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February 1, 2013

Saturday Your Turn: Lock Down

By Michael Shaw

After doing a “Your Turn” feature for years on a random basis — in which Bag’s authors step aside and turn the analysis over to you, we’d like to institute it on a more consistent basis on Saturdays. By the way, because we know many of you are regular lurkers, we specifically encourage you to jump in and share your thoughts.

Our goal is to offer you images from the week that contain a rich vein of themes and elements. I saw this photo earlier in the week and held on to it specifically for today. (Excuse me if I said “it’s loaded.”)

As usual, the caption is below, and here’s some backstory. And who knows, I might just join in the conversation.

(photo: Craig Ruttle/AP. caption: Chief of Police Scott Robertson talks with fourth-grade students as they huddle in closet a during a lockdown drill Jan. 14 at the St. Bernard School in New Washington, Ohio, a month after the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in Newtown, Conn. Inspired by the memories of those who lost their lives, St. Bernard School’s principal decided to conduct lockdown drills on the 14th of each month to refine a safety plan and increase school security.)

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  • http://twitter.com/marcsobel marcsobel

    exactly like the air raid drill (for a nuclear attack) in 1954 except the girls wouldn’t have been allowed to wear trousers.

  • Audio7

    There had better be a plan “b” ready if this photo shows what the typical school district is doing to make parents feel better about the safety of their kids while they are in class. Duck and cover drills were more effective during the Cold War than this appears to be.

  • bks3bks

    When I was in elementary school I loved this sort of out-of-band activity. Anything was better than sitting straight and tall and bored. In the second grade, my classmates and I spent hours on the school playground discussing the best way to fight off an invasion of giant ants, as in the classic SciFi movie _Them!_(1954).

    The kids are alright. It’s the parents who need supervision.

    –bks

    • Scarabus

      One of the earliest and arguably the best of the radiation mutant movies!

  • glenn

    Great way to start induce paranoia and fear at an early age.

  • Thomas

    Related: http://my.chicagotribune.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-74219170/

    I’m reminded of Lewis Lapham’s observation after 9-11 that the attacks horrified most but were a delight to the hearts of authoritarians everywhere.

  • Scarabus

    Check out Richard Conde’s animated film The Big Snit. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90SIuISIVB8

    Raises interesting questions about microcosmic/macrocosmic threats and safety drills.

  • http://www.bagnewsnotes.com Michael Shaw

    I thought the photographer was making a sly joke in juxtaposing the table with the closet, no? Did anybody out there go to Catholic school?

  • boomerangst

    We’re a fearful nation–madmen with guns, terrorists with airplanes and bombs, the Russian commies with atomic bombs–it doesn’t matter–we’re always afraid of something! I believe bin Laden must have been thrilled with the heightened fear that came about from 9/11.

    This picture reminds me too of the “air raid” drills of my childhood–the late 50s and early 60s: we were told that St Louis was a prime spot for an atomic attack because McDonnell-Douglas was here. And yet, those of us who walked to school because we lived less than a mile away were supposed to walk home if the Russians were about to bomb us (we hoped the teachers wouldn’t force us out the door to run home when the time came). We sat in the halls with our backs to the walls and our heads down because of the “flash” that would occur. We really thought we could survive an atomic bomb being dropped 4 or 5 miles away. To this day, I think about this experience when I hear the tornado siren drills on the first Monday of the month at 11 am.

  • acm

    All I can think is, who gets helped when you put all the kids in one place that everybody knows in advance? I mean, stupidity of reactionary policies aside, wouldn’t this make the “job” of a crazy person, especially if also a student there, much easier??

    Sigh.

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