Lockdown Safety Curtain

***This is not a political post-please refrain from posting politically charged comments. This post is only intended to help teachers keep their students safe. Contains no affiliate links***

There are procedures and codes in place to help a school respond to an active shooter. Teachers and students are trained in case of what to do if someone opens fire on the school campus. Unfortunately, the majority of shootings that have taken place on school grounds within the past few years have taken place when students are outside of the classroom and away from the procedures designed to keep them safe. Many classroom procedures are a "best case scenario" response, which would be a shooter entering the building or opening fire during class time when all of the students are safely in a classroom and appropriate steps can be take by the teachers to ensure safety. As a teacher, though inadequate my response training may be, I am not going to sit around and wait for Congress, or whomever it is making these decisions, to realize how poor the training and responses are and make the appropriate changes. Even if they do decide to make beneficial changes, it could take months or even years to implement. So I have decided to take matters into my own hands.

The actual steps teachers are told to take during a school lockdown are to cover any windows in the classroom, turn off the lights, and lock the door, while moving the students away from the doors and windows. While the last steps are easily accomplished, the first step can be a little more complex if not prepared. The windows out the outside wall are covered by blinds in my school, so those are easily taken care of. The windows in the classroom door leading into the hallway can actually present more of a challenge even though they are smaller, because, also for safety reasons, these windows have to remain uncovered during school hours. The only time they should be covered is during a school lockdown, but if a teacher isn't prepared they may find themselves scrambling to find materials to cover the window with, and by then it may be too late. Many teachers I know have magnets on the back of posters that can easily be slid over the window and the problem is solved, but this is not a solution for everyone-especially teachers who do not have metal doors to which the magnet can stick. After searching the internet high and low, and knowing my sewing abilities are non-existent, I created an easy lockdown shade that ANY teacher can create for their classroom and install easily.

1. I started with the following supplies from Walmart:




  • One blackout curtain
  • Stick-on velcro 
  • Command Velcro strips (just in case)
Total I probably spent around $15 dollars. 

2. Measure the window needing to be covered. My window measured about 28 inches long and 9 inches across. I added an inch on each side to ensure the entire window would be covered.



3. I cut out a piece of the blackout curtain to match the length of my window. 


4. On each corner of the cut piece, I added a strip of velcro. I put the two sides together and cut a strip off so they would match each other. I took the adhesive off of one side and stuck it to the fabric. Once I had all four corners velcroed, I took the adhesive off of the strip facing outward and stuck the entire piece of fabric to my door. This would help me get the velcro to match up in exactly the right places. I also added velcro circles in the middle so that I would be able to secure the sides.



5. Once the fabric was stuck on the door, I put two last pieces of velcro on the outside corners of the fabric (shown below) so I would be able to roll the curtain up for visibility during normal school hours. 


6. The finished product is a curtain that can be rolled down and velcroed into place in case of emergency. It might not be super high tech, and maybe even a little bit on the "ghetto" side of things, but it will keep my students safe, and that's really all that matters. 



I am lucky that I only have one small window to worry about. If you have larger windows, I believe this same project is easily completed on a larger scale. If you have any other tips, tricks, or ideas, feel free to leave them in the comments below! 

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