Why school lockdown drills can do more harm than good
Why school lockdown drills can do more harm than good
"Surprise" drills, and poorly managed ones, can make children more stressed and depressed
By NICOLE KARLIS
PUBLISHED JUNE 11, 2022 10:00AM
(Salon) In 2019, news broke of a very disturbing lockdown drill — colloquially referred to as an "active shooter drill" — at an elementary school in Indiana.
A member of the sheriff office's SWAT team played the role of a gunman during the drill. Teachers were reportedly left bruised, cut, and traumatized, after being shot with airsoft guns during the drill conducted by the sheriff's department.
"The teachers displayed obvious signs of anguish and physical pain, but were humiliated to find the law enforcement officers joking and laughing at them," a complaint later read. "The terrifying and inexplicable experience left the teachers with lasting physical and emotional injuries."
Such drills are purportedly designed to try to stave off violent shootings like the one that occurred on May 24, 2022, when 19 children and two adults were killed in a shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. It was the deadliest school shooting since 2012, when a gunman killed 26 people as young as 6 years old at Sandy Hook Elementary School. The horrific tragedy in Uvalde marked the 27th school shooting in 2022.
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Lockdown drills, which aren't always specifically designed around the possibility of an active shooter, are estimated to be used in over 95 percent of American K–12 schools today. While they started to become a more common practice after the Columbine High school massacre in 1999, they have become much more prevalent since the 2015–2016 school year. Despite their prevalence, little federal guidance exists on best practices for these drills. ...........(more)
https://www.salon.com/2022/06/11/why-school-drills-can-do-more-harm-than-good/
= new reply since forum marked as read
Shelter-in-place and lock-out drills are also different.
Lockdown: Something dangerous might be in the building. Keep kids in the room, doors locked. No change of classes. Example: Bomb threat, gun threat. Most lockdowns that I've experienced *that were not drills* passed unnoticed by the students. Teachers knew, but students just though teachers were acting weird. "Mr. Igel, I need to take a crap. Can I go to the bathroom." "No, wait for the passing period." Then, if necessary, after the zone monitors are announced I text the zone monitor to say that Ziggy Zigster is on her way to the girl's bathroom in the 600s hallway. Students are pissed when their parents tell them about the drill they didn't notice.
Active shooter: Run, hide, fight. Somebody wants to kill kids and teachers and admin. Lights off, doors locked, windows covered, everything's silent. (Then, if it's a drill--it always has been--after 3 minutes, we debrief. When do you run? Hide? Fight? Footballers realize they're clustered near the door for a reason. Those who would always run are told that if the killer's really close they're committing suicide *and* being the killer's accomplice--"look, open door and more students to kill after you've shot me!" Yes, it offends students. Good. *Maybe* it'll make them think. Yeah, who am I kidding? Students ask where I'll be. I show them the cricket bat in the cabinet near the door, and I climb on the filing cabinet next to the door, same side that the intruder would have to enter through *if* he got through the door. "Questions?"
Shelter-in-place? Weather (or chemicals from ruptured train car) can kill you. Some rooms are unaffected, others are moved to safe locations.
Lock-out. No student is allowed outside, doors are monitored to keep them locked. Example? A couple of years ago a store was held up (armed robbery) a few blocks from the school. Gunman ran in the direction of the school. To protect the kids, any students outside were immediately brought inside and a lock-out was declared. PE was in the gyms, everything in the building ran as usual. "Mr. Igel, I gotta pee." "Do you see the pass hanging by the door?" "Oh. Right." My students were pissed at me the next day. Their *parents* were told of the lock-out, but *they* were not. "Did you know?" < huh? > "Of course I knew."
Note that my district upped its game for active-shooter drills this past spring. Usually admin run the drill; this spring, consultants ran the drill and the admin did as they were to do in the event of an active-shooter situation. (We found it humorous when, at the end-of-year meeting, we were told that almost all the admin failed.) I've been told the admin have a "situation room". Now, I have 24/7 access to all but a handful of rooms, for various reasons, but I have no clue where this room is. Most teachers don't know it exists. Hardened. Monitors for nearly every camera in the building (there are dozens); dedicated lines to county and district police. A PA system that is set up by part of the school--just this hallway, just classrooms, just halls. Their job: Let students and teachers know what's going on and coordinate evacuations. It's a cool thing, but the odds that it'll ever be used? Way less than 1/10,000.
