SHAUN STANLEY/Durango Herald In the 1950s, children were taught
to duck-and-cover – the act of crawling under a desk in the
event of a surprise nuclear attack. Today, the threat has
changed, and so has the drill. Now, children practice lockdown
drills, in which they lock the classroom door, turn off the
lights and hide from visible corridors. The assumed threat: A
madman with a gun. Lockdown drills began in the United States
after the Columbine High School massacre in 1999. Local schools
do about one drill every year, from elementary school through
high school. At Needham Elementary School, students were given
advance warning of the drill and a refresher of the procedures
before the Jan. 31 exercise. “I’m going to make the
announcement, ‘Locks, lights, out of sight,’” said Principal
Dave Tanaka on the school intercom. “Locks mean we close our
door and make sure it’s locked, lights means we turn off our
lights, and out of sight means you move out of sight of the
doorway.” When the announcement was made, fourth