Yes I know what you mean...testschemalock only served to let you know if you could acquire a lock (necessary to change the name, delete, add fields, etc.), and then it didn't always seem to work. Now, it appears there is a more potent arsenal with arcpy I haven't tried yet- you can supposedly target and disconnect users (as an admin): http://resources.arcgis.com/en/help/main/10.1/index.html#/DisconnectUser/018v00000061000000/