Biden executive order aims to help schools improve active shooter drills

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Shortly after Robert Murtfield’s child started kindergarten, the school held an unannounced quarantine drill.

Her child was only five years old, and as Murtfield recalls, he didn’t really understand that this was just a drill and not an actual school shooting. Murtfield himself was shocked.

“I joined another parent who, like me, grew up abroad, and we had a problem with this system here at work,” said Murtfield, who grew up in Germany. “We realized that many American parents don’t have this issue or don’t think about it.”

Therefore, Murtfield decided to advocate for reform in the way schools conduct these exercises. His efforts led to changes at his school; These changes began giving parents advance notice of when drills would take place and giving them the opportunity to exclude their children from drills. His work was also affected New York state legislation This now requires schools to inform parents in advance about lockdown drills and conduct them in a “trauma-informed, developmentally and age-appropriate manner.”

Murtfield has a guest. As drills and simulations become increasingly common in American schools and universities, organizations representing school psychologists, law enforcement and others are lobbying to improve them and reduce their negative impact on students.

Now the federal government is also interested. Last month, President Joe Biden signed an agreement. executive order Creating a multi-agency effort to develop guidelines and share resources to make active shooter exercises safer and more effective.

The initiative stemmed from the work of the White House Office to Prevent Gun Violence, which the Biden administration created in 2023 and is overseen by Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris.

“As Vice President Harris was traveling to meet with young leaders across the country, she asked them who had gone through these drills, and everyone in the room lifted up, indicating that this was a huge concern for students,” said the office’s Rob Wilcox. deputy director.

One of the most important aspects of Biden’s executive order is that the federal government provide information on “how to prevent or limit trauma or psychological distress associated with active shooter drills.”

A few groups already have some ideas to share. Organizations such as the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) and the National Association of School Intervention Officers (NASRO) have worked together to collect and generate evidence. instructions about best practices. Cooperation could bear fruit through the revival of federal interests.

Kelly Vaillancourt Strobach, NASP’s director of policy and advocacy, said the two groups have already reached out to the agencies responsible for enforcing the executive order.

“We hope that whatever the federal government puts forward will be broadly consistent with the guidance we have continued to develop over the last decade,” Strobach said. “We also hope it is based on evidence. “Although there is a lack of empirical research on this topic, there are some studies that can be referenced.”

How have views on school lockdown drills changed?

The purpose of quarantine drills is to prepare students for a variety of situations where a threat exists within the school building (such as active shooter situations).

The probability of a student experiencing an active shooting situation remains statistically very low. The opposite is true for quarantine drills: 95.5% of schools in the US conducted the drills in the 2021-2022 school year. National Center for Education Statistics.

But as the drills have become more widespread, reports have also emerged of nightmarish depictions of violence in schools. Such examples came to the fore use of gunfire, Students posing as victims with fake blood And Adults playing the aggressor role.

These dramatic and potentially traumatic devices represent an inability to understand the differences between drills, which are supposed to build trust among students and reduce student anxiety, and simulations, which are high-stress scenarios intended to prepare law enforcement for such situations. Mo Canady, executive director of NASRO, said active shooters were involved.

Canady said agencies and districts are “beginning to do full situational training with students in the school setting.” “As this process progressed, we began to take a hard look at the issue and ask ourselves whether we were doing the right things, especially regarding the teenagers in the building.”

Despite stories from students and educators, there isn’t much evidence about the effects of procedures like quarantine drills and simulations on students’ mental health. According to Jaclyn Schildkraut, executive director of the Regional Gun Violence Research Consortium at the State University of New York, existing research does not distinguish between the various drills that may be used or isolate factors that may contribute to increased anxiety among students. Rockefeller Institute of Government.

There are several studies showing the positive results of doing quarantine drills and discussion-based exercises; for example, in their schools “to make students feel more prepared, to reduce their anxiety, to help them reduce their fear of harm, or to make them less likely to perceive that a school shooting may occur,” Schildkraut said.

One of these studies found that approximately 87% of middle school and high school students Feeling more prepared to respond to a violent incident after discussion-based training.

Other research shows that no matter how much they benefit schools in preparing for violent events, many students think the lockdown drills themselves are harmful.

Georgia Institute of Technology’s Social Dynamics and Wellbeing Lab, in partnership with Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund, analyzed social media conversations about American schools before and after the drills. The second group is affiliated with Everytown for Gun Safety, which supports bans on assault weapons and other measures to prevent gun violence.

Following the following, they saw “a 42% increase in anxiety and stress (as evidenced by increased words like afraid, struggling, and nervous) and a 39% increase in depression (as evidenced by words such as therapy, coping, irritable, suicidal).” . drills” according to them reportThey first published it in 2020.

Before Biden issued the executive order, U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona commissioned the National Academy of Sciences to conduct a study on how active shooter drills affect the health and well-being of students. The study is not yet complete but could help fulfill the executive order.

Preventing student trauma caused by active shooter drills

Guidance from NASP, NASRO, The Promise of Sandy Hookand other organizations are hinting at what Biden’s executive order might include.

These three groups recommend that the exercises should be part of a larger strategy to prevent multiple threats.

“Implementing emergency procedures is important to reduce chaos in an emergency situation,” said Strobach, of the school psychologists group. “But you don’t necessarily have to start a fire to do a fire drill. So there are ways for schools to prepare for any type of crisis without simulating it.”

Experts interviewed by Chalkbeat agree that full-scale simulations should not be part of students’ routines and that approaches should consider different methods to prepare them for emergencies.

For example, guidelines from NASP and NASRO recommend that schools use strategies such as “discussion-based exercises” such as workshops and orientations so that students can talk about the exercises before experiencing them.

The guide does not recommend excluding “action-based” exercises, but does make some recommendations regarding them.

One is to organize walk-throughs where children can follow the instructions step by step and ask questions during the exercise. Once kids are prepared for this, the next step will be more widespread quarantine drills.

Biden also wants to see resources related to communication with students, families and others “both about the drills and when the drills are going to be held,” said Wilcox of the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention.

The president also wants to ensure the executive order focuses on civil rights laws and special groups such as students with disabilities, Wilcox said. Reports highlighted cases where exercises failed to take into account the needs of the public. physically disabled childrenFor example.

Researchers also note that drills may have a stronger impact on the emotional health of children who have previously experienced trauma.

But ultimately, what the White House executive order produces will not be mandatory, so it will be up to local leaders to decide whether to follow the guidelines and use resources.

“We hope the information will help leaders at all levels prevent and eliminate additional trauma and harm to our students,” Wilcox said.

Wellington Soares is Chalkbeat’s national education reporting intern based in New York City. Contact Wellington at: [email protected].