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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums2 Big Teachers Unions Call For Rethinking Student Involvement In Lockdown Drills
February 11, 20205:02 AM ET
Heard on Morning Edition
Ryan Pascal, a 17-year-old student at Palos Verdes High School near Los Angeles, says when her school holds active shooter drills, it's "chaos." The first time it happened, not long after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., in 2018, rumors started flying over Snapchat and text that the school was really under attack.
"We had some students trying to stack up desks to blockade the door. We had some students sort of joking around because they weren't sure how to handle this. There are other students who are very, very afraid."
On top of all the other stresses of high school, she says, some students are now on constant alert: "When the little bell before an announcement happens, or when the fire alarm goes off, you can see this fear in students' faces as they wonder, is this going to be a lockdown? Is this a drill? What's happening? There's so much anxiety just by a little trigger like that."
About 95% of American public schools conduct some form of regular active shooter safety drill sometimes called a lockdown or active threat drill according to the National Center for Education Statistics. But concerns are growing that these drills have not been proven effective in preventing violence and that they may even traumatize some students.
https://www.npr.org/2020/02/11/804468827/2-big-teachers-unions-call-for-rethinking-student-involvement-in-lockdown-drills?utm_term=nprnews&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=npr
WhiskeyGrinder
(22,329 posts)CaptYossarian
(6,448 posts)the students had to tell the 15-year veteran teacher what to do and where to go in the room. I'm so glad the semester ended and she'll never have that woman again, but others in the future won't be so lucky.
My wife's a 30-year veteran teacher. Some of her kids have language issues, yet the drills go smoothly. Even the autistic ones have little problems, but my wife acts very calmly for everyone's sake.
BeckyDem
(8,361 posts)CaptYossarian
(6,448 posts)How she can remain calm is beyond me.
Nature Man
(869 posts)they'll end up giving these kids PTSD.
They aren't soldiers or cops, they're KIDS.