As of right now the St Vrain Valley School district has mandatory monthly fire drills that take anywhere from 10-20 minutes each time. Interestingly, lockdowns only happen twice a school year: this needs to change.
School shootings are a very real fear for students, especially in our day and age. Students never know when these shootings are going to happen and they’re unpredictable. When a school shooting happens, everyone’s first instinct is to just run and maybe pray. They don’t always have a plan.
With that in mind, students should be able to know where is safe in these times.
School shooting numbers are on a rise in the U.S. dating all the way back to 1970. Since then, there have been 3,152 lives taken in K-12 school shootings. The numbers are continuing to rise every day. Too many kids are dying and schools are starting to be a place of fear instead of learning. In 2024, gun related incidents were the leading cause of death in ages 1 to 17. The youth’s lives are at risk and it’s hard for students to know what to do in these situations.
Fire drills are useful and necessary but sometimes we need to adapt to the situations around us. Innocent lives are being taken every day in the United States. Helping kids know what to do in these situations could save lives.
Instead, we might consider switching off drills every month (one month fire drill, next month lockdown drill) this will help kids be prepared for both situations. Also, we need to do them at random times like passing periods or even lunch.
Active shooter drills are important because it helps students be prepared, especially since many school shooters are students who are also trained in what is going to happen.
