Growing up in the Midwest, the only type of safety drills we had were tornado drills, but things have changed since then. These days, schools try to prepare children for events that are less natural but certainly just as life-threatening, and seemingly a whole lot more common. School shootings are a very real and pressing concern. Schools now have routine active shooter drills, and they can be traumatic.
There is some debate about the effect the drills themselves have on young minds. One mother recently shared her story of being absolutely gutted when she learned that for months, her 8-year-old son thought the drill he had at his school has been the real thing.
Months after the Uvalde shooting, this mom's son's school said it would conduct 'unannounced' active shooter drills.
Donna Provencher, a writer, shared this chilling and deeply troubling story on Twitter.
âDonât you remember when the shooter came to my school, like at Uvalde?â her son asked her.
Provencher lives 70 miles away from Uvalde, Texas, with her three sons. Four months after the shooting at Robb Elementary School that killed two teachers and 19 students, her sonâs school district sent an email informing parents it was going to conduct âunannounced active shooter drills.â
Her son had been informed of the drill but Provencher told Today.com, âClearly, he either forgot or it didnât register.â
'My heart caught in my throat,' Provencher wrote.
She shared that her face went white at her sonâs question. âI stopped folding laundry. âWhat are you talking about?â I asked my eight-year-old.â Her son told her that last fall, he, his classmates, and his teacher all had to be very quiet.
His teacher locked them in the classroom and told them that if the shooter came into the room, they should pretend to be dead. Provencher said her heart caught in her throat.
'I am sick. Sick for our country and sick for our kids,' the mom tweeted.
She didnât know her son had thought that incident was real. He âhas thought so ever since,â she explained.
She reassured her son saying, âBaby, there was no shooter in your school that day. That was just practice. It was a drill.â
âThat was just a DRILL?â her son responded. âI thought we were actually going to die.â
Provencher shared that not only was she upset that the school inadequately communicated to him but also because âTHINKING HE ALMOST GOT MURDERED AT SCHOOL was so unremarkable that he didnât think to mention it to me until now.â
She is sick over the situation. âSick for our country and sick for our kids. We have to do better,â she wrote.
Looking back, Provencher now knows her son was affected by the drill.
Though her son, who has ADHD and clinical anxiety disorder, didnât mention it to her at the time, in retrospect, she sees that the drills had an impact on him. There were more instances of him acting out at school in the months following the drill, and there were more bedwetting incidents and chronic insomnia.
âHe refused to sleep anywhere but my bed,â she told Today.com. "These drills can be damaging and traumatic for all kids, of course, but particularly those who exist outside our neat little taxonomical boxes," Provencher said. "If we're going to have these drills in the first place, we need to (conduct them) so we're not leaving the most vulnerable among us behind."
One mother claims she keeps her child from participating in those drills.
In response to Provencherâs Twitter thread, one mother noted that she doesnât allow her child to participate in intruder drills. âI ask his principal to tell me in advance when they are happening and I keep him home,â the mother tweeted. âThey are traumatic and itâs debatable whether they have any real benefit. Iâm sorry this happened to your son.â
Maggie Moroff, a senior special education policy coordinator for Advocates Children of New York, told Today.com, "It's easy to forget that the drills have real impact on the students. There needs to be more conversation, more dialogue, more understanding before and after that potential impact."
