Intruder?! What?! Lockdown?!

Lockdown Immediately!

The words you never want to hear and surely think “it will never happen to me”.  I bet that’s what a lot of people who have experienced such a traumatic experience of an intruder in their trusted and safe places thought too. I remember writing our policies for Just Like GRAMMY & POPPOP’s quite well.  The number of hours pouring into the creating, organizing, wordsmithing, editing, etc. but I also remember my heart hurting that we even have to address the importance of being prepared for an intruder. Just. in. case.

$100,000 Pyramid Game

Then, how do you practice this or be well prepared without exposing the innocent little minds to this tragedy even existing? Although it stinks to think about it, you have to. And you have to make sure everyone has the knowledge of a plan without speaking out-loud “guns” “armed” “busted through the door” “attack” etc.

We had a parent visit on a tour that previously advocated for safety in early childcare centers and she asked us, “what do you have in place to train for intruders?” I can’t remember if Matt or I answered since we usually both are on the Meet & Greet Tours, but it was the same answer. We have a section covered in our onboarding and we do fire drills monthly year-round and tornado drills monthly April – September. We don’t drill for intruders, but we have a lockdown procedure and it is hanging on our emergency clipboards in every classroom.  Thank you, Brittany!  It got us thinking through…

Is that the best we can do to keep the children safe?

No. We wanted to do more. We will be repeating this drill periodically and we will be refining this as we discover additional ways to improve how we keep the infants, toddlers, preschoolers, and teachers safe.

Step by Step

1. Matt printed out a sign that read, “I AM AN INTRUDER. Act Accordingly”. He put up his hoodie and started walking to all of our classrooms just holding up the sign. I followed closely behind watching and noting reactions.
   • We heard giggles. We heard, “what? what should I do?”.  We saw the deer in headlights look back at us.
2. We circled back to all of the classes to observe what action had been taken.
3. We sighed.
4. We noted that one 4K 5K class took action despite lots of inquisitive voices, “why is it dark?”  “why do we have to be quiet?”
   • Great job, Blossoms!  They turned off their lights and squeezed under a table in the corner.

5. We waited for exactly one week and repeated steps 1 & 2.
6. We smiled. We were so proud. Every single teacher took steps to keep her class safe. 

• • • Keep in mind, we didn’t say anything after the first drill. Intentionally. We wanted to see what would happen. We have said it before and we will say it again. Our team is top-notch. We only have the best. They reviewed our policies. They took action!

7. See the photos below in how the infants, toddlers, children from ages 8 weeks to 5 years old were guided by their teachers to practice the unanticipated Intruder Drill in each of our classrooms.

In one of our infant rooms, the teachers gathered the awake babies and took them the furthest corner unseen from the door.

In our early 1K toddler room, the teacher stopped preparing snack and placed the children in an evacuation crib that was around the corner and unseen from the door.

In one of our 2K rooms, the teacher stopped their story, called out to her co-teacher to call 9-1-1 (and had to quick recall that). They guided the children into the dark changing table room around the corner.

In our preschool 4K 5K room, they scurried to the back classroom (our lockdown pre-determined location) and turned out the lights and hid in the corner under a table with the 3K class.

We did it. We will do it again.

It is necessary unfortunately, that we have to have an intruder drill. But we will do it again because we believe it helps to be prepared.  We will also continue to make it fun and hope that the children can wait a while to learn what we are really preparing for.