Lack of locks hindering lockdown drills

Lockdown drills at P.E.I. schools have highlighted a major deficiency most classrooms don't have locks on their doors.

'The best thing we're getting from these drills is we're learning what else we have to do.' Adrian Smith, Eastern School District

All schools will be going through a mandatory exercise to prepare students in case an intruder enters the buildings. The lockdown is similar to a fire drill, but instead of going outside the school students will stay inside the classroom.

Adrian Smith, director of student services for the Eastern School District, said discovering problems such as classrooms that don't lock is part of the process.

"If I waited till every school was 100 per cent ready to do these drills, we'd never get the drills done," said Smith.

"The best thing we're getting from these drills is we're learning what else we have to do. That's the best learning tool I know."

Students in elementary classrooms will be told where the safest place in the classroom is, away from the windows and the doors. That area will be marked off with coloured floor or ceiling tiles.

Teachers are supposed to lock the doors,but Smith said for now, many teachers will have to improvise.

"Kids can come up with stuff like, 'Well if there was a bad person in the building maybe we could put a desk in front of the door, or, 'We'll stress... thatyou have to be really quiet," he said.

"Kids come up with that kind of stuff."

The lockdown drills have already been held in some junior and senior high schools. They'll be executed in elementary schools in the coming months.