Disable pull down menu from the lock screen

I am trying to disable the top pull down menu from my lock screen. Just about every single time I pull my phone out of my pocket to preview any notification(s), the pull down menu covers everything and blanks it out. It's not a huge deal, but just really annoying when I want to respond to a specific notification immediately, or even just preview the notifications. I don't use the pull down menu ever, so I would permanently disable it, if even possible. Thank you.