves throughout the building to observe as the drill begins. Students and staff move to each classroom’s designated safe zone, shut the lights and remain silent behind locked doors. Officers and school staff then check to see that all students and staff are out of sight and quiet and classroom doors are securely locked.Following the “all clear,” and announcement that the incident was only a drill, officers and school staff evaluate each school’s response on a scale of 1-10.This year, every school received at least a “good” evaluation (7 out of 10) with many receiving “excellent” ratings of 9 or 10, Ferrari reported. The drills also involved 49 Lynn Police officers.”I think the city in general has taken the “making everybody safe” cause and made it very important in Lynn,” Ferrari said. “The schools continue to add all layers of security, and the equipment is a nice thing, there are tools that make a difference these days, but nothing takes the place of a well-trained staff.”