“The reality is, when you do live drills, you stand the potential of uncovering something that you didn’t plan,” said David Schonfeld, a developmental-behavioral pediatrician at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and the director of the National Center for School Crisis and Bereavement. As we reported last October, active shooter drills can retraumatize children who have experienced domestic violence. But in recent years the exercises have drawn criticism for terrifying students rather than empowering them, and a growing contingent of researchers and parents have questioned their efficacy. Proponents say the drills teach situational awareness from a young age and can save lives. School safety protocols can save lives, proponents say - but experts argue they are particularly harmful to kids who’ve been abused. New York is one of 42 states that require public schools to conduct at least one lockdown or shelter-in-place drill for students during the school year, according to an analysis of state laws and policies published by The Trace and Scary Mommy last fall, and used by activists who pushed for fewer drills. “It’s really burdensome and traumatizing for kids. “We’re basically normalizing a reality in which kids go to school and expect to be slaughtered,” the bill’s sponsor, state Senator Andrew Gounardes, told The Trace. The measure would also require schools to notify families a week in advance of a lockdown drill and give them the option to opt out. Amid mounting criticism of active shooter drills in schools as ineffective and often traumatic, New York lawmakers are taking steps to reduce their frequency.Ī bill introduced in the state legislature on April 26 would limit the number of mandatory lockdown drills to one per year, down from the four that are currently required.
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