Washington state enacts limits on how schools can conduct active shooter drills

MyNorthWest.com ^ | 3/17/22 | Nick Bowman

[MAGA2017]

A bill limiting the way schools can conduct active shooter lockdown drills was signed into law on Thursday by Gov. Jay Inslee.

HB 1941 makes it so that schools in Washington cannot conduct drills involving “live simulations or reenactments of active shooter scenarios that are not trauma-informed and age and developmentally appropriate.” That means that students, teachers, and school staff must be alerted to any drills related to school shooting safety beforehand and that drills cannot directly mimic the presence of a shooter on school grounds, instead, focusing on basic lockdown procedures.

The bill’s sponsor, state Rep. Amy Walen, points to research indicating that “active shooter drills increase depression, anxiety, and fear of death for children and parents, and can cause stress and trauma to students and staff.”

“There is no empirical research supporting the benefits of school-based armed assailant drills with a sensorial experience, but typical lockdown drills without a sensorial experience do have benefits,” a summary of testimony from Walen and Lake Washington School District psychologist Kathryn Salveson reads.

According to data compiled by gun safety nonprofit Everytown Research & Policy and the Georgia Institute of Technology, over 95% of schools in the U.S. implement some form of active shooter drills, despite school shootings “accounting for less than 1% of the more than 40,000 annual U.S. gun deaths.” In analysis of social media conversations spanning over 100 K-12 schools, Everytown and Georgia Tech found that “active shooter drills are associated with increases in depression (39%), stress and anxiety (42%), and psychological health problems (23%).”

[gundog]

What about Drag-Queen Active Shooter Drills?

[God luvs America]

But teaching them about gay sex? CRT? That’s a-okay

[IAGeezer912]

When I was in grade school in the late 1950’s we had nuclear bomb drills where we hid under school desks. It didn’t traumatize anyone that I am aware of. Kids are resilient; liberals not so much.

[MAGA2017]

That’s a good point.

[FreedomPoster]

But no one was blowing off M-80s in the courtyard while you were ducking and covering. Which is the point here.

[goodnesswins]

And I’ve always wondered what good a desk would be against a bomb (yeah, I lived thru those drills)

[KarlInOhio]

First this, then next they won’t allow a principal to spill a 55 gallon drum of gasoline in the hallway for the fire drill. And how realistic is a nuclear “duck and cover” drill without the flash from at least a 20 kiloton bomb to provide the flash?

[silent majority rising]

We kind of enjoyed them. Means we didn’t really have to pay too much attention and could “goof off” a bit. I am not aware of anyone who seriously spent a lot of time worrying about getting ‘nuked’. We had more important matters to worry about.

[CIB-173RDABN]

And I’ve always wondered what good a desk would be against a bomb (yeah, I lived thru those drills)
—

It would depend on how far you were from the blast.

Too close and it would not matter at all.

Further away with just windows being blown out, being under a desk with your head protected may prevent serious wounds from glass.

Personally I think the drills were mainly to keep the student under some control if an attack were to take place.

Knowing kids, they would all run to the window to see what was happening.

[unixfox]

Hiding under the desks was nothing but a false sense of security. Just another form of indoctrination. Kinda like taking your shoes off and getting strip searched at the airport.

[mac_truck]

It didn’t traumatize anyone that I am aware of.

Taught you to hate those damn Russians though, didn't it?

[lightman]

Or “masking up”.

[jonascord]

Just so you know

The German bombing of Britain indicated that most civilian deaths were from crushing by collapsing walls, ceilings and roofs. The under-the-desk tactic was meant to help that.

It was from back when the Government actually gave a sh!t.

[flamberge]

A live re-enactment of an active shooter incident might very well get a person shot for real in some high schools. By other students.

It's a bad idea. One of many, I suppose.

Mostly it seems to be about conditioning teenagers to be herded like sheep.

Obey!

[flamberge]

(yeah, I lived thru those drills)

I grew up about two miles away from an Air Force base that hosted a wing of strategic bombers.

Not really concerned about getting under my school desk during the drills. It was kind of fun for a kid. For the real deal I was going to get up and watch the planes take off. They were pretty cool.

And wait for the flash.

[whitney69]

“It didn’t traumatize anyone that I am aware of.”

Those drills were to fill a checkmark box. If school desks were actually a deterrent it would have meant something. But it was a way to promote confidence in their situation and the teaching staff rather than a real threat defender. So it wouldn’t be a big deal because the students didn’t actually understand the reality of the pain and destruction. Nothing ever fell and it became a game.

wy69

[moovova]

“Remember kids, if the shooter's evil AR-15 doesn't have a red thingee on the end of the baby-killing barrel, IT'S A REAL GUN! SO RUN!"

[Buttons12]

When I was in grade school in the late 1950’s we had nuclear bomb drills where we hid under school desks. It didn’t traumatize anyone that I am aware of.

My boomer elders may not have been "traumatized," but when the subject comes up they still kvetch about those drills. They were never told it was just a drill...and NYC was a plausible target.

[hanamizu]

And I’ve always wondered what good a desk would be against a bomb (yeah, I lived thru those drills)

---

I grew up in a town that was an obvious target. Aircraft plant, Navy base, so hiding under the desk would have been pointless. But I was five or six and hadn’t thought all of that through. I remember being warned not to ‘look at the light’.