Lockdowns becoming common among area schools
HIDALGO — The call came in from a concerned parent on a recent windy morning.
Gunshots were heard near a Valley View elementary school. Parents and school officials were worried that a shootout had crossed the border from Mexico.
Superintendent Leonel Galaviz said school officials quickly locked down Valley View’s campuses, most of which are less than two miles from the U.S. border with Mexico.
“With the situation in Mexico and we’re close to the border, we don’t want to take any chances,” he said.
Hidalgo police officers later determined there was no threat: The winds carried the sounds of gunshots at a nearby shooting range farther than normal, said Hidalgo Police Chief Vernon Rosser.
“At least people are prepared to do something instead of sitting around doing nothing,” the chief said. “It’s better to lock down and not take a chance in our day and time.”
For schools in the Rio Grande Valley, concerns about border violence have compounded fears of school shootings that have made national headlines since the massacre at Columbine High School near Denver in 1998.
Most lockdowns happen after police let school officials know that a fugitive is on the loose in the neighborhood or a police chase may pass near a campus. School officials can also lock down a campus before the police recommendation, as was the case with the false alarm near Valley View’s campuses.
Galaviz said his district has had to lock down campuses more in recent months as border violence concerns have increased. Lockdowns are a precaution that are practiced as regularly as fire drills — and mandated by the state.
“We don’t tell them it is a practice one,” Galaviz said. “We tell them it is a lockdown.”
Keeping the mystery as to whether the lockdown is a drill or the real thing ensures students treat the situation seriously, school officials said.
Most school districts do not keep track of how many lockdowns they do, most officials say there are no more lockdowns now than there were a few years ago.
However, local media outlets are reporting on them more frequently, which can sometimes frighten parents, officials said.
“Our districts are as transparent as they can be,” Galaviz said. “But somewhere there is the sense of panic and sensationalism.”
Some local school districts say they prefer to keep lockdowns quiet to prevent panicked student relatives from rushing to take their children out of school. Others, like the McAllen and Mission school districts, have recently begun using social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook to announce when and where lockdowns have been activated.
“That will be something we will be using more and more for that purpose,” said Mark May, a McAllen school district spokesman.
In La Joya — an area where suspected human or drug smugglers regularly pass by schools during police pursuits — the district locks down campuses to prevent any unauthorized entry, but students continue coursework, said Raul Gonzalez, the school district’s police chief. During more serious threats, such as a violent incident inside a school, classrooms are locked, no one is allowed into hallways and students take cover.
During a lockdown situation, no one is allowed to leave a school campus or enter it — not even the parents.
“We literally leave parents outside the gate,” Gonzalez said. “Your inconvenience will not outweigh the safety of the child.”
Other districts, like Valley View, lock students inside classrooms during all lockdowns until the warning is lifted. Such a lockdown lasted nearly two hours Monday morning, when Border Patrol advised school officials that agents were pursuing dozens of illegal immigrants near Valley View High School, Galaviz said.
“I’d rather disrupt class than have somebody get hurt,” he said.
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Jared Taylor covers law enforcement and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4439.
