What Are Active-Shooter Drills Doing to Kids?

[no_hypocrisy]

1. My experience.

I'm a substitute. I've been with all levels during these drills. And I'm disenchanted.

Most notable was a third grade I had where the kids didn't listen to directions. They stayed in their seats and kept talking loudly to each other, including laughter. I couldn't physically move them. Obviously I couldn't call the Office/the Principal and report a problem at that moment. It took me about five minutes to get them into a safe spot and to get them quiet. If there were a real shooter in the building, we might be dead. (Locking the door IMO is useless as door mechanisms can be disabled with a weapon.)

On a non-drill matter, last week I was working an eighth grade class. A boy who wasn't part of the class walked in. I addressed him courteously, verified that he wasn't part of the class I was teaching. I politely asked him to leave. He refused. I asked him for his name. He wouldn't give it to me. Ordinarily I would ignore him and return to the tasks left for my class. But these are different times. He could have come to the class to settle a score from lunch (which was about an hours earlier). I can't assume things anymore. I called the Office, reported the incident and let them take care of it. I didn't magnify the situation but again, you can't assume stuff anymore about a benign visit by a kid to wave at his friends and leave.