New York state, home to the largest school district in the country, is the latest to ban schools from conducting “realistic” active shooter drills with fake blood and the sound of gunfire.
The new rule, which goes into effect at the start of this school year, calls for a more “trauma-informed” and “age-appropriate” approach to shooter drills that excludes the use of props, actors, or tactics depicting violence when school or extracurricular activities are in session. New Jersey, Minnesota, and Washington have enacted similar measures, and California is considering similar legislation.
New York’s rule, which was approved unanimously by the Board of Regents in late July, also says a school’s staff and students need to be informed ahead of time when a school is conducting the drill. These drills also cannot include students without explicit written consent from their parents or guardians.
“In recent years, concerns have been raised nationwide about the unintended trauma or harm to students, staff, and/or families that may result from drills that are not communicated as being practice rather than an actual emergency,” Angelique Johnson-Dingle, the deputy commissioner of P-12 instructional support at the state’s education department, wrote in a memo to the Board of Regents. “This is pronounced when a drill is conducted that includes elements to simulate a possible emergency.”
To prepare for the devastating but statistically unlikely event of a school shooting, at least 40 states require their schools to conduct active shooter drills, according to Everytown for Gun Safety, a nonprofit group that advocates for stricter gun laws. While some districts instruct students to shelter in place, others have added elements like the sound of real gunfire or the use of prop or toy firearms to their drills to make them seem more like a real attack.
One such training is ALICE, an acronym for Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate. More than 5,500 school districts and 5,100 police and law enforcement departments have ALICE-trained personnel, according to ALICE’s official website.
Those who advocate for the “run, hide, fight” strategies under ALICE—which can include hurling objects at a potential attacker—are opposed by gun control activists and some parent groups, who believe realistic drills can negatively impact the mental well-being of students and staff. There is no consensus, however, on whether more “realistic” drills make students more prepared for a violent attack.
The small minority of principals who’ve experienced a school shooting or led a school in the immediate aftermath say they have to be especially cautious to find a middle ground between preparing students for a violent attack and protecting their mental health.
These principals have tweaked the way they conduct their active shooter drills to be mindful of the trauma their staff and students have already undergone.
“Students who have been through a tragedy like this … felt like they lost control of their own lives. Through the drills, we want to empower them to take back control [in] that moment,” said Elizabeth Brown, who took over as the principal of Forest High School in Ocala, Fla., shortly after a student opened fire inside the school in 2019, severely injuring one student.
Communication around drills is key, principals say
In the above video, Brown, who is now the principal of Ocali Charter High School in Ocala, Fla., detailed why she pushed for changes to the ALICE protocols used by Forest High.
Brown was tasked with running an active shooter drill at Forest High more than three months after the shooting, due to a state requirement. She knew that her students would be re-traumatized if they had to experience a shooting-like scenario.
Brown, along with a group of parents, petitioned the school district to make a change to the drill. The school still went into a lockdown and barricaded classrooms, but throughout the whole experience, Brown addressed her students over the intercom system.
“I kept telling them [that] it’s almost over: ‘This is fiction, it’s not real life,’” she said.
Other school leaders in schools that have experienced gun violence think of their active shooter drills as a way to prepare students for incidents they may face outside of school, too.
“These incidents aren’t isolated to schools,” said Andy McGill, the assistant principal of West Liberty-Salem High School in Ohio, where a student shot and injured another student in 2017. McGill was part of a trio that confronted and stopped the shooter from doing more damage.
The West Liberty-Salem school district also follows the ALICE protocol to run its active shooter drills. McGill said he wants to make sure students can make decisions in crisis situations.
“Students have to be aware,” he said. “This can happen anywhere. We are investing in our kids to be decisionmakers.”
The key to adapting these drills to be more mindful of past trauma is to keep students informed, Brown said. At the beginning of every school year, Brown would run through what the ALICE protocol looks like. After every active shooter drill, Brown also had school counselors and crisis teams from the district for students to talk to.
New York’s new rules requires schools to inform parents about the drill at least one week ahead of time.
