Lock Down Drill Research Paper

Since the Sandy Hook school shooting in 2012, there has been at least 239 school shootings nationwide. In those 239 events, more than 400 people have been shot, of those 438, 138 were killed. 138 daughters, sons, mothers, fathers, sisters, and brothers went to school one day and never made it home (Patel). In response to the school shootings, schools use lock down drills to help prepare students and staff for an unspeakable event if one were to occur. Lock down drills’ purpose is to help prepare students and staff by making everyone aware of what the plan is when there is an intruder in the school. It depends on the school, but in general during a lockdown drill the teachers lock the door, turn the lights off, and everyone sits in a corner

Now, the training the drill has provide them helps prepare them for a situation where all they have to do is sit and hid in a corner behind a locked door. But what happens when the intruder gets through the door and finds the students and teachers huddled in a corner? What has the lock down drills prepared the students to do? The answer to that would be nothing; basic lock down drills do not do anything to prepare students and staff for a situation where the intruder actually makes it through the door and, according to former SWAT officer Greg Crane, “‘locked doors have been defeated before’” (Lupkin). Lock down drills leave students and staff in a stationary position like sitting targets and does not train them how to react if one comes incontact with the active shooter. For these reasons, lockdown drills are not effective in preparing schools for a situation with an active shooter in the school. The question then is, what is the best way to prepare students for a situation like

Many argue that the ALICE response program just exposes students to things situations that will cause unnecessary stress and fear. During the training, students are taught how to handle a situation where they is an armed intruder in their school. Many parents do not want these drills in place because they “don’t want to expose their young children to such discussions of violence” (Blad). The whole idea of a intruder coming into schools and trying to harm them is very scary, especially when your school is going over in detail how to defend yourself in a situation because the training can make it seem much more likely to occur. The training makes this situation seem much more real, which causes students to be scared and worried when they come to school because they may think they will be shot. A father of an 8 year old daughter is afraid of telling her that a intruder may come and hurt her at school. He touches on this at a public school meeting when he says, “‘I’m very concerned about what impact it will have on her [his daughter] to be told that there’s a potential that someone might walk through the door and shoot her classroom’” (Blad). Many ask then if this extra anxiety is necessary because “the chance of any student dying in a school-related