Lockdown
In the past few years, widespread concern about lockdown procedures has grown. Media coverage and public outcry over events that seem to occur with increasing frequency only serve to heighten this concern.
- While many elementary and high schools practice lockdown drills. A lockdown exercise at Dawson, is a much more complex undertaking for several reasons.
- Elementary and high school students are in class at the same time. School populations are generally between 200 to 2,000 at an age, when they are more likely to follow directives.
- At Dawson, some 5000 to 6000 people are scattered throughout the building at any one time of the day, in classrooms, labs, gyms, corridors and common areas.
- Our population is made up of teenagers, young adults, faculties and staffs; who practice free will and may not be as easily convinced to stay put.
If the need for a lockdown at Dawson occurs during the day, evening or weekend, the intercom system will be used to issue such an order.
We continue to gather various opinions from security specialists on how best to approach the lockdown process for a building of our size, layout, population and schedule.
