While school shooting percentages may be low they are still a major threat to schools all over the country. According to USNews.com there have been over 1,200 school shootings in just the last five years, 350 just in 2023.
Schools have plans set in place for the chance of one of these tragedies happening but did not practice them to the extent that we are seeing them now. Schools create well coordinated plans with the police in order to limit the damage that shooters may try to cause.
Advocates suggest that schools use with practices that involve police officers firing blank rounds in order to simulate a real active shooting situation.
All of these practices are good in theory but they come with their own sets of issues as well. The idea of school shootings and the practices students must do to prepare for the small chance that one of these events could happen can affect the mental health of young students and even staff.
States such as Washington and New Jersey have set laws in order to limit the amount of realistic practices schools can do to protect the well-being of students. States like Virginia passed laws that require schools to notify students’ parents before starting any drills. Virginia also created a law to exempt preschool and kindergarten students from being involved in any drills.
In an interview with Sutton Schools Resource Officer Bertone, he was questioned on Sutton Schools current procedures in the case of an active shooting.
The majority of schools including Sutton have the same procedure in place: lock the doors and hide in the corner of the room. Officer Bertone says, ¨It is a crime of opportunity¨ as he tells us that this is the safest plan because the shooter does not have time to get into a barricaded door, along with knowing they only have a few minutes at most before police arrive.
Many people believe that you should run out of the school if given the chance, but the issue is the unreliability of knowing where the threat is. Officer Bertone says, ¨It is extremely difficult to accurately tell where a gunshot is coming from while in the school.¨ Many teachers in Sutton High School agreed with Officer Bertone after the training they completed over the summer.
A big question when it comes to active shooter drills is how younger kids react and act during these drills. While interviewing Officer Bertone, we asked him his thoughts on this and he said, ¨ The elementary school students do much better than many people would expect. When they become nervous they almost attach to the teachers and listen to what they are told. Most of the time they are much better than some of the older middle and high school students because of that.¨
Overall the younger children behave well and benefit from these drills still. Another point made by Officer Bertone is that they need to practice these drills and be comfortable with them to stop those nervous behaviors later on. Officer Bertone says we must ¨practice how you play.¨
