JCA lockdown gives police, staff overview of school safety plan
By Brian Stanley bstanley@stmedianetwork.com January 25, 2012 7:22PM
Members of the Joliet Police Department meet with Joliet Catholic Academy staff to review results of the school's lockdown drill Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012, in Joliet. | Matthew Grotto~Sun-Times Media
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Updated: February 27, 2012 9:47AM
JOLIET — With a dozen police officers surrounding him, the student realized he picked a terrible time to play hooky.
But the young man returned from a trip to Walgreens just as police began a drill to place Joliet Catholic Academy on lockdown Tuesday morning. Less than 30 seconds after the announcement was made, faculty and students had moved to secure areas while officers began to search the campus as if an intruder was able to enter the building.
The empty hallways and total silence at 9 a.m. on a weekday led one observer to ask if school actually had been in session.
“The whole building is supposed to be a ghost town,” Sgt. Rob Hall acknowledged. “We shouldn’t see anybody (in the halls).”
A test for faculty
The school does lockdown drills approximately once a month, but this was the first time the police have practiced at the school. The dean was reportedly the only employee who was aware the drill was scheduled.
“This is to test the faculty as well as the students. Actually, (this is) more to test the faculty,” Hall said. “If they don’t take it seriously, the kids won’t either.”
A recent law now requires private and public schools to hold annual law enforcement drills for situations such as shootings, bomb threats, suspicious persons or hazardous materials. By June, Joliet police will have conducted 40 drills at the elementary and junior high schools and six at the high schools.
Officers split the school into different areas and tried opening doors and listening for noise. The truant student and another who had been in a bathroom when the drill began and was considered “unsecured” were kept with police as the inspection continued.
The drill ended after about 20 minutes and as the school day resumed, Hall and the other officers met with administrators to present their report card.
“For a first time through, I thought it went very well overall,” Hall said.
Police had questions about a few doors being left unlocked and lights being left on, but acknowledged having people get to safety as soon as possible should be more of a priority than leaving to secure a spot that might be unoccupied.
And while a few things could be changed for security, not everything should be.
“The double doors (in one area) are great for an evacuation, lousy for a lockdown. Which do you take?” Officer Ed Johnson asked.
Besides staging the lockdown when classes are in session, police also hope to have a drill during passing periods at the schools this year to evaluate those procedures.
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