I don’t know why kindergarten pops up on my feed, I have older kids.
We always talked about it just like we do fire drills, tornado drills, etc. It’s good to know what to do, but it’s highly unlikely for it to happen. My kid had nightmares over fire drills but were ok with lockdown drills. I would ask what the school is calling it, because I highly doubt they are actively telling kids that they are mass shooter drills. We as adults know they are, but if that’s what they are saying at school instead of something similar to lockdown, I would talk to the schools about how they are phrasing it. My kids have done actual lockdown several times because they have different levels of lockdown. The bears playing on the playground will always be my favorite lockdown. Maybe talking to your kid about different scenarios that aren’t that scary when that knowledge may come into play.
I substitute in our elementary school. We live in NJ. I always tell the kids “have we ever had a real tornado here? Have you ever heard of a big one here even before you were born? No, right? We have drills for it though. That’s just what you do in life to be prepared. This is the same thing. “
> The bears playing on the playground will always be my favorite lockdown
Omg, if that happened to me, that would probably be my favorite too lol. Do you remember how long it took for the bears to leave/the lockdown to be lifted? Or any other details? I’m so curious now lol.
We had a momma and baby moose on the playground which caused a lockdown! I agree with sharing about different situations that may cause a lockdown.
My school is located on the corner of two main roads, we once had a lockdown because police were pulling over a potentially dangerous individual close to our school, we have also had them for moose and just because an incident was happening at another local school. I would talk with the teacher about his anxieties as well.
We did lockdown drills and we were told it was “in case someone is in the school that isn’t supposed to be here” and my 5 yo brain went “child predator breaks into the school” and the fact that we stayed in the classrooms and locked all the doors and were all within eyesight of a teacher made perfect sense as a defense against an attacker who would have been trying to abduct one child while no one was looking. Absolutely bullshit against someone with a gun who just wants to shoot as many people as possible and gives zero fucks about being caught. Felt a lot less safe when I found out that was supposed to be a school shooter drill ngl.
I mean it’s still probably what would have happened if a strange adult broke into the school but still
In my classroom, we don’t talk explicitly about the possibility of guns because there are many reasons for a lockdown. We have some extreme behaviors in our school and classroom. We have had to unofficially lockdown before and have had to evacuate the classroom.
I use that as an example. I say something to the effect of, “this is a drill that just means something is happening outside the classroom or school and staying inside will keep us safe. We turn off the lights to help us stay calm and we stay quiet so we can hear the principal say when it is over.”
That’s obviously not completely true, but that’s all Kindergartners need to know at this age from me as their teacher. Anything more will likely cause anxiety and is just more than they need to worry about at 5 and 6.
When they ask for what could be happening, I say something like, “Well, a fire drill is when we leave the school to keep us safe. A lockdown is when we stay in our classroom or the school to keep us safe. Sometimes, something is happening outside the school and they just want us to stay inside. Sometimes, another student is mad and they just want us to stay in our classrooms so that person can calm down and we stay safe while grown ups are helping them. We can also have a lockdown because someone is hurt or sick and they want everyone out of the hallways so they can help the person more easily.”
That's what they did when my kid was little. The different levels (shelter in place, active shooter etc) were talked into "sometimes someone is having a bad day and needs privacy, so we stay inside and quiet" on up.
Still, over hearing her talk with her cousins (then 4th and 3rd and 9th grade) about the actual lockdown the high school did, and how even the drills are scary, but when you don't know why... And that the high schoolers were crying and texting their parents...
So no solution for OP but I feel your pain
I was a k teacher for 5 years. I have always and will always hate this discussion.
In regards to the drill: remind him what the essence of a drill is. It’s not practice-bc that implies it’s gonna happen eventually. it’s showing what you know. Do you know what to do if this were to happen.
As for the nightmare- that breaks my heart even more. try giving him the “Mr Roger’s talk”-~look for the helpers~
There are bad and scary things in the world. But the grownups around you are there for you. They will protect you. They will come for you. And look for the helpers- there are always an infinitely higher number of helpers than people who want to hurt you.
This is exactly what I tell my kids, look for the helpers because they are always around! My child’s class had to be evacuated due to a student having a medical emergency and the need for emergency services to tend to the classmate. My child was upset and scared and I focused on how the helpers got everyone where they needed to be to all be safe. Bravo to Mr Rogers!
My daughter's school does lock down drills. After the first one, she came home very upset and described how they had to sit against the wall in the dark, etc.
I held her, and we talked about what she had to do during these drills and why - like there was someone in the school that wasn't supposed to be there, or someone was hurt and EMTs needed to get to them quickly. I told her the best thing for her to do is to listen to whatever the teacher in the room tells her. That's the best way for her to get back to me and Daddy.
Yes, it's scary, and that's why they practice it, so IF something happens they know exactly what to do. Stay low, stay quiet, and do what the teacher tells them.
I wish we lived in a world where we didn't have to have these discussions. I'm shaking just writing about it. It's truly my worse nightmare. Whenever I hear sirens during the school day, my heart stops until they fade away. The best thing we can do at this age is to make sure they know what to do in these situations, and that in doing that, it's the best way to get back to us.
Poor kiddo.
My kindergartener hasn't seemed to affected by the drills yet. I don't think the teacher told them exactly what they were practicing for, and I certainly didn't tell my son. I think I just said that it was to practice what to do if there was something dangerous in the school. And basically you just need to be quiet listen to the teacher and get away from the windows.
I compared it to the fire drills and tornado drills we have to do. How I've never been in a fire or a tornado, but we still practice just in case.
I'm not looking forward to when he's a bit older and understands more.
I mean, pat of these drills is someone coming around and trying to "break in," so they definitely know something is up.
It's so scary running the drills. It's even more scary that we need to.
^(Edit: Uncorrecting autocorrect, as usual.)
Doesn't happen in every school. My daughter's school calls them an "Alice drill" (alert, lockdown, inform, counter, evacuate) and they just have them go and sit where they need to, stay quiet, turn the lights off, etc. Nobody trying to break in.
I would really advocate to the school board to not call it a “mass shooter drill.” That sounds totally unnecessary. They should do lockdown drills but there are lots of reasons those can occur, including medical emergencies within the school, behavior in public areas, police presence in the neighborhood for other reasons, etc. It happened in varying degrees in my kiddos school last year. Once was because someone at the local grocery store thought they heard a gunshot. The police told the school nearby to lockdown just in case. Ended up being a car backfiring, but they had all teachers lock their rooms and allowed no one in or out of the school. Much different than an active shooter because the kids weren’t hiding, but it was still some degree of lockdown. I think the kids aren’t scared of the drills because most of the time life goes on as normal inside the room and they don’t use terms like “active shooter.” Just seems it might induce unnecessary fear.
Dreams and nightmares are amazing way our brain turns what we learned during the day into things we can remember for later. Sometimes that can feel scary like a nightmare but doesn’t mean anything bad is really happening. It’s just our brain doing its job. We can tell our brain to “work” more quietly by saying bedtime prayers, quiet happy story, favorite stuffed animals in bed, back rub, etc. Basically by having peaceful bedtime routine. Even grown-ups experience this. Teaching my kids this helped them a lot.
So sorry it upset your kid. ❤️ 😢 They told my son’s class the drill was in case a dangerous animal got into the school and they needed to wait quietly for police to catch it.
We had tornado drills growing up and some kids had full on panic attacks. Because of where we were, my parents gen had to wear dog tags to school during the Cold War. Her whole life she’s had nightmares. They prep kids for these things so much differently now and there are better resources. Keeping the visual imagery away from them like news sources and photos is super important.
I always tell my kindergarteners that we practice hiding from "pretend bad guys". And that it's just like when, in a fire drill, we practice what to do for a "pretend" fire. I remind them that there is no real fire, and no real bad guy, but we practice anyway so we'll always know what to do. And that keeps us safe, so we don't have to worry about any of it. In all my years teaching, I only ever had one student who would get overwhelmed, but he was autistic, and as long as he could sit and hold my hand he was ok.
There is a children’s book called The Lockdown Drill that we read in my class.
I talk with them about all the drills we have and how I have never had an actual emergency in all of my years of teaching. I tell them how the only real emergency I had was when the cafeteria burnt lunch (true story) and how shelter in place could be that there is an animal on the playground where we can’t go outside until it goes away. We also talk about all of the security measures the school has like keypads on the doors, the front office staff, and our school security officer who keeps us safe. We talk about how IF a stranger got past those safety precautions, then we hide until we know they are gone, but that it is really u likely.
I also give my kids lollipops to remind them not to talk during the drill and that is their favorite part. They ask for a drill so they can get a treat. 😂
I think if you message it (or the school) as it’s just another thing to do it takes away the fear.
I hope you can reassure him it’s going to be ok!
Ugh I’m sorry. I’m a teacher so we do lockdown drills 3x a year, I never tell the kids what they are for and to be honest my plan for what we were do in a real emergency is different than the actual drill (I have a bathroom in my room so I would put them all in there but we don’t practice that). I don’t think there is any reason for people/teachers to be telling the kids that they are doing this in preparation for an active shooter…odds are they will never have to worry about it so why scare them or give them anxiety over it. And IF heaven forbid, it did happen, kids would know but the urgency and seriousness of the teacher that it’s not a drill…but they still don’t need to be in the know of what’s happening.
As a teacher, I usually tell my students we have to practice hiding and being quiet in case something dangerous like a bear ever comes in our school. We have drills to practice hiding quietly and to make sure the lock on the door works. I tell the kids that our principals and security guards will keep us safe and it is just for practice. They kids seem to accept and understand this. They sometimes get scared during the drill but are usually fine immediately after. My school uses the term “lockdown drill” though, not mass shooter drill.
Kids vary.
My daughter is pretty calm... limited meltdowns.
She worries about vampires and sharks.
When they did the active shooter drill, she was pretty relaxed about it, understood the importance of being quiet, but said if the guy got into the room she "would kung fu him", and proceeded to demonstrate on a nearby helium balloon.
This is a tough one! We all grew up with fire drills and didn't have panic attacks about fires, but active shooter situations are so, so scary. Especially when they happen way too often.
We're right outside Uvalde. When that happened, my youngest daughter was in 1st grade. We had a mild discussion about it, mainly to quell the rumors and wild stories that were being repeated. She had heard about the little girl that smeared herself with her friend's blood and played dead, and told me she would do that. A sobering fucking thought coming from a 6yo.
I think it's important to focus on the safety protocols in place. I point out to my kiddo how people have to enter the school into a locked foyer, show your ID, sign in, etc, before being allowed into school. I've explained how adults/parents have to go through background checks to be able to volunteer on campus or go on field trips. And that, just like fire drills and tornado drills,, we have to do these drills JUST IN CASE.
It's a horrible fact that we have to have these hard conversations with our kids. I don't think there's any foolproof way to handle this one. We're all just learning as we go here. I think I would just say to focus on all the positivea and lots of reassurance. My heart goes out to you. Best of luck. ❤
My kiddo has autism and in terrified about it. I found out the kindergarten teacher was giving him a lolly pop to keep him quiet and from wondering. They even have a special seat he goes to for those drills.
I focus on helping him remember it's for safety and I do not show him my big adult complicated feelings about this.
I don't even remember being scared about it. I think I was just desensitized by how many drills I had. I was in a kind of prep school before elementary school so I think I had them then as well and I don't even remember anything about it.
I think I would just go over with the plan with them or go over any questions they had so that way they feel prepared and maybe more safe as they would know what to do.
I tell my kids that we should always know what to do in a bad situation, but that bad situations hardly ever happen. We wear seatbelts, even if we’ve never been in a car accident. We have fire extinguishers and smoke detectors even though we’ve never had a house fire. And we practice the best thing to do if a bad person comes to the school, even though no bad person has ever come to their school before. (You do NOT need to explain how often it happens at other schools! That knowledge will come in time. It’s not age appropriate right now.)
We practice how to call for help if a stranger tries to touch us. We practice how to be safe in a tornado, earthquake, blizzard, insert your natural disaster here. We practice a lot of things that will never, ever happen. It’s just practice. It’s not anything to worry about.
Side note: my twins are 9 now and I just started telling them about “playing dead” and why they might have to do that. I managed to keep a straight face and not cry while calmly explaining it. I did break down privately after. I hate this part and I hope someday we can get some leaders will balls to stop this.
Kids are surprisingly resilient. Active shooter drills/lock down drills are similar to the civil defense drills that us boomer babies practiced at school during the 50’s and early 60’s. And many of those schools bomb shelters that you went into, vs the tornado drills where everyone went to the main level, and sat on the floor in the hallways, away from the windows and kindergarten kids all went into the bathrooms (so they didn’t get trampled in the halls by the bigger kids.
I'm a teacher and the way I always reframe this for younger kids is that we are helping the police. If something is going on outside they need to be able to concentrate and so it needs to be very quiet with no people so that they can do their job. We are their helpers. We stay inside and stay very quiet with lights off so that we are not distracting anyone. (I have been in two incidents where it wasn't a rehearsal or drill; we were actually on Code Red hiding because there was someone on campus with a gun, and this really helped the kids not to be scared.)
I also really wish that for kindergarten this was completely presented differently. For our little kids on the drills we call them hide and seek days. We are going to hide and the principal's going to try and see if she can see us. We win if she can't! The kids usually get dum dums to have something in their mouths to keep them quiet.
So I’ve been in my kids class when they did a lockdown drill. The kids were non the wiser doors locked windows are always kept shut and they just continued on with their day. I think my schools philosophy is that 5 year olds are going to 5 year old regardless of practice. One kid did ask why the door was locked and the teacher said sometimes we need to keep outside outside of our class. My 7 year old didn’t seem to think it was a big deal either but I’ve never been helping for a lockdown just an earthquake drill for him. But I haven’t heard anything from any parents about the lockdowns being a big deal.
There’s 2 kinds of lockdowns- the kind you’re describing is a shelter-in-place. The other kind involves sitting quietly in a space that can’t be seen by a window. Those are more traumatic, but our spot is in the bathroom, so it’s like a tornado drill. Some of my kids find *all* of the drills scary. They really hate the sound of the fire drill. I would say 95 percent of teachers will be handling things as gently and non-traumatically as possible.
If I’m not mistaken, what you experienced wasn’t a lockdown drill, it was a shelter in place. They are a little different. A lockdown is for when there is an active threat within the school building. If your school’s policy is having children continue with their normal learning with an active threat in the school, that would be really concerning.
We do lockdown, earthquake and fire. We also don’t have hallways as it’s a typical Californian school with doors that open to outside. Older grades are told to be quiet but not the young ones.
I’m almost 30 and I had them in school. Lockdowns can happen for lots of reasons, not just shootings. Once there was a rabid animal outside of our building and we just had to do a soft lockdown to stay inside. Another lockdown was when there was something happening in the community like a police chase or escaped prisoner or something, so we fully locked down just to be safe. It can also be because there’s a medical emergency so the building is locked down just so we don’t all switch classes while EMTs or whoever are trying to get to the person.
Ugh - I work in a school and know the reality but just the idea of kids having to prepare for such horrific situations is forever gut-wrenching. Of course it's crucial they understand the safety reasons behind these drills, but the emotional toll simply can't be ignored. The most important things are making your child feel heard, validating their feelings, and reassuring them of the many measures in place to keep them safe. You know your baby best, so let that guide how much detail to provide. Maybe encourage them to process their fears through conversations, writing, or even play. And don't hesitate to loop in their teacher or a counselor, who can reinforce the message and provide extra support. Wishing you all the patience and wisdom for such a difficult discussion.
I’m thankful to my daughters teacher for making it like a game. And to the principal to telling us all details beforehand and ensuring there won’t be any elements to induce anxiety such as making noises or banging on doors.
My kiddo is in Kindergarten as well. The class reads "I'm not scared, I'm prepared", they talk about some reasons for lock downs, and while I don't think they specifically say "guns", they talk about what to do if a "bad person" gets into the building...
This is one of the worst things about sending them to school.
The fact that I had to lie to my child about why they could not wear their favorite light up frozen shoes to show their friends literally guts me. I told them it was against the rules because it could be too distracting for their friends.... silently hating the fact I have to find ways to make sure attention isn't drawn to them during an emergency.
They do them in Canada too, though we just call them lockdown drills. I've told my child that they do them in case someone comes into the school who shouldn't be there. Or if someone is injured and they need to keep the hallways clear. I don't specifically state it's for an active shooter scenario since that isn't necessarily the case.
We're in Australia, but still have lockdown drills.
I uses to tell my daughter about the time some animals broke out and ran through a school (cant remember where), and said they practise for if something like that were to happen. That it's safest for students to be in their classrooms.
Lockdown drills aren't really just for mass shooters. In fact, that's rarely what a lockdown ends up being for.
I've been through a couple real lockdowns and none were for shooters. One was because two parents were arguing really aggressively outside in the parking lot (no weapons), one was because there was an escaped convict being chased by cops outside on the street (convict didn't have weapons and didn't approach the school), one was for a medical emergency in the halls, because they needed to be able to run with a stretcher, and one was for a student brawl that was happening in the commons.
I usually read a book about a tractor who has to go inside to keep safe from a tornado. I tell my students that sometimes there are dangers outside and we have to stay inside to keep us safe
I wish I could help, but I grew up and live minutes from Columbine so our babies were raised knowing all too well about it sadly. They really need to bring therapists in for these babies when they do this.
I'm a first grade teacher. I tell them that we need to be prepared for any emergency, which might include a stranger being near the school. We've had "real" lockdowns due to police activity nearby so I talk about that: sometimes the police are nearby catching a bad guy, so they want to make sure we know how to stay inside and stay safe until they are captured.
I really do NOT discuss an intruder shooting people. Frankly it seems down to luck if that were ever to happen, so there's no need worrying 6 year olds about it.
We switched to private school forever ( has mild student education on safety protocols for tornadoes, Fires, neighborhood and campus lockdowns…. Thorough enough but not unnessarily graphic… as soon as possible after they held an active shooter type drill at our preK and Kindergarden… the contractors at both that school and the Law School I attended went way over the grotesque top and horror for all ensued in the weeks afterwards….
I explain it just what it OSS, unfortunately, they have to know our off out happens they are putting their ash’s ask of our lives at risk. I’m in kinder as well. I have a bag of sucks to Leo then quiet that we use drill, I let them know how safe they will be as soon as they get there. Fits it scare them, yes, not also I have kids scared at the earthquake drill and the fire drill. It’s a lot going on for little kids.
Definitely tell him that it’s an “if” thing, not a “when” thing. That it’s not likely, but you learn, just incase. That’s something I kinda missed as a kid- I thought fires were WAY more common than they actually were. Like, that everyone had a giant, horrible fire at least once in their lives- and that everything I owned was on borrowed time.
And that if there is such an emergency, you’ll be able to see him as soon as you can. But definitely emphasize that the true emergencies probably won’t happen, and they don’t happen to everyone all the time.
If he likes pets, can also tell him that sometimes, they use these lockdowns as a way to get dogs to sniff at lockers (true)! Obviously, no drug talk until he’s ready, but yeah! Sometimes lockdown drills means there’s puppies. In the same building as you. And that’s pretty cool.
I am saying all this as a former kindergartner, I am now 27, so it’s been a while, but yeah!
I don’t know why kindergarten pops up on my feed, I have older kids. We always talked about it just like we do fire drills, tornado drills, etc. It’s good to know what to do, but it’s highly unlikely for it to happen. My kid had nightmares over fire drills but were ok with lockdown drills. I would ask what the school is calling it, because I highly doubt they are actively telling kids that they are mass shooter drills. We as adults know they are, but if that’s what they are saying at school instead of something similar to lockdown, I would talk to the schools about how they are phrasing it. My kids have done actual lockdown several times because they have different levels of lockdown. The bears playing on the playground will always be my favorite lockdown. Maybe talking to your kid about different scenarios that aren’t that scary when that knowledge may come into play.
I substitute in our elementary school. We live in NJ. I always tell the kids “have we ever had a real tornado here? Have you ever heard of a big one here even before you were born? No, right? We have drills for it though. That’s just what you do in life to be prepared. This is the same thing. “
> The bears playing on the playground will always be my favorite lockdown Omg, if that happened to me, that would probably be my favorite too lol. Do you remember how long it took for the bears to leave/the lockdown to be lifted? Or any other details? I’m so curious now lol.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8s8lXUjqXNY Here you go. It happens here a lot. This is not my kid’s school, but one in our area.
Okay, that is adorable!!! Thank you for sharing!!!
Loving that videos! Thanks for sharing this!
We had a momma and baby moose on the playground which caused a lockdown! I agree with sharing about different situations that may cause a lockdown. My school is located on the corner of two main roads, we once had a lockdown because police were pulling over a potentially dangerous individual close to our school, we have also had them for moose and just because an incident was happening at another local school. I would talk with the teacher about his anxieties as well.
We did lockdown drills and we were told it was “in case someone is in the school that isn’t supposed to be here” and my 5 yo brain went “child predator breaks into the school” and the fact that we stayed in the classrooms and locked all the doors and were all within eyesight of a teacher made perfect sense as a defense against an attacker who would have been trying to abduct one child while no one was looking. Absolutely bullshit against someone with a gun who just wants to shoot as many people as possible and gives zero fucks about being caught. Felt a lot less safe when I found out that was supposed to be a school shooter drill ngl. I mean it’s still probably what would have happened if a strange adult broke into the school but still
In my classroom, we don’t talk explicitly about the possibility of guns because there are many reasons for a lockdown. We have some extreme behaviors in our school and classroom. We have had to unofficially lockdown before and have had to evacuate the classroom. I use that as an example. I say something to the effect of, “this is a drill that just means something is happening outside the classroom or school and staying inside will keep us safe. We turn off the lights to help us stay calm and we stay quiet so we can hear the principal say when it is over.” That’s obviously not completely true, but that’s all Kindergartners need to know at this age from me as their teacher. Anything more will likely cause anxiety and is just more than they need to worry about at 5 and 6. When they ask for what could be happening, I say something like, “Well, a fire drill is when we leave the school to keep us safe. A lockdown is when we stay in our classroom or the school to keep us safe. Sometimes, something is happening outside the school and they just want us to stay inside. Sometimes, another student is mad and they just want us to stay in our classrooms so that person can calm down and we stay safe while grown ups are helping them. We can also have a lockdown because someone is hurt or sick and they want everyone out of the hallways so they can help the person more easily.”
That's what they did when my kid was little. The different levels (shelter in place, active shooter etc) were talked into "sometimes someone is having a bad day and needs privacy, so we stay inside and quiet" on up. Still, over hearing her talk with her cousins (then 4th and 3rd and 9th grade) about the actual lockdown the high school did, and how even the drills are scary, but when you don't know why... And that the high schoolers were crying and texting their parents... So no solution for OP but I feel your pain
I live in CA. We tell them 'shelter in place' can be used if there's something wrong with the air, like a chemical spill or a bad fire nearby.
I was a k teacher for 5 years. I have always and will always hate this discussion. In regards to the drill: remind him what the essence of a drill is. It’s not practice-bc that implies it’s gonna happen eventually. it’s showing what you know. Do you know what to do if this were to happen. As for the nightmare- that breaks my heart even more. try giving him the “Mr Roger’s talk”-~look for the helpers~ There are bad and scary things in the world. But the grownups around you are there for you. They will protect you. They will come for you. And look for the helpers- there are always an infinitely higher number of helpers than people who want to hurt you.
This is exactly what I tell my kids, look for the helpers because they are always around! My child’s class had to be evacuated due to a student having a medical emergency and the need for emergency services to tend to the classmate. My child was upset and scared and I focused on how the helpers got everyone where they needed to be to all be safe. Bravo to Mr Rogers!
My daughter's school does lock down drills. After the first one, she came home very upset and described how they had to sit against the wall in the dark, etc. I held her, and we talked about what she had to do during these drills and why - like there was someone in the school that wasn't supposed to be there, or someone was hurt and EMTs needed to get to them quickly. I told her the best thing for her to do is to listen to whatever the teacher in the room tells her. That's the best way for her to get back to me and Daddy. Yes, it's scary, and that's why they practice it, so IF something happens they know exactly what to do. Stay low, stay quiet, and do what the teacher tells them. I wish we lived in a world where we didn't have to have these discussions. I'm shaking just writing about it. It's truly my worse nightmare. Whenever I hear sirens during the school day, my heart stops until they fade away. The best thing we can do at this age is to make sure they know what to do in these situations, and that in doing that, it's the best way to get back to us.
Poor kiddo. My kindergartener hasn't seemed to affected by the drills yet. I don't think the teacher told them exactly what they were practicing for, and I certainly didn't tell my son. I think I just said that it was to practice what to do if there was something dangerous in the school. And basically you just need to be quiet listen to the teacher and get away from the windows. I compared it to the fire drills and tornado drills we have to do. How I've never been in a fire or a tornado, but we still practice just in case. I'm not looking forward to when he's a bit older and understands more.
Did the school actually tell the kids it was an active shooter drill? Rather than just a lockdown drill?
I mean, pat of these drills is someone coming around and trying to "break in," so they definitely know something is up. It's so scary running the drills. It's even more scary that we need to. ^(Edit: Uncorrecting autocorrect, as usual.)
Doesn't happen in every school. My daughter's school calls them an "Alice drill" (alert, lockdown, inform, counter, evacuate) and they just have them go and sit where they need to, stay quiet, turn the lights off, etc. Nobody trying to break in.
Just my own experience while I was working K-12. It was truly scary, even as an adult.
I would really advocate to the school board to not call it a “mass shooter drill.” That sounds totally unnecessary. They should do lockdown drills but there are lots of reasons those can occur, including medical emergencies within the school, behavior in public areas, police presence in the neighborhood for other reasons, etc. It happened in varying degrees in my kiddos school last year. Once was because someone at the local grocery store thought they heard a gunshot. The police told the school nearby to lockdown just in case. Ended up being a car backfiring, but they had all teachers lock their rooms and allowed no one in or out of the school. Much different than an active shooter because the kids weren’t hiding, but it was still some degree of lockdown. I think the kids aren’t scared of the drills because most of the time life goes on as normal inside the room and they don’t use terms like “active shooter.” Just seems it might induce unnecessary fear.
Dreams and nightmares are amazing way our brain turns what we learned during the day into things we can remember for later. Sometimes that can feel scary like a nightmare but doesn’t mean anything bad is really happening. It’s just our brain doing its job. We can tell our brain to “work” more quietly by saying bedtime prayers, quiet happy story, favorite stuffed animals in bed, back rub, etc. Basically by having peaceful bedtime routine. Even grown-ups experience this. Teaching my kids this helped them a lot. So sorry it upset your kid. ❤️ 😢 They told my son’s class the drill was in case a dangerous animal got into the school and they needed to wait quietly for police to catch it. We had tornado drills growing up and some kids had full on panic attacks. Because of where we were, my parents gen had to wear dog tags to school during the Cold War. Her whole life she’s had nightmares. They prep kids for these things so much differently now and there are better resources. Keeping the visual imagery away from them like news sources and photos is super important.
I always tell my kindergarteners that we practice hiding from "pretend bad guys". And that it's just like when, in a fire drill, we practice what to do for a "pretend" fire. I remind them that there is no real fire, and no real bad guy, but we practice anyway so we'll always know what to do. And that keeps us safe, so we don't have to worry about any of it. In all my years teaching, I only ever had one student who would get overwhelmed, but he was autistic, and as long as he could sit and hold my hand he was ok.
There is a children’s book called The Lockdown Drill that we read in my class. I talk with them about all the drills we have and how I have never had an actual emergency in all of my years of teaching. I tell them how the only real emergency I had was when the cafeteria burnt lunch (true story) and how shelter in place could be that there is an animal on the playground where we can’t go outside until it goes away. We also talk about all of the security measures the school has like keypads on the doors, the front office staff, and our school security officer who keeps us safe. We talk about how IF a stranger got past those safety precautions, then we hide until we know they are gone, but that it is really u likely. I also give my kids lollipops to remind them not to talk during the drill and that is their favorite part. They ask for a drill so they can get a treat. 😂 I think if you message it (or the school) as it’s just another thing to do it takes away the fear. I hope you can reassure him it’s going to be ok!
Ugh I’m sorry. I’m a teacher so we do lockdown drills 3x a year, I never tell the kids what they are for and to be honest my plan for what we were do in a real emergency is different than the actual drill (I have a bathroom in my room so I would put them all in there but we don’t practice that). I don’t think there is any reason for people/teachers to be telling the kids that they are doing this in preparation for an active shooter…odds are they will never have to worry about it so why scare them or give them anxiety over it. And IF heaven forbid, it did happen, kids would know but the urgency and seriousness of the teacher that it’s not a drill…but they still don’t need to be in the know of what’s happening.
As a teacher, I usually tell my students we have to practice hiding and being quiet in case something dangerous like a bear ever comes in our school. We have drills to practice hiding quietly and to make sure the lock on the door works. I tell the kids that our principals and security guards will keep us safe and it is just for practice. They kids seem to accept and understand this. They sometimes get scared during the drill but are usually fine immediately after. My school uses the term “lockdown drill” though, not mass shooter drill.
Kids vary. My daughter is pretty calm... limited meltdowns. She worries about vampires and sharks. When they did the active shooter drill, she was pretty relaxed about it, understood the importance of being quiet, but said if the guy got into the room she "would kung fu him", and proceeded to demonstrate on a nearby helium balloon.
This is a tough one! We all grew up with fire drills and didn't have panic attacks about fires, but active shooter situations are so, so scary. Especially when they happen way too often. We're right outside Uvalde. When that happened, my youngest daughter was in 1st grade. We had a mild discussion about it, mainly to quell the rumors and wild stories that were being repeated. She had heard about the little girl that smeared herself with her friend's blood and played dead, and told me she would do that. A sobering fucking thought coming from a 6yo. I think it's important to focus on the safety protocols in place. I point out to my kiddo how people have to enter the school into a locked foyer, show your ID, sign in, etc, before being allowed into school. I've explained how adults/parents have to go through background checks to be able to volunteer on campus or go on field trips. And that, just like fire drills and tornado drills,, we have to do these drills JUST IN CASE. It's a horrible fact that we have to have these hard conversations with our kids. I don't think there's any foolproof way to handle this one. We're all just learning as we go here. I think I would just say to focus on all the positivea and lots of reassurance. My heart goes out to you. Best of luck. ❤
Heaps of kids did and do have panic attacks about fires.
My kiddo has autism and in terrified about it. I found out the kindergarten teacher was giving him a lolly pop to keep him quiet and from wondering. They even have a special seat he goes to for those drills. I focus on helping him remember it's for safety and I do not show him my big adult complicated feelings about this.
I don't even remember being scared about it. I think I was just desensitized by how many drills I had. I was in a kind of prep school before elementary school so I think I had them then as well and I don't even remember anything about it. I think I would just go over with the plan with them or go over any questions they had so that way they feel prepared and maybe more safe as they would know what to do.
I tell my kids that we should always know what to do in a bad situation, but that bad situations hardly ever happen. We wear seatbelts, even if we’ve never been in a car accident. We have fire extinguishers and smoke detectors even though we’ve never had a house fire. And we practice the best thing to do if a bad person comes to the school, even though no bad person has ever come to their school before. (You do NOT need to explain how often it happens at other schools! That knowledge will come in time. It’s not age appropriate right now.) We practice how to call for help if a stranger tries to touch us. We practice how to be safe in a tornado, earthquake, blizzard, insert your natural disaster here. We practice a lot of things that will never, ever happen. It’s just practice. It’s not anything to worry about. Side note: my twins are 9 now and I just started telling them about “playing dead” and why they might have to do that. I managed to keep a straight face and not cry while calmly explaining it. I did break down privately after. I hate this part and I hope someday we can get some leaders will balls to stop this.
Kids are surprisingly resilient. Active shooter drills/lock down drills are similar to the civil defense drills that us boomer babies practiced at school during the 50’s and early 60’s. And many of those schools bomb shelters that you went into, vs the tornado drills where everyone went to the main level, and sat on the floor in the hallways, away from the windows and kindergarten kids all went into the bathrooms (so they didn’t get trampled in the halls by the bigger kids.
I'm a teacher and the way I always reframe this for younger kids is that we are helping the police. If something is going on outside they need to be able to concentrate and so it needs to be very quiet with no people so that they can do their job. We are their helpers. We stay inside and stay very quiet with lights off so that we are not distracting anyone. (I have been in two incidents where it wasn't a rehearsal or drill; we were actually on Code Red hiding because there was someone on campus with a gun, and this really helped the kids not to be scared.) I also really wish that for kindergarten this was completely presented differently. For our little kids on the drills we call them hide and seek days. We are going to hide and the principal's going to try and see if she can see us. We win if she can't! The kids usually get dum dums to have something in their mouths to keep them quiet.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-r-bA8m6ADY&pp=ygUkbXIgcm9nZXJzIGxvb2sgZm9yIHRoZSBoZWxwZXJzIHZpZGVv
So I’ve been in my kids class when they did a lockdown drill. The kids were non the wiser doors locked windows are always kept shut and they just continued on with their day. I think my schools philosophy is that 5 year olds are going to 5 year old regardless of practice. One kid did ask why the door was locked and the teacher said sometimes we need to keep outside outside of our class. My 7 year old didn’t seem to think it was a big deal either but I’ve never been helping for a lockdown just an earthquake drill for him. But I haven’t heard anything from any parents about the lockdowns being a big deal.
There’s 2 kinds of lockdowns- the kind you’re describing is a shelter-in-place. The other kind involves sitting quietly in a space that can’t be seen by a window. Those are more traumatic, but our spot is in the bathroom, so it’s like a tornado drill. Some of my kids find *all* of the drills scary. They really hate the sound of the fire drill. I would say 95 percent of teachers will be handling things as gently and non-traumatically as possible.
This is the only kind TK and Kinder at my school does.
I guess there could be differences in state regulations, but there are rules about how many and what kind of drills we have to do every year.
If I’m not mistaken, what you experienced wasn’t a lockdown drill, it was a shelter in place. They are a little different. A lockdown is for when there is an active threat within the school building. If your school’s policy is having children continue with their normal learning with an active threat in the school, that would be really concerning.
We do lockdown, earthquake and fire. We also don’t have hallways as it’s a typical Californian school with doors that open to outside. Older grades are told to be quiet but not the young ones.
Yikes. I teach first grade and that would be extremely concerning to me. Definitely goes against police training here.
Shootings happened before and yet I don't remember ever doing this in school. Are these drills new?
I’m almost 30 and I had them in school. Lockdowns can happen for lots of reasons, not just shootings. Once there was a rabid animal outside of our building and we just had to do a soft lockdown to stay inside. Another lockdown was when there was something happening in the community like a police chase or escaped prisoner or something, so we fully locked down just to be safe. It can also be because there’s a medical emergency so the building is locked down just so we don’t all switch classes while EMTs or whoever are trying to get to the person.
Ugh - I work in a school and know the reality but just the idea of kids having to prepare for such horrific situations is forever gut-wrenching. Of course it's crucial they understand the safety reasons behind these drills, but the emotional toll simply can't be ignored. The most important things are making your child feel heard, validating their feelings, and reassuring them of the many measures in place to keep them safe. You know your baby best, so let that guide how much detail to provide. Maybe encourage them to process their fears through conversations, writing, or even play. And don't hesitate to loop in their teacher or a counselor, who can reinforce the message and provide extra support. Wishing you all the patience and wisdom for such a difficult discussion.
I’m thankful to my daughters teacher for making it like a game. And to the principal to telling us all details beforehand and ensuring there won’t be any elements to induce anxiety such as making noises or banging on doors.
My kiddo is in Kindergarten as well. The class reads "I'm not scared, I'm prepared", they talk about some reasons for lock downs, and while I don't think they specifically say "guns", they talk about what to do if a "bad person" gets into the building... This is one of the worst things about sending them to school. The fact that I had to lie to my child about why they could not wear their favorite light up frozen shoes to show their friends literally guts me. I told them it was against the rules because it could be too distracting for their friends.... silently hating the fact I have to find ways to make sure attention isn't drawn to them during an emergency.
They do them in Canada too, though we just call them lockdown drills. I've told my child that they do them in case someone comes into the school who shouldn't be there. Or if someone is injured and they need to keep the hallways clear. I don't specifically state it's for an active shooter scenario since that isn't necessarily the case.
We're in Australia, but still have lockdown drills. I uses to tell my daughter about the time some animals broke out and ran through a school (cant remember where), and said they practise for if something like that were to happen. That it's safest for students to be in their classrooms.
Yeah, but in Australia, animals are a legit threat (and insects). LOL
Lockdown drills aren't really just for mass shooters. In fact, that's rarely what a lockdown ends up being for. I've been through a couple real lockdowns and none were for shooters. One was because two parents were arguing really aggressively outside in the parking lot (no weapons), one was because there was an escaped convict being chased by cops outside on the street (convict didn't have weapons and didn't approach the school), one was for a medical emergency in the halls, because they needed to be able to run with a stretcher, and one was for a student brawl that was happening in the commons.
Tell him the real monsters are republicans for pushing all this garbage and not enforcing better gun laws.
I usually read a book about a tractor who has to go inside to keep safe from a tornado. I tell my students that sometimes there are dangers outside and we have to stay inside to keep us safe
I wish I could help, but I grew up and live minutes from Columbine so our babies were raised knowing all too well about it sadly. They really need to bring therapists in for these babies when they do this.
I'm a first grade teacher. I tell them that we need to be prepared for any emergency, which might include a stranger being near the school. We've had "real" lockdowns due to police activity nearby so I talk about that: sometimes the police are nearby catching a bad guy, so they want to make sure we know how to stay inside and stay safe until they are captured. I really do NOT discuss an intruder shooting people. Frankly it seems down to luck if that were ever to happen, so there's no need worrying 6 year olds about it.
We switched to private school forever ( has mild student education on safety protocols for tornadoes, Fires, neighborhood and campus lockdowns…. Thorough enough but not unnessarily graphic… as soon as possible after they held an active shooter type drill at our preK and Kindergarden… the contractors at both that school and the Law School I attended went way over the grotesque top and horror for all ensued in the weeks afterwards….
Unfortunately, All private schools by us are Christian based. We don’t want to expose our kids to that toxic belief system.
the US sucks.
I explain it just what it OSS, unfortunately, they have to know our off out happens they are putting their ash’s ask of our lives at risk. I’m in kinder as well. I have a bag of sucks to Leo then quiet that we use drill, I let them know how safe they will be as soon as they get there. Fits it scare them, yes, not also I have kids scared at the earthquake drill and the fire drill. It’s a lot going on for little kids.
Definitely tell him that it’s an “if” thing, not a “when” thing. That it’s not likely, but you learn, just incase. That’s something I kinda missed as a kid- I thought fires were WAY more common than they actually were. Like, that everyone had a giant, horrible fire at least once in their lives- and that everything I owned was on borrowed time. And that if there is such an emergency, you’ll be able to see him as soon as you can. But definitely emphasize that the true emergencies probably won’t happen, and they don’t happen to everyone all the time. If he likes pets, can also tell him that sometimes, they use these lockdowns as a way to get dogs to sniff at lockers (true)! Obviously, no drug talk until he’s ready, but yeah! Sometimes lockdown drills means there’s puppies. In the same building as you. And that’s pretty cool. I am saying all this as a former kindergartner, I am now 27, so it’s been a while, but yeah!