蜜桃影视

was originally published by , a nonprofit newsroom covering gun violence in America. .

Amid mounting criticism of active shooter drills in schools as ineffective and often traumatic, New York lawmakers are taking steps to reduce their frequency. 

A  introduced in the state legislature on April 26 would limit the number of mandatory lockdown drills to one per year, down from the four that are currently required. The measure would also require schools to notify families a week in advance of a lockdown drill and give them the option to opt out. 

鈥淲e鈥檙e basically normalizing a reality in which kids go to school and expect to be slaughtered,鈥� the bill鈥檚 sponsor, state Senator Andrew Gounardes, told The Trace. 鈥淚t鈥檚 really burdensome and traumatizing for kids. And it鈥檚 ineffective.鈥�

New York is one of 42 states that require public schools to conduct at least one lockdown or shelter-in-place drill for students during the school year, according to  of state laws and policies  by The Trace and Scary Mommy last fall, and used by activists who pushed for fewer drills.

Proponents say the drills teach situational awareness from a young age and can save lives. But in recent years the exercises have  for terrifying students rather than empowering them, and a growing contingent of researchers and parents have questioned their . As  last October, active shooter drills can retraumatize children who have experienced domestic violence. 

鈥淭he reality is, when you do live drills, you stand the potential of uncovering something that you didn鈥檛 plan,鈥�  David Schonfeld, a developmental-behavioral pediatrician at Children鈥檚 Hospital Los Angeles and the director of the National Center for School Crisis and Bereavement. The drills have also been associated with increased anxiety, stress, and depression among children, . 

Under the legislation, schools would be required to provide special accommodations for children with physical or emotional needs, including kids with a history of PTSD. The drills would also have to be age-appropriate, and teachers would thoroughly describe the exercise to students in terms they can understand.

Lawmakers are also seeking to standardize the drills, which , leaving teachers to improvise.

While the bill sets a minimum of one required lockdown drill per year, Gounardes said schools can conduct more if they wish. 鈥淲e鈥檙e not saying don鈥檛 prepare kids,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e saying prepare them better.鈥�

A handful of other states have quietly walked back lockdown drill requirements, or are considering it. In March, lawmakers in Georgia   requiring lockdown drills, but schools will only be mandated to conduct one per year and parents can opt out. Illinois  a law in 2021 ordering schools to provide advance notice of lockdown drills and allow parents to opt out. Two states 鈥�  and  鈥� are considering similar bills.

The impetus for the New York legislation came from two fathers in New York City who were concerned that so many lockdown drills would traumatize their young children. Marco Pupo, 40, and Robert Murtfeld, 41, both grew up outside the United States and were disturbed by the country鈥檚 high rates of gun violence. But it didn鈥檛 touch them personally until their kindergarteners had a lockdown drill last fall that left them feeling fearful and confused. 

Pupo said that when he picked up his 5-year-old son from school after a drill, the little boy said his teacher had to 鈥渓ock the doors, close down the windows, and hide because there was a bad guy trying to come into school.鈥� Pupo said it soon became clear that his son 鈥渄idn鈥檛 understand the difference between a drill and a real situation.鈥�

Pupo spoke to other parents, including Murtfeld, who said their kids had also been terrified. One child had gotten up in the middle of the night to close the windows, fearful of an intruder, Pupo said.

Pupo and Murtfeld started looking into the  governing lockdown drills. They learned that their kids would have to endure three more over the course of the school year and they couldn鈥檛 opt out. Using The Trace鈥檚 state-by-state  of lockdown drill requirements, they discovered that New York mandated more drills each year than states that had far more shootings.

New York has the fourth-lowest rate of gun death, according to the  figures from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, and has never had a school shooting on the scale of Columbine or Sandy Hook. Texas, where a shooter killed 21 people at an elementary school in Uvalde last year, requires three lockdown drills per year, while Florida, where 17 people were killed at a high school in Parkland in 2018, requires only one. 

A few months after the Uvalde shooting, New York City  lockdown drills to pre-K programs. Murtfeld calculated that kids growing up in the five boroughs would have to endure 60 lockdown drills between preschool and high school graduation. He and Pupo brought the idea of reducing the number of annual drills to local gun reform groups, which then began enlisting lawmakers to support it. 

鈥淲e don鈥檛 disrespect the safety of kids. That鈥檚 not the reason why we鈥檙e putting this forward,鈥� Pupo said. 鈥淭he reason we鈥檙e doing this is because there鈥檚 not enough research proving that the lockdown drills work, and a ton of research coming out proving that they鈥檙e actually creating certain traumas in kids.鈥�

Gounardes, the state senator, was initially skeptical of reducing the amount of lockdown drills, given the  of shootings in America. But when he compared New York鈥檚 gun violence toll to other states and began researching the psychological effects of active shooter drills on children, the cost-benefit analysis didn鈥檛 add up.

鈥淩ight now there are no standards for how these drills should be implemented. There鈥檚 no trauma-informed consideration,鈥� Gounardes said. 鈥淭he science is showing us that that鈥檚 actually not the right way.鈥�

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