Schools must practice safety drills to ensure that students and staff know where to go and what to do in case of an emergency. In addition, operations-based exercises can identify and address gaps in school emergency response plans.
Prior communication with parents regarding upcoming drills can help alleviate concerns and apprehensions. Explain that the drills are purely for practice.
Evacuation Drills
Evacuation drills prepare students to escape their school building in the event of a natural disaster, fire or lockdown. They are designed to test the ability of students and teachers to follow emergency plans and evacuate in a safe manner. They are one of the most important types of safety drills.
When it comes to evacuation drills, the school must carefully plan the process in advance to ensure that everyone involved understands what is expected of them. The school must also notify the local community and parents about the drill, starting at least a month in advance. Additionally, the school should work with the media and local municipality to communicate with residents. Finally, the school should train transportation personnel on the drill, if applicable.
It is essential to conduct regular drills (in accordance with state law) that cover a variety of scenarios, including fires, tornadoes and active shooters. This approach will help students become familiar with procedures and increase their confidence in the ability to respond in an emergency.
During shelter-in-place drills, schools place students and staff in classrooms or other interior rooms to protect them from a dangerous situation. Then they limit movement throughout the building, stopping all bells and class changes until the all-clear signal is given.
For the best results, schools should hold these drills at least once a year. However, they should also conduct more frequent drills during certain times of the year to prepare for specific hazards. For example, schools in Ohio are required to conduct a tornado drill each month during the height of the storm season.
It’s crucial that schools consider the needs of their students and teachers when developing and executing evacuation plans. For example, students with disabilities need to be prepared for the possibility that they will need assistance exiting a building, as well as the likelihood that they might be trapped in a room and need to wait until authorities can rescue them.
To avoid exposing these individuals to unnecessary stress, schools should consider making the decision to hold full-scale drills less often. These exercises are the most intensive and time-consuming, lasting from a half-day to multiple days. In order to be effective, they should be planned and conducted by a team of experienced professionals and ideally take place at the site of a past emergency incident.
Shelter in Place Drills
A shelter-in-place drill is designed to protect students and staff from a threat that requires staying indoors. In this scenario, the school will lock all doors and limit access to hallways so that everyone can stay in safe classrooms until it is safe to leave. This type of drill can be used for things like severe weather, a bomb threat, or a chemical odor. In this case, the school may also request that people silence their cell phones until further instruction is given. Doing so prevents them from sharing real-time information online during a crisis, which can cause unnecessary panic and spread misinformation that can hinder response efforts.
To make these drills more effective, they should be practiced at various times of the day and include a variety of emergency scenarios. The more often these drills are conducted, the more familiar school staff and students will become with procedures, which helps them respond quickly and confidently in a real-life emergency.
In addition, schools should provide clear communication to teachers, staff, and students about the drills so that no one is caught off guard. This can include making announcements over the school’s PA system and sending messages to student and parent emails or text messages. It is also important to have a drill management system in place that provides the ability to track and analyze drill performance, maintain compliance, and create muscle memory for a real-life emergency.
It is essential to debrief after every drill and encourage feedback from teachers, students, and law enforcement officials who participated. This allows the team to identify areas for improvement and make necessary changes. Involving the community in these discussions will help to build trust and improve preparedness.
When an emergency situation arises, it’s common for most people to freeze up and not know what to do. Drills are designed to train your brain to associate these situations with the muscle memory of the response you’ve previously developed, so that you can overcome your natural instinct to ignore or react to a crisis.
It’s also vital that your child listens carefully to instructions during these drills and obeys adults at the school. This will help them be more receptive to emergency protocols when they are at home.
Fire Drills
Fire drills are important to conduct on a regular basis in order to familiarize students, teachers and staff with emergency procedures. These include clear exits that are kept free from obstruction and a designated assembly point outside where everyone will meet once the building has been evacuated. It’s also important that schools regularly test fire safety equipment and conduct inspections. It is critical that security in schools is strictly abided in order to make sure that nothing bad will happen.
It is also essential that schools provide advance notice for all safety drills and communicate with the school community in a way that is age and developmentally appropriate. This allows all members of the school to understand the importance and purpose of the drills without becoming frightened or anxious.
Additionally, it’s important that schools collaborate with local law enforcement and first responders to discuss the logistics of drills so that all parties are fully prepared for any unforeseen circumstances that may arise during a drill. This collaboration is beneficial for both parties and helps to foster relationships that can be instrumental in the event of a real emergency.
While students and staff understand on a cognitive level that a drill is not a true emergency, their bodies and the parts of their brain that hold trauma can bring back memories of a past traumatic experience during a safety drill, which can cause retraumatization. This is why it’s so important to talk with children about drills, including rehearsing escape plans with them at home and encouraging them to report any sightings of a fire or smoke to an adult immediately.
It is also important for parents to help kids with emotional processing of school safety drills. It can be very difficult for children to discuss the subject of school safety and emergency drills, especially if they are triggered by a prior trauma or feeling vulnerable or anxious. Be sure to use a calm tone of voice and approach the topic carefully to ensure your child is comfortable and confident discussing it with you. Additionally, encourage your children to ask questions and seek out answers from their teachers. This will empower them to feel empowered during emergencies and will teach them that they can trust adults to guide them safely to safety.
Active Shooter Drills
Students are especially impacted by active shooter drills, which expose them to a terrifying scenario of an armed intruder in their school. The drills are modeled after real events, and they can involve simulated gunfire and screaming. This makes students feel anxious, stressed, and afraid of dying. The results of these drills can have long-term negative effects on their mental health.
Several studies have found that students are more likely to experience anxiety and depression after participating in school-wide active shooter drills. While these drills do have some benefits, it’s important to keep in mind that they’re not without their risks. These risks include a possible increase in suicidal thoughts and feelings. They can also be traumatic for neurodivergent students, who often have difficulty understanding that these drills are not actual emergency situations.
When conducting these types of drills, it’s essential to be transparent with students about the purpose and intentions of the event. This can be done by providing age-appropriate explanations of the situation and reassuring students that their safety is a top priority. It’s also recommended that schools communicate these activities well in advance, so that students can prepare psychologically.
It’s also important to avoid any miscommunication that could cause panic or confusion during the drill. This can lead to mistakes such as evacuating too quickly or forgetting to evacuate certain rooms. It’s also important to monitor how these drills are implemented and ensure that they are performed properly. This can be done by establishing clear goals for each drill, such as improving evacuation times or observing how students behave during the drill.
The lack of conclusive research on the efficacy of school shooting drills, combined with a growing body of evidence that they can be highly traumatizing for students, raise serious concerns about their use in schools. The vast majority of students will experience an emergency drill during their school careers, and the implications for their future coping skills are alarming. This is particularly true for children, who are still developing their brains and coping skills at formative ages.