• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

2 THE NEW TRIER EXAMINER New building’s modern style raises safety concerns The all glass design of the new building makes lockdown drills more complicated, limiting the spaces that students can be completely out of view and forcing some to evacuate their classrooms Kim so how are you supposed to hide?” she asked. safety concerns. Dubravec stated that both the police and Lockdowns in the new building In most lockdown situations, Principal Denise fire departments have reviewed safety procedure plans more complicated for students Dubravec urged students to “find a place inside the and have also been present in the building during all drills. building that is obscured from view unless you are While the school is able to secure the entire new and staff directed otherwise.” building relatively quickly, it is the glass-enclosed Concerns over the window design became more rooms that raise questions. In case of an emergency, the by Eleanor Kaplan and Alyssa Pak evident when the building opened. Looking at a floor doors between the new and old parts of the buildings are The many glass windows of the newly-completed plan and deciding where students could hide in case of automatically locked shut when a lockdown is initiated, West Wing building have raised safety concerns among a lockdown is much different than going into a physical with the goal of securing the entire new building. students after this year’s recent lockdown drills. room and seeing the options, noted Assistant Principal for Munley recently toured Vernon Hills High School According to Steve Linke, NT facilities manager Administrative Services, Gerry Munley. during a lockdown drill. He noted that the school was for the past five years, a design with glass windows was Due to the glass-heavy construction of the new completely locked down in just a few seconds, which envisioned since the beginning of the project. At the building, the plan is that students should be flexible when is the goal for New Trier. Dubravec also noted that the beginning of construction, everyone was involved, and it comes to lockdown procedures. “Some rooms may have administration has also visited multiple other schools to the input of students, teachers, and parents was all taken to evacuate, if a classroom has all glass,” said Dubravec. discuss lockdown tactics. into account. She stressed this need to be flexible and prepared. “In each Vernon Hills, as well as some other high schools However, some students have expressed concern individual room there’s somewhat of a different instruction in the area, have such quick procedures because of new over the windows in regards to lockdown drills. that might take place. Depending on what room you’re automatically locking doors both to the building and to the Some of the classrooms on the second and third in, you might have to relocate,” said Dubravec. There are individual rooms. These locks are becoming increasingly floors of the new building contain windows on three sides individual directions for the various safety procedures popular due to reports of school intruders. of them. Others have glass walls facing the new stairwells, inside each room. The rooms in the new building are also significantly and some have windows that follow the typical classroom Assistant Principal for Student Services, Scott bigger than those in the old building. Many students format of just a window at the door. Williams added to the idea of flexibility when it comes to appreciate the more positive learning environment that However, a number of students have voiced concern lockdown procedures. “If I’m in a room of glass, it might comes with the extra space, such as junior Josh Hoffman. over the windows following the school’s most recent make sense to not stay there. It’s a matter of assessing While Hoffman loves all of the natural light that the lockdown drills. “It’s a little unsafe with so many windows your situation and reacting to that. That’s something we West Wing has to offer, he expressed concern that “the in the new building. During lockdowns, there is nowhere encourage people to do.” open nature of the room makes it difficult to hide in cases in the classrooms where you can’t be seen” said junior The school has been working with the police, the fire of emergency. The windows close to the floors make it Lucy Conlon. “There are even windows near the ground, department, and architects since last year to address these difficult to remain hidden during a lockdown.” Laurie Dann’s 1988 school shooting hit close to home prepared rice cereal snacks and of 20-year-old Phillip Andrews and One of the U.S’s first juice boxes, all poisoned with held him and his parents hostage, school shootings diluted arsenic, as explained claiming that she had been raped in by the “Chicago Tribune.” She order to gain their sympathy. Philip committed by NT .mailed them to her friends, ex- Andrews persuaded Dann to free grad babysitting clients, psychiatrist, ex- his parents, but once she saw police husband Russell Dan, and others. advance on the house, Dann shot him by Mia Sherin On the morning of May 20, in the chest. Andrews escaped out the On May 20, 1988, Laurie the main portion of her plan began. back door and was rescued by police. Dann from Glencoe, Illinois She delivered these snacks and juice Dann then went to a bedroom executed a premeditated plan boxes around the community to of the house and shot herself in involving poison, an array of guns, friends, families whom she babysat, the mouth, taking her own life. and the New Trier community. fraternity houses, and Leverone This shooting is not only Although these events occurred Hall at Northwestern University. very relevant to our community, on May 20, they really began far Thankfully, not many of these but also was the one of the earlier, deep into Laurie Dann’s past. drinks or snacks were consumed earliest school shootings. She started off like any one of us. because of their unappetizing Officer Perez, police liaison According to the “Chicago appearance and immediate poor taste. for New Trier, believes that this Tribune,” she grew up in Glencoe, And because they were so highly shooting, along with others, has had graduated from New Trier in 1975, diluted, no one became seriously ill. an effect on schools today and what attended Drake University and At 9 am, Dann arrived at safety measures are being taken. transferred to University of Arizona, the home of the Rushe family, For example, Hubbard studying to become a teacher. her former babysitting clients, in Woods Elementary now has only As the course of her life went on, Winnetka. She took their children to 1975 New Trier grad committed one of the first school shootings in US AP one way to get into the school, the people around her noticed strange Ravinia Elementary School, where which many schools adopted behavior, including signs of OCD and she mistakenly believed her sister- basement. They managed to escape, entered a second grade classroom after the Laurie Dann shooting. other controlling personality traits. in-law’s two sons were enrolled. foiling another of Dann’s plans. and ordered the students into a corner New Trier, took. a She married Russell Dan, but Leaving the children in the car, With three hand guns, Dann of the room. The teacher refused similar approach by having they divorced in 1985. she went inside and tried to ignite drove to Hubbard Woods Elementary and tried to disarm her, managing security at all entrances. Russell and his family reportedly a fire bomb in a hallway, which School, where she pushed a boy into to unload her Beretta pistol. Perez urges students to always stay received harassing phone calls, but students quickly discovered after a bathroom and shot him with a .22 Dann drew her .32 Smith alert and in touch with the community charges were never pressed. Laurie she left and was put out by a teacher. semi-automatic Beretta pistol. She and Wesson from her waistband around them: “Our students are our claimed multiple times that Russell She then drove the kids trashed her Smith & Wesson .357 and shot five children, killing eyes and our ears. They have to be was abusive, and her family defended back to their home in Winnetka, Magnum revolver when it jammed eight-year-old Nicholas Corwin willing to say something if they see her throughout. Her psychiatrist where Dann lured the two kids when trying to fire at two other boys. and wounding two girls and two something that is off. When you start told police he did not believe that and mother downstairs, used These boys ran out of the boys. She then fled to her car. to get the ‘spidey sense’ going on, all Laurie was suicidal or homicidal. gasoline to set the house on fire, bathroom and pulled the fire alarm. The Andrews family was her students should pay attention to that.” Days before May 20, Dann and trapped the three of them in the Continuing in the school, Dann next victim. Dann entered the home .

Load more

  1

Copy Link