Jittery city parents yesterday brought their kids back to school for the first time since the Sandy Hook massacre — even as reports of gunfire forced one Brooklyn middle school into crisis mode.
Students at JHS 218 in East New York were thrust into a “lockdown” protocol — ushered to classroom corners or urged to get down on the floor for as long as an hour — after their principal heard gunshots across the street at around 10 a.m.
“They took us all into the locker room and closed the doors,” said eighth-grader Arman Uddin, 13, who was in gym class at the time.
“We were just sitting quietly and waiting,” she said. “It’s the first time we had a lockdown. It was scary.”
Police said nobody was injured.
The lockdown procedure used at JHS 218 was one of three put into place at all city public schools this fall — with the other two used to evacuate a building or to keep outside possible dangers from entering.
The procedures replaced potentially confusing coded words that were read over loudspeakers during emergencies, according to sources.
For example, while in the past school authorities alerted teachers to an emergency by using code phrases such as, “Mr. Jones, you left your lights on” or “Mr. Black, you left your keys in the office,” they now say straight up, “We are in a hard lockdown.”
Education Department officials yesterday asked schools to conduct one lockdown drill and practicean evacuation each year.
“After what happened [in Connecticut on Friday], I didn’t feel very safe. I still don’t,” said Theresa Figueroa, whose daughter attends kindergarten at PS 41 in Greenwich Village.
Emergency protocols for schools
LOCKDOWN (intruder inside building)
* Students move out of sight and maintain silence
* Teachers check hallways for kids, lock classroom doors, turn off lights, wait for “all clear” message
EVACUATE (fire alarm or related dangers)
* Students leave belongings behind and form single-file line.
* Teachers lead students to evacuation location, take attendance
SHELTER-IN (incidents outside building)
* Students must remain in building; no one allowed to enter
* Teachers increase situational awareness, but conduct business as usual
Additional reporting by Jessica Simeone
yoav.gonen@nypost.com
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