After a summer of random violence in the U.S. and elsewhere, Shalhevet is getting ready to hold its first-ever lockdown drills this semester, in hopes of making students better prepared and less likely to panic in case of emergency.

Facilities Director Mr. Eli Schiff said the administration had been planning such drills already, but that shootings this summer at the Century Aurora 16 Theater in Colorado and the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin, as well as a terrorist attack last spring on a Jewish day school in Toulouse, France, led them to focus on these drills in the more immediate future.

“The more ingrained knowing what to do in these situations is in the students and staff, the more likely it is that we’ll know what to do in case of actual emergency,” Mr. Schiff said via e-mail in response to Boiling Point questions. “We will have drills during the first semester.”

Head of School Rabbi Segal agreed that such drills would be beneficial, although he had not been informed of any actual plans to commence earthquake and lockdown drills.  Fire drills have been scheduled at a rate of several per year since at least 2009.

A lockdown drill would train Shalhevet students to protect themselves from an “external force,” Mr. Schiff said. He said  earthquake drills – also never held at Shalhevet before – would also be added to the schedule soon. He said he had previously discussed lockdown and earthquake drills with security consultant Richard Druyen, who arranged and procured Shalhevet’s first-ever earthquake supplies last February.

“I think they are both priorities,” Mr. Schiff wrote Aug. 8, which was the day after two earthquakes above 4 on the Richter scale had hit Los Angeles. “But I would probably start with an earthquake drill before a lock-down drill because California is prone to earthquakes.  We just had two within 12 hours.”

Evidence demonstrates that such drills are effective. Last February, for example, a gunman entered Chardon High School in Ohio. One student was killed and three were seriously wounded.

But because the school had practiced lockdown drills, teachers and students knew how to react, barricading themselves in classrooms and sparing many lives.

Closer to home, at least one of Shalhevet’s feeder schools — Maimonedes Academy — has held a lockdown drill.

“Our security company led us through a number of emergency drills to prepare the school’s faculty and staff for emergencies,” said Donna Held, who was General Studies Principal of Maimonides at the time, in an e-mail responding to Boiling Point questions. She wasn’t sure exactly when it had been held.

“One of the drills was a lockdown drill for the purpose of testing the planning process and the procedures developed in the event of an actual threat to the school community,” Ms. Held wrote.

Twelve people were killed and 58 were wounded in the Aurora movie theatre during a premiere of Batman 3: The Dark Knight,

on July 20. Suspect James Holmes stormed into the theatre dressed in a Batman costume and began shooting. ABC News referred to the shooting as “the worst mass shooting in U.S. history, as measured by number of people shot.”

Afterwards, some students felt queasy about going to the movies.

Sophomore Max Helfand said he would still go, but would feel different.

“I would feel really paranoid throughout the movie,” Max said.

Senior Ari Wachtenheim saw Batman 3: The Dark Knight and thought of what had happened.

“I wasn’t worried or scared to go see Dark Knight* after the shooting,” Ari said. “But, I definitely was more aware of my surroundings while walking through the theatre and throughout the movie.”

Others were unphased.

“I didn’t see Batman,* so i felt safe,” said junior Sharona Sedighim. “Even if I did see that movie, though, I just felt like it was something that couldn’t ever happen.”

Last March 19, an attack outside Ozar Hatorah, a Jewish school in Toulouse, France, killed a total of four people, a rabbi and three young children, and there was also an attack July 18 on a tourist bus in Bulgaria carrying tourists from Israel. Recognizing a particular threat, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has funded security improvements at to Jewish and Muslim schools nationwide.

Shalhevet received DHS money in 2007 and 2008 to increase the safety of the school.This year, administrators applied for such a grant again, but haven’t yet learned whether it was approved.

If Shalhevet receives the money, Mr. Schiff would like to use it to implement several upgrades and make repairs. But would not elaborate on what those upgrades would be due to security concerns.

Students mostly agreed with the plan for more drills, saying they had no idea what to do in that kind of an emergency.

“I think lockdown drills are a good idea for every high school,” said freshman Shirel Benji.

But sophomore Margo Feuer is dreading them.

“Even though I don’t know what I would do in that situation,” Margo said, “the thought of lockdown drills scare me.”

Rabbi Segal believes that even though lockdown drills may scare some kids, Shalhevet students should be able to handle them.

“Lockdown drills should be easy at a high school,” said Rabbi Segal. “If there were little kids, it might scare them. At Shalhevet, I see no reason why we shouldn’t do a drill or two.”

Outside News Editor Sarah Soroudi contributed to this story.