Active Shooter Drills are NOT School Safety!!!!

Active Shooter Drills are NOT School Safety!!!!

I could write a book on this one, but suffice to say if people (parents especially) want safer schools, they're going to have to invest themselves in the process to get there instead of being passive/aggressive about it.

Frankly, I'm tired of people who keep condemning and vilifying active shooter drills while offering nothing as an alternative especially as presented in this article from April 14, 2019:

Active shooter drills are scaring kids and may not protect them. Some schools are taking a new approach.

Since then, nothing has really changed other than even more subject matter experts, psychologists, and psychiatrists weighing in and saying virtually the same thing.....repeatedly - that active shooter drills are harming kids.

Folks, I'm here to tell you there's an entire process involved in designing, developing, and implementing an effective active shooter drill. Too many folks don't use that process, though. And that's why we keep seeing scared and sometimes traumatized kids and even school staff who've been forced to go through active shooter drills gone wrong! And, by "gone wrong", I'm talking specifically about unannounced drills, poorly planned drills, or drills that have no prior planning before being conducted. 

Truth is, there's a better way that actually works: An emergency exercise PROGRAM that's part of a broader emergency management program. Please note I did not say active shooter drill program. I said "emergency exercise program"! And that emergency exercise program must be an integral part of an overall emergency management program designed specifically for schools.

There are detailed guidance documents available that are even specific to schools. One very good site to go to for this type of info is FEMA's Multi-hazard Emergency Planning for Schools Site Index. If all you're looking for is some info on drills and exercises, scroll down. Drills and exercises have a whole list of things you can access......for FREE!

There are a whole bunch more I've listed on my own blog site: School Safety Resources. My page is also FREE to access, but a few of the resources listed are not free.

And there’s one more that’s probably the single most underused website of all that provides free materials and guidance on school safety: Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools Technical Assistance Center

Bottom line is:

Folks, YOU need to start asking questions of your school districts. You have every right to do so, and arguably have a responsibility to do so.

Questions like:

• What process is the school using to design, develop, and implement an emergency management program?
• Does each individual school in the district have an emergency operations plan?
• If not, why not?
• If so, what standards were used in its design, development, and implementation?
• If policy is specified in the plan that certain procedures are to be followed for any of these kind of activities (including response to actual incidents) and that policy has appropriate signatures, is that policy being followed (signed policy may have full force and effect of law according to solicitor general of agency I used to work for) during response?
• What other types of practice activities besides active shooter drills are being used?

That's just to start, but the list could go on.

Parents need to be advocates for their kids' safety before an incident happens. Doing so after an incident is what I call reactive activism:

I'm not talking here about parental involvement in school curriculum, either. I'm talking about parents being proactive in their kids' safety by inserting themselves into the school safety PROCESS by actively volunteering to help keep their kids safe while in school.

Confrontational attitudes won't work, but the types of questions I posed in this shortlist are questions that need to be asked and answered.

That's the point, hopefully, at which multiple disciplines will realize they need to work together to make anything viable come together, and work together for the common goal of safer schools.

Rant over.....well, almost.

And, after all the questions above are answered, here's a few more that parents and/or members of a community need to consider:

• What can you, a parent or member of the community, do to enhance safe schools?
• What do you, a parent or member of the community, need to know in order to enhance safe schools?
• What should you, a parent or member of the community, look for related to school safety at schools in your community?
• What do children think about safety in their school?
• How comfortable are you, a parent or member of the community, with methods and procedures for reporting safety concerns at schools in your community?
• Is access to schools in the community controlled and monitored?
• Do schools in the community have established policies and procedures on security and emergency preparedness?
• Do schools in the community have ‘living’ school safety teams, a safety plan and ongoing process, as well as a school crisis team and school emergency/crisis preparedness guidelines in place?
• Do school and public safety officials use internal security specialists and outside public safety resources to develop safety plans and crisis guidelines?
• Are school emergency/crisis guidelines tested and exercised?
• Have school employees, including support personnel, received training on school security and crisis preparedness issues?
• Do school officials use outside resources and sources in their ongoing school safety assessments?
• Are you, as a parent or member of the community, honestly doing your part in making schools in the community as safe as they can possibly be?

Now my rant really is over.

School administrators often times have a very full plate. So, often times (see what I did there?) school administrators will opine publicly that your kids' safety is their top priority. But, in reality, they don't know where to start except that they're required by law to conduct drills that are, without proper preparation, harmful to the very kids they say are their top safety priority. So, GET ON IT parents and community members. Nobody else is gonna do it for you!

Colorado passed a law in 2008 (SB 08-181) that actually requires emergency management programs at each and every school in the state. All y'all might want to consider using this law as a model for your own school emergency management program.

My two cents.

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