In her piece published on Oct. 28, Arlington, Virginia, teacher Launa Hall described cowering in a closet with her class of 4- and 5-year-olds in a lockdown drill that lasted longer than expected. The practice lockdowns produce fear and anxiety in both students and teachers, she wrote.
“Instead of controlling guns and inconveniencing those who would use them, we are rounding up and silencing a generation of schoolchildren, and terrifying those who care for them. We are giving away precious time to teach and learn while we cower in fear,” Hall wrote in her piece, called “Rehearsing for death: A pre-K teacher on the trouble with lockdown drills.”
The op-ed was published in the wake of an Oct. 24 shooting at Marysville-Pilchuck High School in Washington. Four students died from the attack, including Shaylee Chuckulnaskit, a 14-year-old who died a week after being wounded in the shooting. Zoe Galasso and Gia Soriano, both 14, were also killed, and the shooter, Jaylen Fryberg, 15, died of a self-inflicted wound.
The school held lockdown drills once or twice a year, a Marysville-Pilchuck teacher told KIRO TV. The teacher said that on the day of the shooting, he stayed in his classroom for nearly three hours. The students remained calm, he told KIRO, until the SWAT team arrived.
Hall’s article is part of an ongoing debate on lockdown drills, with some arguing that the fear and trauma the preparedness strategies can stir in children may outweigh the potential security the drills offer in the case of an active shooter.
Source Article from https://www.freedomsphoenix.com/News/175844-2015-05-06-teacher-op-ed-reignites-debate-on-school-lockdown-drills.htm?EdNo=001&From=RSS
Teacher Op-Ed Reignites Debate On School Lockdown Drills
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