Drills have been imbedded in the public school system for the past hundred + years. The drills were developed in response to catastrophic fires in Illinois and Ohio. Although they may have been scary at first, fire drills have become routine and students are more likely to be annoyed than afraid.
This is what some say will happen with lockdown drills and possibly active shooter drills. The belief is that the drills may seem scary now but eventually they will become routine and students will not be frightened by them.
I find it difficult to compare fire drills with active shooter drills. Fires do not human and do not attack, they just burn. I see active shooter drills more like the “duck and cover drills” from the 1950s. That is even a stretch because there is no way to protect yourself or your students from a nuclear attack.
I would compare the trauma from the duck and cover drills to the trauma from active shooter drills. The trauma was from not knowing if the sirens meant they were being attacked or if they were practicing for an attack. For many children, this was a question of not knowing if they were going to die in that moment or if that is what it would feel like before they died.
The nuclear attack never happened. Duck and cover drills stopped. Some students carried the trauma from duck and cover drills for the rest of their lives. That is my prediction for active shooter drills. Especially unannounced drills and simulated drills.
It is not simply unethical to trick students into believing that someone is on campus trying to kill them. It is harmful. The severity of harm is unknown. This notion that a little bit of trauma now is okay if it helps them later should be considered.
Especially for students with disabilities. If a student has cognitive or intellectual disabilities, communication delays or difficulties, we don’t know how they are processing what is going on around them. We don’t know how this will affect them now or if it will “help them later”. I am not willing to take that risk.