Was the man hunting coyotes on school grounds or adjacent to school grounds? A lockdown would be reasonable in that case. But, if someone saw a man with a gun somewhere in town and they locked down the schools because of it, then that is too much.
The message to the children (and the town and, thanks to national news, the country) in this is that we (the government) protect you from anyone with a gun because people with guns (who don’t have badges) are bad.
The article seemed unclear as to the location of the hunter. I assumed his location was close enough to the school to make the administration/staff worry. If you would have asked me twenty years ago if I thought this was “over kill”, I probably would have said yes. However, I remember the sniper killings. I was one of the countless parent volunteers that made a “tunnel” of sorts so the children could run through to get to school. I wore a white sweatshirt and I made a bright red circle on the back (in hopes that if the sniper was there... he would target on me rather than my first grader at the time). Other parents put neon duct tape on their shirts for the same reason.
A half hour lock down does mean that no one enters or exits the building. The kids stay away from any widow. Unfortunately, we no longer live in a country where it is automatically assumed that someone with a gun is just a hunter. I wish we did, but we don’t. I disagree with the statement that the “government protects you from anyone with a gun because people with guns (and no badges) are bad”. This lock down was a safety precaution only IN CASE the man with the gun wasn’t just a hunter.
Wisconsin isn’t Maryland, D.C. , Virginia or New York. (I have the feeling that parents in those locations are just a bit more nervous about school safety with respect to terrorists or nut jobs). However, let me play devil’s advocate. Let’s say the school officials knew there was a man with a gun near the school and did nothing. They assumed it was just a hunter. The man then picked off students at their lunch break or the end of the day (when everyone exits at once). Or, the man entered the school and started mass killing of kids. A parent would then ask, “Why did you assume it was simply a hunter and not take precautions before verifying this information?” If you would simply had locked the doors then one, four, twenty kids... wouldn’t be dead.
Again, it is probably where I live (and my life experience) that has me disagreeing with Mark. Wearing a white sweatshirt with a hand drawn target on it will do that to you. Watching little kids run through a tunnel of adults to get to school may have a lasting impression on me that I will never kick.