An Argument Against Active Shooter Drills
Today, while preparing to play the guitar in the library for national guitar day, I heard a loud commotion in the hallway. I investigated through a large class window in my room to see twenty to thirty students running away from something. One student dropped a binder, sending notebook paper and worksheets flying everywhere. Someone pulled the fire alarm and sent the school into a frenzy. “Let’s go” and “Come on,” were commands to the students. I saw the principal and an Algebra teacher shouting to the students. As we were directed to exit the building. So, we gathered our students out of their classes, down the stairs, and were stopped by an AP. “Turn around…turn around,” he said. So about 60 students were redirected to their classrooms. It was believed that there was an active shooter in the building, but, as it turns out, it was only some students who thought it smart to light some fire-crackers during the passing period.
Many of the students were shocked. Some were excited. Some were sad. But the teachers were also shocked. On last week, we my team met for a meeting and in the meeting we heard a colleague give a presentation over an active shooting trainer that she had attended. After her talk, I commented that we needed to have a plan for an active shooter. Many of my colleagues disagreed. Active shootings are unpredictable. Therefore, you can’t prepare. Well, I closed my mouth and didn’t say anything. Well, today, after all the students were safely in class, my boss told us that we needed to come up with some ideas to make the process transition smoothly. Thus far, there was no plan for such an event. In life, we have moments where we are ignored for whatever reason, and the very thing that we advise occurs. This was such a moment. No, I didn’t say told you so, I’m concerned about the safety of students and staff during such moments as occurred today. However, in the back of my mind, I became upset since I heard co-workers repeat the same invalid argument. Let’s examine this argument just in case you experience the same thing.
- If one cannot predict an active shooter, then one cannot prepare for it.
- Therefore, one cannot prepare for an active shooter.
This argument is unsound. Premise 1 is false. One may not be able to predict an active shooter incident. One may not be able to know the location of where an active shooter will hit, but you can definitely prepare for it. A plan is your response to an active shooter alert. We can have a planned response for an active shooter alert. We could plan out such things as, where we want the students to go, how fast this should take, the location of the students in the classroom, etc. True, we cannot time, predict, or anticipate an active shooter, but we can prepare our response, a response that provides the most efficient routes for the safety and comfort of our students.
Premise one is false because it assumes that we can’t prepare for the unexpected. We can prepare for death via life insurance. We can prepare for a tornado by practicing tornado drills, and we can prepare for fires by practicing fire drills. All these events are unexpected; however, we have plans in place. Our plans are prepared. We prepare our response to these situations, although the events that trigger our responses are unpredictable.
Further, a quick search for active shooter trainings on Google will return 23,000 hits for active shooter trainings. These search results show dozens of companies that provide schools with assistance in active shooter school responses. These companies help school districts develop plans. But wouldn’t it be silly if these companies helped school districts develop plans for active shooters although no one can prepare a response for active shooters? It makes no sense. The company wouldn’t have any business.
Why Should We have Trainings?
My argument for active shooting drills is simple.
1.) It is more likely now than ever that many more schools will experience active shootings.
2.) If 1) is true, then we need active shooter drills in schools to prepare our staff to respond efficiently for the safety of our students.
We cannot deny that active shootings in schools are on the rise. According to everytownresearch.org, schools shootings have almost tripled since 2013 alone, increasing from 51 incidents in 2013 to 130 last year in 2019! They also indicate that school shootings occur “most often at schools with a high proportion of students of color—disproportionately affecting Black students.” According to the TEA’s enrollment report (https://tea.texas.gov/sites/default/files/enroll_2018-19.pdf), about 685,000 African American students were enrolled in Texas public education system in the 2018-19 school year. 12 percent of African Americans are enrolled in public schools while the rest, presumably, are in private or charter schools. This would suggest that the need for active shooter drills go beyond mere public schools as well. Charter and private schools should be trained for such horrific occurrences as well. The death toll by gun violence in schools was 32 with 4 suicides and 77 injuries. This increase demands a response. It is wise for Texas school districts to heed the wisdom of the old proverb: “It is better to be safe than sorry.”
Thus, schools should have active shooter drills which are specifically designed as a response to an active shooter, not a fire drill in disguise. We need to be prepared. Gun violence is on the rise. The fact that it is unpredictable should be a reason to have such drills and not an excuse to remain unprepared.