School procedures for an unexplained death on campus

[jana_denardo]

I was hoping someone could help me with this. I can find some things on the net but not enough. I have no kids in high school and when I was there we didn't have lock downs. Every emergency got you evacuated to the courtyard. The story in is taking place in Madison Wisconsin around 2005

Comments

[squidger]

I have no idea what the actual procedure would be but we did have lockdown drills at my high school, and I graduated in 2006. (Actually, I just remember drills in middle school. But I'm sure it would have been substantially similar.)

When the drills happened, an announcement would come over the loudspeakers that there was a Code Blue. All of the teachers would lock the doors of the classroom, turn off the lights, and they'd tell us to all huddle by whatever wall was furthest/out of line of site from any door or window. We were supposed to keep quiet, but we knew they were drills so we rarely did. They also never lasted that long, maybe ten minutes at the most.

[jana_denardo]

thanks. That's helpful

[goblinhipster]

I'm from Madison, Wisconsin and went to high school there! When we had lockdowns, the teachers locked the doors and everyone was kept in the classrooms. No one was allowed to leave, and we were quiet. I think lockdown procedures are different for different situations; for example, there was one drill when they turned off the lights and we hid under desks and tables. That, I think, was in case there was someone dangerous or threatening in/around the building.

In the case of a dead body, I think they would just do the standard lockdown. Teachers wouldn't continue to teach; class would be essentially suspended until the principal announced everything was okay.

[jana_denardo]

Thank you. That's a help. I lived in Madison but I was well and truly past h.s. at that time.

[424446543453453]

If he was found dead with no obvious signs of foul play, the coach would probably have some kid call for an ambulance, tell another to get the principle and the nurse, and dismiss the rest of the students (probably with the exception of the one who found teh body) or just let them gawk. You might try Googling instead "school medical emergencies" or something along those lines to find procedures, as that would probably be what the staff would assume was happening/happened. I don't think there would be a lock down at all based on the information you gave.

Anyway, I don't think there is any state or county-mandated procedure, so you could basically just make the rules up yourself. If there was some kind of accident in the school's history, that might be a reason for an overzealous lock down policy.

[jana_denardo]

thanks. that's very helpful. I hadn't thought of that google search

[angelinw8ing13]

Class of 04 here, and I've been through more than my fair share of lockdowns for different reasons. Lockdowns normally happen when students lives are in danger. At least down here (South Florida). The all too standard procedure was if a criminal was on the loose. Yep happened more than one from the time I was in elementary school through high school. Annoucment basically saying "We are have been order to lockdown the school, by such an such police department. Students do not leave your classrooms and teaches please begin the lockdown procedures." It was always very clam but again this happened a lot. The procedure was lights get turned off, the teacher tells the students to get as close to the walls and away from the windows as possible and to be quiet. It was a huge deal if you weren't quiet I remember one kid getting expelled because he wouldn't stop talking. The second kind I've been through a student brought a gun onto campus. The kid kicked the teacher out of the classroom, teacher ran to the office, the principal called the

[jana_denardo]

Actually this is pretty perfect, especially that last bit about the student collapsing since that would be pretty much the right scenario. Thanks so much.

[electricdruid]

If there is no reason to believe that the student's death was violent (i.e. no obvious signs of struggle; no blood, stab wounds, bullet entry wounds, or other fresh injuries; no broken bones; no screams or altercations were heard) I think it would be unlikely for a lockdown to be ordered, but it would probably depend very much upon the school system. A school in a district where school shootings have occurred, or one where bomb threats are frequent might be more likely to err on the side of caution. If drug use is common, they may occasionally have previously experienced students dying of overdoses in that school, and thus be less likely to err on the side of caution

[jana_denardo]

thanks. This seems very reasonable and more like what I thought would happen (in fact it was how I originally had it before the writers' group started screaming, OMG this should be a lock down).

[nineveh_uk]

Non-American, so limited perspective, but I was thinking the same thing about lockdowns. The fact is that given the numbers of children at school, children are going to die on school premises from time to time, just as adults die at places of work. Unless there's a genuine reason to believe there's a real security risk, then best practice is unlikely to treat it as a security risk, but as a medical emergency, which is effectively what it is. When you find the body of a person who has not died by violence, you don't immediate go into counter-violence mode, you go into "how awful this person is seriously ill/dead" mode.

[jana_denardo]

I have to agree with that. It was the people with kids in my writers group who insisted it had to be a lock down but as I was working on this, I thought, man you know, this sounds like overkill for what they probably think is a drug overdose. Thanks