Starting at 12:11 p.m. today, Amador students participated in the first lockdown drill in almost two years.

“The reason we practice lockdown drills at school [is] to be prepared in the event that a real emergency occurs. Hopefully we never have to use them but if we do we are prepared and ready to go,” said Amador Valley Vice Principal Athena Duran.

For half the campus, this was their first drill in high school. Students watched an AVtv segment that detailed the lockdown procedures. The district also emailed this segment to teachers yesterday. 

“In a lockdown, students are expected to get inside into the nearest building, and they are going to lock down with the nearest teacher or staff member. If it’s something that is dangerous right in their presence, the response would be to run, fight, hide,” said Duran.

This year, school officials made one adjustment to reduce COVID-19 spread.

“The only big change is during the drill typically students would gather in the corner of a room away from windows and doors for the safest stop. For the purpose of the drill, students will not actually gather. Teachers will just point to the direction where students will go in the event of a real emergency,” said Duran.

Some worried that having teachers lock their doors would spread the Delta variant in the enclosed indoor space. However, teachers were still instructed to follow the standard lockdown procedure and lock their classroom doors.

“With our improved HVAC systems and new COVID guidance it is completely safe to have the doors shut in the classroom,” said Duran.

The drill concluded after about ten minutes. In the future, students can also expect fire drills, earthquake drills, evacuation drills, and combinations of two drills.

“To be honest it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. We just sat there. If it was a real intruder, it would be much more intense,” said Savannah Robles (‘24).