Lockdown Lady causes confusion

By Caroline Quinn ’19

West Essex installed a new security system featuring prerecorded voices to warn students of emergencies and emergency drills this past summer. The voice, which was debuted during the first week of school, is a part of the school’s ongoing efforts to prepare students for an attack or threat.

Violence and school shootings have become increasingly common all over the country. According to the Los Angeles Times, there have been over 200 school shootings just since the devastating Sandy Hook Attack in 2012 where the perpetrator fatally shot 20 elementary school children. With this in mind, schools like West Essex have taken precautionary steps and created procedures to try and protect themselves from the unexpected.

“Our goal is to streamline communication systems and make it more accessible than it was before,” Principal Mr. Diliberto said.

After listening to the new system, students have had mixed reactions. Some think it was impressive while others find it frightening and have compared it to the voice in the popular horror movie, “The Purge.”

“It sounds scary and creeping,” sophomore Abby Pierce said. “I know that it is meant to protect us, but the voice isn’t what I expected.”

“I think It sounds real and legit,” sophomore Christian Coronia said.

The voice, now named the Lockdown Lady by students, will be used not only for lockdowns, but for other emergency procedures as well like evacuations and shelter in places. The new system should prove to be more efficient than the past one and possibly even save the school from unprecedented trouble sometime in the future.