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Do School Shooting Drills Do More Harm Than Good?
The school shooting last week –- a 17-year old in Omaha killed the assistant principal and wounded the principal before killing himself -– is sure to revive the debate about whether schools should have shooting drills.
That is because the crime is so horrific, we feel it in our guts -- and hear about it on the news. A lot. Those facts alone, however, don't mean that the drills make sense.
Here's a video of one such drill, complete with screaming kids running down the halls, and an interview with the "safety expert" who has coordinated hundreds of these drills around the country. After any shooting, he said, his phone rings off the hook. The anchorwoman remarks that the drill seems very sobering, "but nonetheless, it appears to be very necessary."
Not to me it doesn't.
At least, no more necessary than strapping kids into fake cars and then simulating a crash, complete with shattering glass and a dummy spurting blood. I mean, if we're going to scare our kids to death in the name of "preparation," let's at least prepare them for a far more likely demise.
School shootings make the news because they are rarer than rare. They are so rare, in fact, that of the 55,600,000 children enrolled in school in 2008-09, 24 were the victims of homicide. By contrast, 2,000 kids die annually in car accidents.
And yet, car accidents get scant attention in the news. School shootings? The media go wild. So do us parents. We want to do something –- anything -- so we embrace these drills. What's the harm?
Well, for one thing, the time could be far better spent drilling kids on street-crossing safety, or pool safety -- even cooking safety. Teach them to dodge the dangers they are far more likely to encounter.
But the real problem is that these drills are absolutely corrosive. Schools do not use fog machines to make fire drills more terrifying. Tornado drills do not involve hurtling debris through the windows. To most kids, those drills just feel like exciting breaks from the ordinary day.
A school shooting drill is something else. Not only is it more dramatic, it is more traumatic. The whole idea, brought screamingly home, is that any one of our friends or teachers could suddenly try to murder us. The message to kids is that they really can't trust anyone. It's like the TSA patting down every last granny in every last wheelchair: We are teaching our kids that only constant paranoia makes sense.
We all want our kids to be safe at school. Luckily for us, when it comes to murder, schools are already one of the safest places a child could be. Even without a shooting drill.
That is because the crime is so horrific, we feel it in our guts -- and hear about it on the news. A lot. Those facts alone, however, don't mean that the drills make sense.
Here's a video of one such drill, complete with screaming kids running down the halls, and an interview with the "safety expert" who has coordinated hundreds of these drills around the country. After any shooting, he said, his phone rings off the hook. The anchorwoman remarks that the drill seems very sobering, "but nonetheless, it appears to be very necessary."
Not to me it doesn't.
At least, no more necessary than strapping kids into fake cars and then simulating a crash, complete with shattering glass and a dummy spurting blood. I mean, if we're going to scare our kids to death in the name of "preparation," let's at least prepare them for a far more likely demise.
School shootings make the news because they are rarer than rare. They are so rare, in fact, that of the 55,600,000 children enrolled in school in 2008-09, 24 were the victims of homicide. By contrast, 2,000 kids die annually in car accidents.
And yet, car accidents get scant attention in the news. School shootings? The media go wild. So do us parents. We want to do something –- anything -- so we embrace these drills. What's the harm?
Well, for one thing, the time could be far better spent drilling kids on street-crossing safety, or pool safety -- even cooking safety. Teach them to dodge the dangers they are far more likely to encounter.
But the real problem is that these drills are absolutely corrosive. Schools do not use fog machines to make fire drills more terrifying. Tornado drills do not involve hurtling debris through the windows. To most kids, those drills just feel like exciting breaks from the ordinary day.
A school shooting drill is something else. Not only is it more dramatic, it is more traumatic. The whole idea, brought screamingly home, is that any one of our friends or teachers could suddenly try to murder us. The message to kids is that they really can't trust anyone. It's like the TSA patting down every last granny in every last wheelchair: We are teaching our kids that only constant paranoia makes sense.
We all want our kids to be safe at school. Luckily for us, when it comes to murder, schools are already one of the safest places a child could be. Even without a shooting drill.
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ReaderComments (Page 1 of 1)
1-07-2011 @ 1:43PM
dougalcandy said...I am a NYC Dept of Education employee, and was a dean for 10 years. I find this totally creepy, who needs bodies lying in the halls during a drill? I also find it hard to believe that it would work in a large NYC HS, where the building could house as many as 5000 students . Can you imagine the chaos that would ensue with one of those drills--5000 teenagers running amok in the halls, running out into the city streets? Many of these kids don't take any drill seriously, they would see this as a fun time to get out of class--and possibly not return to class after the drill. Sad to say also, but many inner city kids already know too well what it is like to be shot at, they probably know what to do better than we do!
Reply
1-08-2011 @ 10:48AM
Heather said...Our schools have fire drills and lockdown drills. There are no bodies laying around no screaming students. They are taught to stay calm no matter what and get down and away from the door and windows. the teacher also locks the door. These drills are no just for school shootings , it could be a stranger causing harm to a student in a school ( we had a few of those a couple years ago), now all students go to the bathrrom/office with a buddy.
They don't have bodies laying around for a fire drill why would they have it for a lockdown drill.
Reply
1-10-2011 @ 9:51AM
Anna said...My daughters' school has a drill every month (variations - fire, unknow person, etc.) and I think it is too much. As a result, at home hey are always "playing drill" and hiding in the closet and at their ages (5 and 7) I don't think they should be thinking about or worrying about these things.
My husband disagrees - doesn't think it's any different from when we were kids and had to practice hiding under our desks!
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1-10-2011 @ 10:05AM
gigimama said...Additionally, if the troubled kid or teacher is participating in the drill, wouldn't it reveal where weaknesses are? Like if kids get clogged in a particular stairwell, that would be an awesome place to stand with a gun.
Hiding under desks was harmless compared to drills like this. As if hiding under a formica-covered desk stuffed with crayons and a Trapper Keeper would stave off nuclear holocausts. Maybe we should distribute a little school desk to every citizen of South Korea in case North Korea decides to make good on their threats one of these days?
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