As a student in America, I am constantly plagued with fear that an armed individual may enter my school and begin to shoot, I've created my OWN plans for if that happens, places that are safest, and the best places to sit in the classes away from the doors. I understand that it is difficult to create new safety measures but if the shooter was someone from that school (which is a frequent occurrence) they know how the drills work. They KNOW there are students in the locked and darkened room. They know where the students go during fire drills, what's stopping them from pulling a fire alarm and going rampant in the school? We need new measures to stop students from feeling unsafe like I do every single day at school. Schools should be safe.
Being a student as each of these horrific school massacres that took place all around was honestly petrifying. Kids my age pictures would be plaster on the tv and the stories of their short but memorable lives would engrave our minds while our parents stand there in agony. These active shooter drills just normalize the plastering of these photos, the stories behind them, and the agony of our parents. Kids shouldn't be prepared to die at school. Active shooter drills are honestly a trauma situation for kids.
I as much as many other students attend school in fear of not being safe. Living in the country with the most school shootings definitely takes a toll on how comfortable parents are with sending their children to school. In the course of my school years I have learned about so many school shootings and so many students who have lost their lives. The drills we are taught are so meaningless. Because I know if someone loses their child to an active shooter at their school, they are going to wish we would have done more. Hiding does nothing for us, I would rather pass knowing I tried to get away, seeked freedom, rather than sitting in a classroom with locked doors and windows, hoping this person believes the school is empty. Hiding makes us easier targets and we should implement better drills.
The increase of active shootings on school campuses is incredibly worrying-especially as a student. I find it crucial for schools to practice the safety and drills most efficient in the event of such dangers. Otherwise, students, teachers and staff would be unprepared and in more danger than if they understood a uniform plan amongst the school. It’s also important to conduct these drills because it exposes everyone to a very real and unfortunately current danger. This ensures that every student is aware of the severity of the situation and understand the best ways to remain safe.
@Vianie Merino Hello Vianie, my name is Rebecca. I too agree with you that these drills are important because it makes us more prepared in that situation. However I believe the problem is what we are to do in these drills, we are taught to hide and hope for the best. I firmly believe that they should do more, and prepare us to not just sit there. We realistically need to make a change to our drills.
As a new highschool student, lockdowns are quite a scary experience for me, especially when they happen in classes that teachers take our phones away. It’s a very scary feeling when we have a drill and you can’t contact anyone. At my school we have lockdown drills every month. I feel that this is unnecessary and increases the fear when we have them so often.
In high school I constantly thought about the possibility of a school shooting happening. As a college student now, it is still something I worry about. I have never been in an active-shooter drill. Even so, I believe it is important that schools have these drills so students can be prepared. It is important for students to be mentally and physically ready to take action if a shooting were to commence. The fact that schools are starting to have these kind of drills now is very sad to me too. It is hard that the youth has to worry about these kind of things.
I feel that active shooter drills are not needed consistently. Maybe 2 or 3 times a year is just enough practice for students. Most of the time the shooters are former students so they know how the drills work, so all in all the drills are useless.
I feel that having active shooter drills regularly serves no purpose for preparing students for a real life situation. The drill as a whole takes away in my opinion from the seriousness of a real situation. I understand practicing once a year, but I don’t think there is a need to practice more than once.The more you practice the more the student body questions if it’s a drill or the real thing. More often than not a school shooter is a student. They know the drills. They know you are supposed to make sure the door is locked and that the kids still stay in the classroom and hide. Even when the blinds are drawn most shooters are aware of the fact that if the event takes place during school hours that there is likely a student there. As the number of school shootings rise every year I believe that although we need to protect the student body as a whole, we also need to be aware of the true danger at hand. As if children are not stressed and paranoid enough about school already, regular drills put more attention on some of the stressers. There is not a perfect way to solve the problem, but there should be alternatives to preparing for the possibility of a shooter.
1
During active shooting drills, I am a little scared because I don’t feel safe with the procedure my school has in effect. When I hear over the intercom, “We are entering lockdown”, the first thing that comes to mind is, “Is this real or fake?”, because they do not identify the situation. As all of the students get up from their seats calmly, we head to the corner of the room where we can not be seen through the window, because the teacher tapes a black piece of paper over it while locking the door. We then all get on our phones and act like nothing bad could potentially happen because we assume it is a drill. If the shooter broke through the window, we would be an easy target because we are all huddled in one corner.
I believe they should tell us over the intercom if the drill is real or not, so we could take it seriously. If it is real, we would barricade the door with all desks and heavy items. Instead of hiding in the corner of the room, we should all go hide in different locations in the room like the cabinets, closets, and behind the big teachers desk. Enforcing this procedure would make my classmates and myself more protected from the active shooter.
I believe that Active Shooter drills or Lock down drills are very important but it’s what we do that i don’t like. During these drills the teachers and staff want us to sit in whatever classroom and wait until he goes away. That to me is a bad idea because at that point we are just sitting ducks just waiting for the gunman to come near us hoping he won’t pick our classroom. I do feel worried whenever we do these drills because we don’t know if it is just a drill or a real shooter outside. My first thought is to run, run to the farthest point possible to get away, but we all can’t do this because then everyone is scattered and going in every direction, then the gunman has a better chance of killing someone. So i don’t know what we should do because if we all sit in a room, how do we know that the gunman isn’t going to knock down the door to our classroom. If we all start running for our lives someone is likely to get shot while on the run probably even multiple people.
@Jacob Fisher
I agree with you, Jacob, on how active shooter drills are very important. These drills help prepare us, God for bid, if something like that ever happened.
Referring to your statement, “Teachers and staff want us to sit in whatever classroom and wait until he goes away.”, I also disagree on how the school is handling the drill. We just sit in the corner of the room, hoping the drill is fake, or praying he does not come to the classroom we are “hiding” in. The school and staff should at least tell us if the drill is legit. If the drill is real, we barricade the door with desks and chairs and actually hide in the classroom.
Part 1-
During my time in high school, I’ve taken part of 2 or 3 school shooter drills. The one that stands out the most is the one in my freshman year. 1st period: math class, upstairs front building. The bell rang. It was time to change classes but I had been slow to pack my things up, only 2 or 3 other kids were in the class packing their bags. I hear the voice of the lady at the front desk. “This is a lock down please take shelter. This is a lock down please take shelter.”. It wasn't the beginning or end of the month so it couldn't be a drill plus it was during class change. How could it be a drill? The lights turn off. Door is locked. Blinds closed. I'm crammed under a small table that I'm too tall to comfortably fit under, especially with 4 or 5 other kids. The first thing I do is pray for my safety, the safety of the kids around me, and for all of the students in the school. Then I texted my mom telling her how were in a lock down and for all I know it could be as simple as Kings Pharmacy being robbed again or as complex as a kid with guns running around my school taking very innocent lives. Then I texted my closest friends telling them I love them and to tell them how thankful I am for them coming into my life. I genuinely thought I could've died that day, but as it turns out it was a drill, yet it all felt a little too real for me. These kinds of drills inflict unnecessary trauma into students’ lives.
@Lexi Steward
Part 2-
Rather than always practicing what to do for such occasions, why don't we take a stand to prevent this happening and refuse to ever let it happen again?
No. I refuse to ever let this happen again due to the acts of disturbed individuals. Columbine April 20th, 1999. 13. Virginia Tech April 17th, 2007. 32. Sandy Hook Elementary December 14th, 2012. 26. Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School February 14th, 2018. 17. Santa Fe High School May 28th 2018. Umpqua Community College October 1st, 2015. 9. Red Lake Senior High School March 21st, 2005. 7. Oikos University April 2nd, 2012. 7. West Nickel Mines High School October 2nd 2006. 5. Northern Illinois University February 14th, 2008. 5. Santa Monica College June 7th, 2013. 5. Marysville Pilchuck High School October 24th, 2014. 4. What was listed above is the statistics of school shootings since Columbine. Add those fatalities together and we have 125 innocent student lives taken by the fault of outrageous acts of gunmen. Last year I was in technology engineering and design, our teacher had warned us there was going to be a lock down drill later that day. I had suggested to talk about what were to happen if there were a shooter in our school. That class was my first period on the bottom floor of the front building. The Cafeteria is a right turn and a few strides away. What if they started in there?
@Lexi Steward
Part 3-
It's enclosed by glass and there's only 2 ways to get out of there; what I asked about is whether it's best to try and make a break for it or do I stay put and be as silent as possible? I say make a run for it I rather get shot while trying my hardest than to not try at all. What I've realized is that we don't have many options to choose from when your barricaded in a classroom, you can move the filing cabinet in front of the door and the window on the door, but that can be kicked down. Now where do you and 35 other students choose to hide? Under a desk? You really think the shooter’s not going to see you there? At my school we have wooden doors with a glass window down the side reaching almost to the handle, anyone could easily break the glass, unlock the door, and let themselves in. There are other precautions we can take, such as a simple $5 fix. Take a hiking clasp and attach a strong metal chain. Drill in a strong fish eye hook to the door and the wall and attach the end of the chain to the door. When the time comes to put to use, simply just take the hiking clasp and attach it to the hook on the wall. This is going to make it much harder for the shooter to get in and they'll most likely give up on it because they aren't willing to waste time. There's a cheap and very simple fix to avoid becoming the next victim and to keep the students more safe. I know that if every classroom I was in had one, I would definitely have more of a sense of security.
I believe that active shooter drills are necessary for schools in our modern society. I am usually not very worried about a mass shooting at my school because I feel well protected and safe, but not every student may feel this way. Some students may panic in these situations, even if it is just a drill. Although these drills may "terrify" children, we need them, because if we didn't have these drills then these kids will be even more scared and will not be prepared for what to do in case of a real active shooter. I think schools should focus more on making their schools safer rather than only focusing on performing drills. Ensuring that their classroom doors are locked and that they have officer protection will help keep children and students safe in the event of a shooting. I also believe that schools should have metal detector systems that will be able to detect if someone has a weapon on them, this will make it less likely for someone to bring a weapon to school if they know about these alarms. I believe that schools are doing what they can to prevent school shooters and to be prepared for them, but they could still do more.
I feel that active shooter drills traumatize us and give us the idea that school shootings are never preventable. My school had a lockdown last year, and I remember students being very anxious as we hid in the corner of the dark classroom. For me, it was a different feeling from all the other lockdowns I had as a kid because of the awareness I now had that school shootings were very real and could happen. I can’t imagine what younger kids feel if they have to do active shooter drills.
Instead of students constantly preparing for the worst we should be focusing on bettering mental health and gun control to prevent these situations from happening. We shouldn’t have to accept the idea that this is normal and there’s nothing we can do about it. We should have logical solutions to this, not feed into the problem and normalize fear. If we stop the threat where it begins, we won’t have to be constantly scared for our safety and perform active shooter drills. The fact that some people don’t understand that is just unbelievable to me.
We have regular school lockdowns. We always do the same thing, hide behind the black tape. We have to stay quiet while the lockdown is going on, and we can't take out our phones to tell our family we love them. I don't think we should have them regularly. Most of the time at high schools the students are the shooters. If that is the case, everyone knows where to go, even the shooter. If a high school student isn't the shooter, they are going to be suspicious that everything is still there. Our school has a black cloth to cover our windows, what is the shooter going to do, think that since they see black cloth there is no one in the classroom? No, they are going to know that there are students in the classroom. Why do we even need windows, to see in the hall? There is no benefit to windows around the doors. I personally think instead of going over the loudspeaker they should go on the walkie talkie and tell the teachers what to do and do something different every time. That's what I think of school lockdowns.
I feel active shooter drills are useless and give students both a senseless fear about guns and a traumatizing experience that is not warranted to the low probability of the event actually happening. From my own experience, sitting in a corner in a dark room while waiting to possibly be killed is a dreaded situation to be in, and quite traumatizing at younger ages. While I feel instructing teachers on basic steps to be executed if an active shooter situation arises is acceptable, students should be spared the training. As a passenger flying on a plane is not told of all the actions to be taken if an emergency happens, students shouldn’t be either.
I also think students should have a basic idea of what to do, so instead of having a drill every month, there would be two drills a year. Along with this I believe that we need to protect students and provide teachers resources to protect their students, and not have to rely on the police.
Finally, I would say that beyond making changes in the schools, we need to make changes to the misconceptions surrounding school shootings and guns in general. You are more likely to die in a hospital bed from a doctor’s mistake than you are in Chicago, a city with some of the highest gun violence. Firearm-related homicides are extremely rare in the United States, and the mainstream media along with certain political figures are manipulating data and using fear tactics in order to achieve their goal, which is not gun control, but CONTROL.
As you know there are active shootings in schools in the United States very often. In the New York Times, they talk about why there are active shooter drills inside school buildings but here in, my school there are lockdowns which aren't the best. If a shooter hears the lockdown sign he will check all the classrooms and more people will get killed or terribly injured if there are lockdowns. If there are active shooter drills then students can take out the shooter and save peoples lives. Since the doors have glass windows the shooter can just come to blow out the glass and open the doors and just injure the people inside the classroom. I think there should be drills and to practice saving peoples lives.
At my middle school, we have active shooter drills. It's really scary, we never know about it and all someone says on the P A speaker is LOCKDOWN 3 times. Having a lockdown really panics kids even in Middle and High school. When we go to school we no doubt should have shooter drills, but we should know about it. When the school district decides on having a shooter drill they think it helps kids if that time really comes. All it does is freak out everyone, even sometimes the teachers don't know and nobody knows if its real.
The elementary school I went to didn’t have walls. It was one big building that was separated into classrooms by bookshelves and cabinets.No doors, No walls, and nowhere safe to go during a shooting. So yeah. Lockdown drills scared me a bit as a child. Now looking back, I still think it was important to have those drills. Even though there was really nothing we could have done to stop the shooter as elementary students, It was still good to know the safest places to go. Even now, In a school with doors and walls, knowing what to do in case it might actually happen could possibly be the difference between life and death, however having a fake shooter come into the school without telling anyone is going way too far. I think we should have at most three shooter drills a year. Students don’t need to be traumatized to be informed. I do think that we could go farther to protect our students other than just hiding in the corner of a room with the lights off. Even things as simple as heavy duty locks that can’t get shot off and bullet proof glass in the little windows on the doors.
So how do I feel about active-shooter drills? I believe strongly, that instead of active-shooter drills and preparation in schools, we need to stop the threat at the source. Gun control and mental health. Instead of preparing and expecting a school shooting to happen we need to do more extensive background checks on the people who are owning these guns. We need accessibility to inexpensive therapy for children and adults. Shootings in America and normalized and we haven’t done anything to change that. Kids are scared to go to school and parents are scared for their kids. These active-shooter drills are traumatizing and continuing to make shootings a day-to-day risk in schools and everywhere else.
Part 2
The threat of a shooting is real. It is real for anyone and everyone no matter what school or grade you are in. We know this and we’ve accepted this truth. I vividly remember a lock down that I had in my freshman year of high school. I was in science class and announced on the intercom that there was a lock down. We all went into the corner and did what we were trained to do since elementary school. The teacher locked all the doors and turned off the lights. There was kids underneath desks, pushing to be has hidden as they could be. It was dark and silent, the only illumination was the students around me phones.
There was a girl next to me, I have never talked to her but I noticed she was texting her mom. She was scared. She knew that there was a strong possibility that the lock down was real, so she texted her mom that she loved her. It lasted twenty minutes, twenty minutes of waiting to hear something. A gunshot, an announcement, anything to give us clarity. It was a man walking on the side of the street with a gun.
The sad part is the only thing we do for our lockdown drill turn the lights off, cover the door, lock it and hide in the corner. But to be perfectly honest I think if somebody were to enter a classroom with the lights off you could still see 36 kids all bunched up together in the corner in the middle of the daytime with the light shining through. As I do think these drills are necessary I do feel it’s an elephant in the room. We all when we here lock down drill we think about a school shooting and I can only speak for myself when I here that it starts to make me think what would I actually do in a real lock down situation?
Part 2
Would I really hide in a corner with a bunch of other kids or would I be looking around the room for a better and more secure hiding spot, would I be trying to fight back if he were to enter the class, would I be jumping out a window in hope of running for my life? I feel as much as having a routine for a lockdown is good, we all know we think about a school shooting and we need more than just shut the lights and sit in the corner. We need to talk about it as a class with each class specifically because each classroom is set up differently. You might have a classroom on the bottom story with two entrances or exits to the classroom to the school. I know if I were in a classroom with two exits I would be sitting right by one waiting to run out the door hoping nobody entered the one I was at. I definitely wouldn’t be sitting in a corner in the dark hoping he didn’t spray the corner full of children.
Part 3
Would I really hide in a corner with a bunch of other kids or would I be looking around the room for a better and more secure hiding spot, would I be trying to fight back if he were to enter the class, would I be jumping out a window in hope of running for my life? I feel as much as having a routine for a lock down is good, we all know we think about a school shooting and we need more than just shut the lights and sit in the corner. We need to talk about it as a class with each class specifically because each classroom is set up differently. You might have a classroom on the bottom story with two entrances or exits to the classroom to the school. I know if I were in a classroom with two exits I would be sitting right by one waiting to run out the door hoping nobody entered the one I was at. I definitely wouldn’t be sitting in a corner in the dark hoping he didn’t spray the corner full of children.
Part 3
Would I really hide in a corner with a bunch of other kids or would I be looking around the room for a better and more secure hiding spot, would I be trying to fight back if he were to enter the class, would I be jumping out a window in hope of running for my life? I feel as much as having a routine for a lockdown is good, we all know we think about a school shooting and we need more than just shut the lights and sit in the corner. We need to talk about it as a class with each class specifically because each classroom is set up differently. You might have a classroom on the bottom story with two entrances or exits to the classroom to the school. I know if I were in a classroom with two exits I would be sitting right by one waiting to run out the door hoping nobody entered the one I was at. I definitely wouldn’t be sitting in a corner in the dark hoping he didn’t spray the corner full of children.
Part 3
In conclusion I feel preparing for an event like this to take place is totally necessary. I understand that people can face trauma and anxiety about these practices. But what would there anxiety and trauma be like if it were to happen without preparation? Part 5
In conclusion I feel preparing for an event like this to take place is totally necessary. I understand that people can face trauma and anxiety about these practices. But what would there anxiety and trauma be like if it were to happen without preparation?
Part 5
Some people feel we shouldn’t talk about it at all because it makes kids traumatized.But if your at school where you have not had a single lockdown drill while you have been there or feel you shouldn’t have one you or your kids are gonna be running around like headless chickens in the classroom without any idea of what to do.So at the end of the day would you want you or your child to be a little scared by a lockdown drill or talking it out in the classroom on what you would do if it were to happen? Or would you rather you or your child be sheltered by the idea of don’t worry about it’s not gonna happen. Because at the end of the day you never know if something that life changing and dramatic is gonna happen. Personally I would rather have an idea of what my class and I would do in a shooter situation then keep it as a hush hush and not talk about it or prepare for it at all because then when the days comes then what happens?
Part 4
Some people feel we shouldn’t talk about it at all because it makes kids traumatized.But if your at school where you have not had a single lockdown drill while you have been there or feel you shouldn’t have one you or your kids are gonna be running around like headless chickens in the classroom without any idea of what to do.So at the end of the day would you want you or your child to be a little scared by a lockdown drill or talking it out in the classroom on what you would do if it were to happen? Or would you rather you or your child be sheltered by the idea of don’t worry about it’s not gonna happen. Because at the end of the day you never know if something that life changing and dramatic is gonna happen. Personally I would rather have an idea of what my class and I would do in a shooter situation then keep it as a hush hush and not talk about it or prepare for it at all because then when the days comes then what happens?
Part 4
My most memorable lockdown drill was in my eighth-grade math class two years ago. My teacher had told us that we were doing a lockdown drill today which wasn’t anything new to us since we had done multiple in the years before. When the drill started all the students got to the edge of the room where we couldn’t be seen and became quiet, but this time something was different. My teacher had stood by the door waiting instead of being behind his desk where most teachers waited. After the drill was over we asked him why he stood there and no one was ready for his answer. He said “I will go down swinging before I let anyone near you. It is my job as a teacher to not only teach you but also to protect you.”
We as students have been so accustomed to fire drills, lockdowns, etc. that we sometimes forget that these events can happen at any time. I believe that doing drills too often will make students not care what they do during the drill. I have been in multiple lockdowns where kids are on their phones and talking when we're not supposed to be because they don’t care about the drills and the worst thing that can happen in that situation is get in trouble by the teacher. I do think that drills are necessary to know, so there isn’t chaos when/if the event becomes real. The effects these drills have on students vary from person to person; for me personally, no statistic can change the fear I have because if there is a possibility of a shooting there is still fear.
At the school I attend in North Carolina we do lock down drills maybe once every month or so. When I was younger I just thought about it as a lock down drill for anything not just for a school shooting. But since around 6th-7th grade if you here lock down drill your first initial thought is now always school shooting.
Part 1
I live in America, so there have been many mass shootings throughout the nations short history. In recent years it seems to have gotten worse and more frequent. As for the shooter drills I believe we should focus less on the drills and more on preventive methods. All school shooters believe it or not had an education at a school like you and I and go through the same drills we do. We’re essentially just training them on how to do it. I believe we should do it with the younger kids because they still haven't developed these types of thoughts. I also believe that if we didn’t have the drills the student would know what to do already. Teach it to the younger kids because they don’t know any better however.
Bruh. The teachers at my school in Texas all carry after passing a test, so more guns is always the answer. If you can outgun the gunmen shooting the schools, then they will stop shooting up schools. Personally, I think the fact that someone made a big deal out of having a lockdown drill is utterly rediculous and very liberal. Let me know how the safe zones work out when there's a shooter in the building.
Oh yeah, also my school has signs posted everywhere outside that says staff is armed and trained. So I think those complaining about the drills should grow up and see the world for how it is. The world isn't some peaceful utopia, people are murdered, robbed, raped, and all sorts of other things. Necessary precautions are there for a reason and really good ones at that.
Long story short, grow up!
There's a simple solution to stop these fears about school shootings, and it doesn't involve active-shooter drills. The 'safe zones' that have been placed at our school are ineffective at best, and while I am generally ambivalent about our lockdown drills, I don't think that they will do much in the case of a mass shooting. Nor will reflective screens on the door windows, or increased police officer activity. While lockdown drills are important as a whole and should be kept in place, it isn't the students' responsibility to stay safe. The problem lies in America's issues with proper gun control. If there are no more guns to attack with, there will be no need for so much fear about school shootings. Doesn't it make more sense to remove the bullets from the gun rather than to shoot at a bulletproof vest?
Active-school drills are the best idea for schools, especially knowing how much school shootings there have been. Due to the fact that when the school in Parkland, Florida was shot up, the shooter pulled the fire alarm to get everyone to run out and he started shooting, my school has enforced a new rule to where when you hear the fire alarm you must wait for an all clear to know it is safe to exit the classroom. With my school doing that i do feel a lot safer if there was to have a shooting and i wouldnt panic.
Active-shooter schools is a good idea for students. Nowadays there’s a lot school shooting going on around the world and all schools need to be aware of them.These drills make schools even safer to be at, it’s the best thing to do.
I Honestly I think that we need to do more about the school shootings, more police need to surround the schools 24/7 guarding the school even inside the schools, just so people inside the school could feel more protected and comfort and not just people inside the school, but also on school grounds.
Looking back, we did a couple of generic lockdown drills each year since elementary school. Us kids never took it too seriously until Sandy Hook. I think lockdown drills are useful for training kids not to panic in a dangerous situation, but I feel that doing specific and realistic "school shooter drills" do more harm than good. In the short term, they traumatize children and teens. Long term, they might normalize mass shootings, which would be mortifying and shouldn't be allowed to happen.
Nah B. That ain't it. What are you gonna do when thers a shooter in the building and no one is prepared. They want absolute chaos, and you have to be really dumb to give them that.
I agree with Ms. Bushey and her concern on how these drills affect the students. As a student myself I don’t want to be scared to go to school or be on the lookout for anything suspicious all the time. I want to be able to get my education everyday, have fun with my friends, and create memories. I don’t want a drill to be imprinted into my head just in case something tragic happens. Teachers are also being affected by these drills because they have to make sure the students are safe and put on a brave face but inside they are scared. We just want to enjoy the school year learning. Not worrying about when might the next safety drill be real.
it is vary scary to think that you could have an active shooter in your school or by your school. Doesn't it make sense to have a training in multiple situations in school shootings?
I think that students should practice school shooting because its important that students and teachers know what to do during and active shooter you never know someone who is mentally ill will show up. I think its better that students get scared during a drill so they pay attention to know what do do a something happens.
Better safe than sorry is the method schools have enforced with shooting drills, and I very strongly agree. Before the Parkland shooting, my friends and I were pretty much oblivious as to what to do if a shooting were to ever occur. Also, with the drills being at different times a day, it gives you a chance to go through a drill with almost every teacher, me having 7. While it may instill a bit of fear, I would be much more fearful if we didn't have regular drills, and I wasn't properly prepared and informed. And, the shooting drills seem to change and adapt every year, each change improving the system to account for every different scenario. I like the drills and I think they are beneficial for teachers, students, and admin.
I feel like these drills no longer provide “information” they don’t actually inform any students, many people at my school (Aloha High School) think they’re stupid and outdated. Think about it we’ve been having these drills for almost 20 years now, I’m 15 and I do fear a shooting but the majority of the time my ideas for avoiding a shooter (I can almost guarantee are more ideal than the school district’s). Every year there’s new seniors which means new adults who are taught what the drills are, at this point they’ll know “I’m gonna kick down the door and start spraying in the corner wall closest to me”. I mean it’s crazy that they think this will protect us these guys are coming in the building with fully automatic AR-15’s and you expect a wooden door with a lock on the handle will keep them out. The audacity it takes to instill fear into children thinking its providing some form of education when in reality you need to exit the building, the likelkyness of me getting shot by sitting and waiting in my class is far higher than that of running down the hall and out the door to safety. I’d risk my life knowing I’m getting away from the threat rather than sitting and waiting for it to come to me. Instilling fear in children is something hitler did, it’s something they’d do so you know not to be gay, to talk to a black person, point is it’s outdated and there are much better ways for them to inform us. It should be to have a prep for an active shooter every three months. -Jaeger.C
My very communicative daughter relayed to me her feelings when her school went into an "active shooter lock down." She was a junior in high school. She said the most terrifying thing of all was the principal's voice over the PA system saying "Teachers, we are in lock-down. This is not a drill." The room was suddenly dead quiet and the normally very casual band director stood erect and commanded the students into the theatre. No one spoke. The choir and band students and teachers sat silently in the theatre with only dim lighting for nearly 30 minutes.
When they heard the door open, which no one could see, my daughter said there was "suddenly fear all around her". But, the director who was near the door, shouted out "It's the principal!" the fear melted away.
NOT knowing what was going on, NOT knowing what they were supposed to do, she said, was terrifying. KNOWING the teachers knew what to do was reassuring but only to a certain extent.
There is fear, panic, anxiety and the potential for psychological damage in any kind of drill...as there is in the real thing. However, if shooter drills become as fire drills (akin to bomb drills were back in the 1950's) the pre-event damage can be kept to a minimum while equipping students and teachers with knowledge and possibly even skills to keep them safe if/when the real thing happens.
Personally, I feel that active shooter drills bring about more negative consequences than benefits. While I understand that it is better to err on the side of caution, these drills plant the seeds of paranoia, worry, and fear in students. Also, do these drills really prepare us for an event like an active shooter? Panic would normally take over reason in this scenario, so why conduct this drill in the first place? Is it worth worrying every day whether or not an assailant will storm through the school? These active shooter drills make us feel like we MUST prepare in order to be safe in school when school should be a place we go to to feel safe.
While I've never participated in an active school shooter drill, I have heard about several being initiated in schools throughout the nation. In general, I can understand the drills are a response to the mounting numbers of mass shootings and aim to maintain student safety just as a tornado or fire drill would. However, measures like these drills and arming teachers all come off as a superficial sort of 'bandaid' slapped onto the very real crisis of mass shootings; all aimed to calm the hysteria but not at finding a solution. Drills will keep us safe, sure, but will they actually address the issue of gun violence? Hiding under our desks may shield our bodies from bullets, but it doesn't erase the fact that a shooter had the means to enter an educational facility and attempt to murder students.
All in all, I do believe the drills are necessary, but they should be a complement to policy action, not a stand-alone measure.
@Amal A. I think you have a very good point and I agree with you 100%. However, don't you think we should also take into account that in the time it takes for most people to remember what to do in an emergency, it will be too late? I mean if everyone is trying to remember what to do, odds are it will take too long.
@Morgan Floorfies I also agree with your latter point! Most drills I have gone through have a causal air about them because every student generally knows that these are drills, not the actual event. When faced with an actual murderer as compared to a fire, I’m sure we can all realize it will be way harder to get students to calmly follow procedure. It would also put tremendous stress into teachers, who would be tasked with not only calming themselves under the threat of death, but also their pupils.
For me i am 14 years old and i go to a school on base i am in high school and its my freshman year. Considering i go to a school on a military base i would say that it is less possible for it to happen at a military base than any other public school. Now i do realize that we do all these drills for safety and everything, and don't get me wrong i all on board with all these drills but come on who would be dumb enough to go a school on a military base a try to harm kids. But i guess for me i am scared to a certain extent like you never know what could happen the next day at your school. So i am okay with all these drills because they keep us safe.
We currently don't have drills for shootings at my school. But I think that we should have them because it'll make people take it more seriously and people would be much more aware. Although this can cause a great amount of anxiety for a lot of student's...including myself.
I have never participated in an shooter drill, but I think I can understand why it has become something "common" to practice in American schools. Politicians and the population are concerned about the well-being of children and adolescents in schools, and due to actual cases of school shootings in recent years, the practice of shooter dril has come as a kind of help. But I think this shooter dril is still somehow getting away from the real problem, which would be precisely to prevent something as bad as a school shooting from ever happening. But anyway, I think any help is important, and yes, schools should keep the shooter dril to prevent any eventuality.
I am not that worried about a shooting happening at my school, but you may never know. A shooting could happen at any time, especially when you least expect it. The drills don’t really scare me that much. A lot of school shooters are students, so they know how the drill goes, and where the other students are. I believe drills are not really keeping the students safe if the shooter is a student.
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In the article it states “while the vast majority of gun-related homicides involving children occur in the United States, only a tiny percentage occur on school grounds.” I feel scared there is still a percentage of school shootings, even if its a tiny percent its scary. I have never been in an active shooter drill and I think schools need to have more preparedness for shootings, but I feel active shooter drills would just scare kids more than help them. I think schools need to take more measures to protect kids, before something bad happens again.
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I think that active shooter drills are good for students to know what they are doing if a shooter actually does show up. In this day and age, school shooting are becoming more and more likely, which is why schools need to be prepared for events like this. Although the drills interrupt classtime, its always better to be safe than sorry, which is why active shooter drill are important. The only thing i dislike about the drills, is that many shooters are previous students, and they already know what happens when a shooter enters, and knows where kids hide, for this reason, i think that schools should change up their drills every now and then so that the shooter has no chance of finding students.
I don't know about a mass shooting occurring at school,soI don’t worry about it now. The article
states that “while the vast majority of gun-related homicides involving children occur in the United States, only a tiny percentage occur on school grounds.” doesn’ make me feel less worried. Because it's true that many students are involved.
How do you feel about active school shooter drills?
I think they are good and we should continue to have them. Although I think there are deeper rooted problems because we need school shooter drills but we won't talk about that right now. I think it's important that our children know how to react in the situation. When in a position like that most people freeze up but if you do the drill enough it’ll come like second nature and their body will just react. It really sucks that it has to be that way but it's what we have to do. I don't think the drill really scares anyone, we are pretty used to them by now.
I have been in an active drill and we take everything seriously. When we are in these drills everyone has to be super quiet and everyone has to listen to the teacher. I was sitting their following directions and focusing on what the teacher was instructing us to do. I felt scared and after it was all over, I felt safe because the teacher took the situation perfectly. This drill stands out in my mind and I believe that we should continue these drills because schools need to become good at these incase a situation ever comes up.
@cassie dool
this doesnt make sense. the same student that will shoot up the school next will now know exactly where to go and what to do s0 he also nows where to shoot. Think about nit
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I haven’t really been in a School Shooting Drill that I can remember, but I do remember a time when there was a similar event. It all started one day back in elementary, it was all normal until the P.A. turned on and the school was put on lock down. Apparently someone with a gun was seen walking near the high school which was very close. Everyone went silent, and we all hurried to get under our desks for safety. I was honestly, scarily calm through the entire event. And while fortunately when the drill was over, the school was safe after all. After that, kids were, rightfully, picked up by our parents, and my mother was close to tears. Her voice was breaking, and she was hugging me, and for some reason, I was calm. We had the rest of the day off, but I still think about how it all could have been different.
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At my school, when we have our active-shooter drills I really think nothing about them. These drills have never scared me because i've never had anything to worry about. But they also don't make me feel any safer, all I do is what the teacher tells us to do and I think nothing else about the drill. These drills have had no effects on me or any of my classmates.
I’m really not super worried about school shootings that much. The main thing is it’s out of my control and I can’t do much about it. The statistics doesn’t have an effect on me that much I try to not think about this that much because I really have no control over what happens. I have been in an active shooter drill I have been in lock down drill but that is it. It made me feel good like I was put in the best spot possible to survive. I like the drills we have at my school. It makes me feel as safe as possible if this ever did happen. It has scared some classmates but that is it. I wouldn’t change anything they get as prepared as can be. I do believe it is necessary to conduct drills.
if the school is in a city they might tIn my opinion having drills for school shooters is a great idea. Having the kids know where and what to do for that kind of situation may help some of them out one day. Also in my opinion the drills should depend on the area your in. Because the situation might depend on where the school is located, and ake a different route then a school in the country.
Active Shooting Drills:
I personally feel that we need active shooting drills at school. Since the beginning of 2019, there have been 22 school mass shootings in the U.S. At my school, I feel that our active shooting drills are not beneficial to the students nor the teachers. Teachers are always made aware of the drills before hand and normally tell the students. When students know that it’s just a drill, they are more likely not going to take it seriously. There is also never a correct way to prepare students for what might happen during an active shooting drill. Active shooting drills do not scare me because I know when it is just a drill. Drills do not make me feel safer due to the fact that the shooter(s) knows that there are students in every classroom hiding. Every shooter has been a student and knows how most schools prepare for the worst.
I think that these drills have become more and more needed over time. I don't see any valid reason that could be argued as to why doing these drills would be a bad thing. Even if a shooting never happens at that school, it is still good to practice just in case because you really never know these days. An easy uneducated answer to this problem would be to get rid of guns but realisticky that will never happen here and for good reason. But i do think that if schools are going to do shooting drills they should also put more focus into the mental health of their students given that that is how these things start. That is how I feel about shooting drills being needed in schools.
The active shooter drills my school does are necessary, if a shooting were to happen it is very important that students are prepared. They do not scare me because I want to be prepared for the in case that this happens. I don’t believe one should experience any fears from these drill because it’s protecting the students from a terrible situation. It’s also the same concept as a fire drill, just because you prepare for it, does not mean it’s going to happen, it’s just a protocol to prepare the students for something that could happen
I’m not extremely worried about a mass shooting at our school but the threat is always there the fact that only a small percent of gun related homicides by children only a very small percent is school shootings. This statistic doesn't really help me too much, I still think you should be careful. I also think that the active shooter drills that we do are good but I don't think that we do enough of them. I do think that they make me feel better knowing that I at least have some sort of protocol in place to protect me.
I am worried about a school shooting happening at my school. Well actually I’m terrified of it happening. I don’t think it will happen though because most kids at my school are nice people and not obsessed with guns. It does leave the door open for a random person to do so but the odds of that happening are very slim. When I first started doing lock down drills back in elementary school I got scared but now I realize they are necessary in making sure we are safe if we ever have a gunman on the premises. I’m not sure what my classmates think about them but they do have mixed opinions about them.
The Deep Sadness of My First Active Shooter Drill
I'm a substitute teacher.
On the first day, my class had a fire drill. It was business as usual as my students were released to return to the room and received a passing “grade” for the exercise. But, little did I know that within 24 hours, I would be part of yet another “drill” which would forever change me and the way I “am” with my students.
I was handed and asked to read a memo before first period. I sat at the desk in complete disbelief reading three times a document titled “ACTIVE SHOOTER DRILL.” I was stunned.
I had now found myself part of something that I had previously only followed as others did. I will forever look differently at the students – my students. After completing the incredibly sad/surreal drill, I tossed the class assignment and spent the remaining time talking to the kids in all of the periods.
I asked them to share their experience and feelings of having to lie down on the floor - on stomachs or backs completely flat wondering what it would be like if this was real. And apparently, so many kids have not stopped wondering.
In response to the rise in mass shootings, many schools have been forced to initiate drills. Similar to a fire drill, students act out how to behave in an emergency situation. Unlike fire drills, however, they may be doing more harm than good.
I personally think that shooter drills terrify children. I have yet to experience a shooter drill, so I can’t relate but it’s still a scary concept. But do the drills even help? Most school shooters are students themselves, so they could just watch the drill and know where to go. Maybe schools should change drills every once in a while.
I have mixed emotions about practicing this drill, I think it's good so we know what to do if there is a shooter. But I also think that if there was a shooter they already know what our drill is and what schools do. Like a shooters gonna know if we are all hiding because they're gonna know we aren't on vacation on a random day. I believe that some teachers should have a gun because we don't have any weapons to fight back.
Active shooter drills I feel are something that needs to be acted out, but at the same time I think it would be tough to do because there are so many ways it can happen. A shooter plans things out. They choose a door their going to walk in, they find a way to hide a gun.they attack places that they know there's no weapons involved in there where firearms in a so called gun free zone it would make them think twice you don't see these shooters going after places that carry firearms they attack the weak places like schools. I have been in active shooter drills and I feel like they aren't really close to the real thing. I feel like we wouldn't have enough time to announce the situation if it was an internal threat. A shooter wouldn't pull out a gun when everybody is in a classroom with locked doors. They would wait for bells to ring and everybody to walkout and then start. I think teachers should be allowed to carry firearms. People might say “you don't know if they're crazy?” Well why would you hire a crazy person in the first place? By having some kind of firearm in the school it would make them think twice about going in and shooting place.
the School District of Waukesha drill is to make us hide in a corner with lights out which is helping the gunman, isn’t like it is most likely a student who knows the drill
@E
yes thank you for understanding my point
I feel like it’s not good that we have to practice these things, but with all the things that has happened in the past years it is VERY necessary. With all the shootings that have happened it is urgent that we practice these drills because we never know when it could happen.
I myself don't believe a school shooting will happen to a school like mine, shooters are smart they won't attack a highly prepared guarded school, that's just risky. I have done an active shooter drill and the one I did last year was quite realistic since they were banging on the doors, and honestly that was quite scary but it did prepare us for what may go down/happen. Shooters are quite smart so there's no way we can possibly prepare for every scenario that might go down so I don't believe my school needs to change anything other than more variety of drills for this scenario. EX. In the cafeteria, in the cafeteria line, in the bathroom(do we stay in the bathroom or quickly find a class), passing period, I could go on but honestly that's all.
I believe we should have these drills because unfortunately shootings still happen and I think all schools should be prepared no matter what.