lockdown drill

Officials use ruse at high school to clear halls for drug search – Boing Boing:

[Video Link]  Police and school administrators Wolcott High School in Connecticut tricked students and teachers into believing a dangerous intruder had come into the school building and ordered a lockdown. It was a ruse for a drug sweep of the lockers. No drugs were found.  ....   

"The teaching point here is that they can not trust the people into whose care they are given. The authorities will lie to you and try to use fear to control you. I hope the kids learn this."

Lessons in democracy?  Not many these days. The drills were created in cooperation with Homeland Security, our national security organization. (this is stated in video link)

by Cory Doctorow [CC-BY-SA-2.0 ],
via Wikimedia Commons

High School Claims There's an Intruder, Then Brings in Drug Dogs - Hit & Run : Reason Magazine: 

Andrew Schneider of the Connecticut Civil Liberties Union thinks this is a bad policy because, among other reasons, "Young people will learn not to trust the police." 

Reason on zero tolerance absurdities, on the militarization of police, and on the drug war. And Radley Balko on how dogs are too awesome to be very good at finding drugs.

Opening Up the Schools 
It may seem counter-intuitive to point out that if we had more people involved at the schools, flexible hours and times, we could actually change the social makeup of schools. We could relieve stress on the kids, reduce bullying and infighting among peers, get more non-police on the ground, and move away from schools as holding pens of kids and toward schools as community learning centers.

Changing schools won't change economic injustice, corporate thievery, or the drug war but, like studies have shown about sidewalks, getting people out and around actually reduces crime.  Similarly, getting our kids on diverse schedules and getting more people coming and going would increase safety and allow kids to feel like they were a part of the community rather than in a holding pen. And it could strengthen the community -- instead of the police -- to work together.