A lockdown announcement came over the speakers while hundreds of students were packed into the big gym for an assembly. The outside doors were closed and locked. And then, a few minutes later, someone grabbed a microphone and started to sing.
Assistant Principal Martin Tate announced over the speakers on Jan. 16, that Van Nuys High School was going into lockdown because of suspicious activity nearby. Students in the gym reacted with complaints.
Inside the big gym, the assembly continued.
The presentation was paused, but something new started.
“It actually wasn’t my suggestion to have the karaoke in the gym, it was Mr. Tate’s,” school climate advocate Adamaris Gallo said. “I understand it as a distraction to make students feel more calm. But if the students were loud, it could’ve been a serious situation.”
The karaoke moment showed something students and staff have watched build for months. Lockdowns have become common enough that many students no longer treat them as serious.
Even Tate has trouble keeping count.
“This was either the second or the third lockdown this year,” Tate said.
Not every student takes the increase in stride.
“In my first two years of high school, I only encountered one lockdown,” junior Amelia Probst said. “This year, I’ve encountered three. It makes me feel very nervous and unsafe and I no longer see school as a safe place.”
Calming students is part of the school’s response, Tate said.
“We want the students to feel safe, making sure that they’re as calm as possible during a stressful situation,” Tate said.
For freshman Samuel Hiron, the karaoke crossed a line.
“The increase in lockdowns has made them feel routine rather than serious situations, especially compared to what I believed lockdowns are supposed to be like,” Hiron said.
“In lockdowns I think students are expected to be quiet and not do anything. The karaoke party during the lockdown felt unusual and inappropriate for the situation. It was surprising because I really didn’t think that was allowed during lockdowns.”
The increase in lockdowns is not unique to Van Nuys.
A 2024 Pew Research Center survey found that about 23% of public school teachers said their school had a gun-related lockdown during the 2022-23 school year. Among high school teachers, that figure was 34%.
“The more they happen, the less I take them seriously,” Probst said. “The more they happen, the more I find myself taking them in a joking manner.”
Junior Leo Gragnani feels the same way.
“Lockdowns should feel very urgent to me,” Gragnani said. “We have them so often that I’m pretty desensitized to them. I feel like everyone is pretty desensitized considering we were playing karaoke during one.”
Not all students feel this way, though
“I take these extremely seriously,” junior Madie Mills said. “Just hearing about these things happening on the news around school shootings and it makes it hard not to take these things seriously.”
A couple of minutes after the singing, the bell for lunch rang. Students rose from their seats and walked out onto the main campus.
The karaoke had stuck with everyone in the gym. So had the question of whether any of it should have happened during a lockdown.
“It was definitely an interesting situation because we never do anything like that so it’s quite odd,” Gallo said.
This story originally appeared in the spring print edition of the 2026 newspaper for “The Mirror”
