Podcast with Amy Rock

Podcast with Amy Rock

Lockdown drills have become a standard part of school security across the United States. Although it is important to feel prepared to respond to a school emergency, these drills often elicit anxiety, fear, and sometimes trauma among students and staff.

Ian Lopez, director of safety and security for the Cherry Creek School District in Colorado as well as a 2024 K-12 Campus Safety Director of the Year finalist, has worked diligently to ensure lockdown procedures minimally impact student and staff mental health — so much so that other districts have turned to him for advice.

“There certainly are incidents that have happened across the country and even internationally that have created a lot of fear and anxiety over school shootings, but what we wanted to do is make sure that we’re prepared for those things and do the best we can to get our kids and our staff into safe spaces should something like that occur on our campus,” Lopez told Campus Safety. “But we also need to train it in a matter that’s not intimidating, that it’s empowering, that they feel they have some sort of control in the moment so that they’re not just reacting based on fear and anxiety but they’re responding based on a method of training.”

Lockdown Drills Always Announced, Vary

First, Lopez never conducts unannounced drills, noting schools “really just need to practice and practice purposefully” (4:55). Using the I Love U Guys Standard Response Protocol (SRP), the district facilitates two lockdown drills a year in each school. They have public safety partners participate, ensure all school administrators are on the same page, and communicate with teachers in advance. Teachers are given training videos and cheat sheets, and debriefs are always conducted.

The schools also practice all five SRP actions — hold, secure, lockdown, shelter, and evacuate. Objectives for each drill are also shared with teachers and students ahead of time, and with each drill, the district showcases a different piece of how an emergency might unfold.

“Sometimes we’ll use a hold to transition into a lockdown, or we’ll go to lockdown and then transition to a hold. We’ve done things during passing periods, we’ve done things during lunch periods. We talk about what to do if you’re outside when a lockdown occurs or if you’re not in a place where you can adequately lock down quickly,” he said. “We try to explain to them what their options are in that moment. We’re proactively building a response to an incident versus just relying on someone to just react to it.”

Using the I Love U Guys foundation guidelines, the district also sends home information to parents so they can talk to their children about the drills if they want to.

“We really look at it as an opportunity to teach. I mean, schools are all about teaching kids. During our lockdown drills, we try to take that time to teach the kids and the staff about protocols that we want to implement,” Lopez said. “Our hope is that they feel more reassured about the process knowing that they’re not just going to be sitting there with no other information.”

Technology Offers Constant Communication with First Responders During School Emergencies

To both offer peace of mind for staff and provide first responders with accurate information during a school emergency, Cherry Creek uses the RedBag, a cache of first aid supplies and individualized QR codes that when scanned, provide secure communication with the district’s dispatch center and security team (6:50).

“As we respond to an incident, we can provide teachers and kids in the classroom updates about what’s happening outside the room. They can communicate with us through two-way chats if they have imminent problems or if they have things that they’ve seen that need immediate attention. What we found is that by giving them this communication tool during a lockdown, it gives them a much better feeling of safety. They feel like they have support immediately available. They have communication both in and out of the rooms, and they’re not just sitting in the dark waiting for someone to knock on their door,” Lopez said. “From a psychological perspective, that does a tremendous amount to help our kids and staff feel comfortable and they can start that recovery process almost the minute that lockdown starts.”

Cherry Creek has conducted nearly 600 drills using the RedBag, allowing students and staff to familiarize themselves with the contents.

Additional Topics Covered

During the interview, Lopez also shared:

• How the district ties in its alarm system during emergency drills (12:04)
• How he spearheaded the creation of the district’s dispatch center while reducing operational costs (1:11)
• How threats and anonymous tips are handled by the dispatch center (3:04)

The full interview transcript is below.

Watch the full interview here or listen on the go on Apple or Spotify.

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