photo: Cayusa/ BY-NC-SA

Soon after distress calls went out from Sandy Hook Elementary, every school and hospital in the small Connecticut town went into lockdown.  Teachers herded their students into classrooms and barred the doors.  When police came to secure the building, one first grade teacher told ABC News, she insisted on having an officer slide his badge under the door to prove he wasn't the gunman.  In recent years, lockdowns have become a common security protocol in schools. Youth Radio's Robyn Gee and Denise Tejada ask about the policy of school lockdowns and the effect it has on students and parents.

Gee speaks with Oakland public school spokesperson, Troy Flint, about the district's lockdown policy.  Tejada talks to Guadalupe Garcia, who has a fifth grader in the district. Garcia complains that the school poorly communicates school crisis to parents and that the frequency of Oakland lockdowns scars students.  Gee also hears from Wanda Cole-Frieman, who has a 9-year-old at a Bay Area private school. Frieman felt well-informed during a lockdown at her daughter's school.