Are Our Children Safe at School?
Each day, parents send their children off to school with hopes they will have a great day. Our goals as parents are to make sure children are safe, cared for, and learning. We want our children to grow and develop. We know as parents that school can be hard. Some students struggle with learning, making and keeping friends, fitting in, and controlling their anxiety when they don’t feel safe. This week there was another school shooting within the United States. There is a video going viral on the internet where the students were barricaded within the classroom and someone in the hallway stated they are the police and it is safe to come out. Video
These students have clearly participated in active shooter training and knew to barricade themselves. (Active Shooter Info) The students also knew how the police would come to their safety and flee out the window. As a parent and educator, I am very conflicted when watching this video. I am very thankful these students knew this drill but my heart aches that they needed to know this in the first place. Personally, I can vividly remember the first time I participated in this type of training. I have heard gunshots before but there was something chilling and unnerving to hear gunshots during the training within a school building. As an adult, it left a longstanding memory. So what are our children experiencing?
As a child in school, I remember doing air raid drills when I was in elementary school but they faded away. We crawled under our desks and covered our heads but never really understood why we did the drill. Fire Drills are common practice for every building. Do our children understand why we have to do active shooter drills? However, it wasn’t until I was an adult with my own children attending school did I have to even think about such drills as an active shooter. Unfortunately, we will need to continue to proactively protect our children but we also need to make sure we are supporting them through the trauma and effects of having these drills or living through a school shooting. No matter where you stand on this issue we need to work together as parents to help our children through these scary situations.
Some resources to assist parents:
How to Talk to Kids About School Shootings
#standreadytosupport
