Gunfire and mock executions: how American children practice for a school shooting: ‘Boom, you’re dead’

Dthree years ago, the then 5-year-old son of Marco Pupo shocked at home in New York. There had been a ‘bad man’ at school. Pupo, who grew up in Brazil, asked in surprise for more details about what had happened. It turned out to be a training exercise in case someone entered the school with a firearm, so realistic that it frightened his son.

“I asked other parents the next day if they had heard about it,” Pupo says. ‘One of them said his son woke up that night and wanted to close all the windows because he was anxious. A 5-year-old had asked: Mom, what happens if a bullet goes through my body?’

Hide and be quiet

Most American children regularly practice at school what to do in the event of a shooting. They learn that the door must be locked and the lights must be turned off, that they must hide in cupboards or corners and be as quiet as a mouse. Almost all schools in the US hold such exercises. “If you come from elsewhere it is shocking,” says Marco Pupo. “But here it has become so normal that people don’t really think about it.”

That started 25 years ago today. On April 20, 1999, two students at Columbine High School in Colorado shot and killed twelve fellow students, a teacher and themselves. It was the first school shooting that was widely reported on TV. The witnesses with blood on their clothing were shown on all American channels. The images are etched in the collective memory and mark a turning point.

School buildings have since been hermetically sealed, often with metal detectors and an armed security guard. In some states, teachers are also allowed to carry a weapon. Transparent backpacks are mandatory in more and more schools to prevent weapons from entering the school unnoticed. There are even bulletproof school bags for sale. Most states also require schools to practice for possible shooting incidents.

Rubber bullets

But more and more parents are concerned about the effects on their children. Stories come from across the country of schools even playing the sound of gunfire over the loudspeakers and students texting their parents goodbye, thinking it’s real. In Indiana, teachers even complained of injuries after mock executions with rubber bullets.

Recently, the principal of an elementary school in California formed a gun with her fingers during an exercise. “Boom, you’re dead,” she allegedly said as she took aim at a student. “She was walking around campus pretending to shoot people with finger movements and banging on windows,” one mother told reporters at a local TV station.

“Some exercises definitely go too far,” says Jaclyn Schildkraut, who conducts research at the State University of New York on school measures against gun violence. “We don’t set fire to a school during a fire drill, so there is no need to imitate a shooting.” The association of pediatricians in the US, AAP, also advocates against hyper-realistic exercises. They fear they could be traumatic. After the exercises, messages that participants leave on social media become more anxious and depressed, noted an activist group that advocates stricter gun laws, Everytown for Gun Safety.

Gun violence is so common in the US that it is now the leading cause of death among young people. About one in four teachers experienced a so-called lockdown last year due to fear of a weapons incident. During such a lockdown, all doors are closed and no one is allowed to enter or leave.

Yet gun violence in schools is considered relatively rare. “Young people are significantly more likely to become victims outside of school,” says Schildkraut. But the mass shootings at schools are so terrifying that they cause a lot of fear. Schools want to do something.

Fight

The FBI advised in 2013 that teachers and students should take action when fleeing or hiding is no longer possible. If necessary, they would have to fight the shooter “to survive and protect others.” Commercial training institutes have started selling courses that teach them how to barricade the door to the classroom, distract the shooter with noise, and in extreme cases throw books and staplers to defend themselves.

The Brazilian New Yorker Marco Pupo was ‘shocked’ when he heard about it. When his son came home anxious, he started a campaign with other parents to reduce children’s exposure to the lockdown drills. In New York, law requires public schools to hold four per year, with children ages three and up. The school itself decides how realistic it will be. “In all his years at school, my son can experience at least sixty,” father Pupo counted.

His campaign led to a bill by local Democratic party politicians to require no more than one exercise per year. Fake gunshots have already been banned in New Jersey and Washington. California is also working on a ban.

Schildkraut does not think it is a good idea to completely stop practicing for school shootings in American classrooms. The more often a school practices, the better teachers and students will remember what to do in a chaotic situation, she says. ‘Our research shows that successful use of lockdown procedures has reduced the number of deaths and injuries in real-life shootings.’

Good exercise can also reduce fear of violence, she sees. Teachers should always make it clear that it is not real. The senses do not need to be stimulated with sounds or images, and adults should always remain calm. A moment to chat before the regular class starts again is also important.

It would of course be better to prevent violence, rather than prepare for it, says Schildkraut. “But the reality is that gun ownership in the US has only increased since 1999. Back then you were almost not allowed to carry your firearm in public without a permit. Now that is allowed in the majority of states.’ The Trace, a news site about gun violence in the US, calculated last year that almost 245 million new guns have been sold since Columbine. That is double the number in a comparable period before Columbine.

‘A lot of fear about the exercises comes from adults, not from children,’ notes researcher Schildkraut. ‘Children don’t know a world where this isn’t normal.’

(A.D.)