Active shooters have become commonplace in US schools, but experts warn they have the potential to do more harm than good.
Although the drills try to prepare students to respond to gun violence in their schools, there is little evidence to prove their effectiveness, experts told ABC News, days after two people were killed. in a shooting at a Christian school in Madison, Wisconsin.
However, they can cause significant damage to mental health and can also serve as an instruction manual for potential school shootings, according to some experts.
“There is too little research confirming the value of (drills) involving students, but the evidence is overwhelmingly mounting on their lasting harm,” said Sarah Burd-Sharps, senior director of research at the gun violence advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety. ABC News
More than 95 percent of U.S. public schools have trained students on lockdown procedures in the event of an active shooter, a number that has grown significantly since the early 2000s, according to a 2017 U.S. Department of Education report. the report. at least 40 states They have laws that require these drills, according to data collected by Everytown.
Children participate in active shooter training at Pinnacle Charter School in Thornton, Colorado in 2019.
ABC News
Despite their ubiquity, there are few standards governing how these drills should be performed, Burd-Sharps said. As a result, practices can vary widely, he said. In some schools, the training may include basic education on lockout procedures. Others, however, have taken it further, simulating an active shooting scenario with gunshots or even school staff posing as the shooters.
This type of training can be very traumatizing for students and can have a negative impact on their mental health. in 2021 analyze Burd-Sharps and others, who studied 114 schools in 33 states, found a 40 percent increase in anxiety and depression in the three months following the drills.
The effects can be particularly pronounced among students with mental health struggles and those who have personal experience with gun violence, such as those who hear gunshots in their communities or who have survived a previous shooting, Burd-Sharps said.
Miami-Dade Schools Police conduct a rescue operation during a “Large Scale Functional Active Shooter Drill” on August 14, 2023 at Miami High School in Miami.
Chandan Khanna/AFP via Getty Images
Rebekah Schuler, a 19-year-old leader of Students Demand Action, who survived The 2021 Oxford High School shooting In Michigan, he said he and his classmates didn’t take active shooter drills very seriously until the attack that killed four students and injured seven others.
After the shooting, many of his classmates transferred, going to schools with active shooter training, he said. Many were retraumatized by these exercises, he said, and some would have panic attacks.
“I didn’t know the severity of it, but after the shooting, they were traumatized on another level,” Schuler told ABC News of the drills.
Advocacy groups like Everytown, as well as Sandy Hook Promise — a nonprofit formed by the families of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting — are calling for stricter guidelines for active shooter drills, preventing negative consequences that serve to better prepare school communities.
in one the reportThe Sandy Hook Promise recommends guidelines for these trainings, including being announced in advance, allowing students to choose, and periodically reviewing practices.
The organization has come out strongly against mock shootings, which they say can traumatize participants and put them at risk of physical injury, without improving the effectiveness of the exercises. It’s a position Burd-Sharps and other experts say is key to making training safer.
“No fake bullets, no fake blood, bouncers dressed as gunslingers. That’s very traumatizing,” he said. “And it’s not just traumatizing for children, it’s also traumatizing for teachers.”
A kindergartener ducks under a table during active shooter training at Pinnacle Charter School in Thornton, Colorado in 2019.
ABC News
While few laws regulate how these workouts are conducted, some states are beginning to take steps to limit hyperrealistic practices. In July, New York banned drills intended to realistically simulate shootings, and government-issued guidelines. Kentucky Department of Education He recommends avoiding “dramatic crisis simulations.”
Active shooter drills can also pose another dire risk: a plan for would-be school shooters to bypass security measures in planning their attack. For example, Natalie Rupnow, the alleged shooter at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, was a student at the school.
“Because 3 out of four school shooters are alumni or former students, by drilling multiple times a year, you’re giving a potential shooter a road map of what’s going to happen in an active shooter incident,” Burd-Sharps said, citing a 2016. New York Police Department the report.
Experts recommend focusing training efforts on teachers rather than students and focusing more efforts on prevention strategies, especially convincing parents to lock up their guns and teaching students where they can safely go if they see behavior among peers.
“When you add the actual shootings that kids see on TV all the time with these drills, and the lockdowns in response to new incidents, it’s no wonder so many school children in the United States are in crisis. The last thing they need is additional trauma from drills several times a year,” Burd said. -Sharp.
“There is absolutely a better way,” he added.
