While schools continue to hold active shooter and other safety drills, some Maryland lawmakers are questioning whether the way those drills are carried out cause more harm than good.
Maryland state Del. Jared Solomon is among a group of lawmakers proposing a bill that would require school systems to inform teachers and parents and students ahead of time when an active shooter drill will be held.
Solomon, who is a former high school teacher, said at a recent hearing on House Bill 515, “We have to make sure that students understand what needs to happen if, God forbid,” an active shooter were to gain access to a school.
But he said schools need to weigh whether the drills induce anxiety and new fears for children. “When we do a fire drill, we don’t actually mimic the fire,” Solomon said.
The bill would require that schools give a heads up to the school community and follow up after drills. Solomon said the drills would have to be done in an age-appropriate manner “with the appropriate mental health resources available” especially for children who may have experienced trauma that may be exacerbated by the exercise.
The proposed legislation wouldn’t eliminate the drills but would call for a study to analyze the benefits against the potential cost to the mental health of students and staff who have to carry out the exercises.
Jan Donohoe McNamara, a Bethesda resident and volunteer with Moms Demand Action, told a legislative panel that her brother-in-law, John McNamara, had been killed in the mass shooting at the Capital Gazette offices in 2018.
“On the day their uncle was killed, my daughters were 9 and 11 years old,” she told lawmakers. “About eight months after John and his colleagues were shot, I was contacted by my older daughter’s school. The principal informed me that they were planning an active shooter drill and that I may want to bring my child to campus a little late that morning so she could miss it.”
Shortly after that call, she got another message, stating the drill would be put off since it would have fallen close to the one year anniversary of the mass shooting in Parkland, Florida, where 17 people were killed. McNamara said, “I’m grateful that the administration gave my husband and me the chance to decide how to proceed.” She asked lawmakers to give the bill a favorable report so it can move forward.
Melissa Villegas of Howard County tearfully recounted an exchange with her seven-year-old daughter who was anxious after an active shooter drill at her school.
Villegas said when she asked her daughter to explain what left her feeling so worried, her daughter said when the drills are held, “We have to make the room dark, but it didn’t get dark enough. We could still see each other, so I know we would die.”
She said her then third grade son brought butter knives to school, “So if he was in the bathroom because there are no locked doors, he’d at least have a way to defend himself.” Villegas explained that her son was taught to “throw anything, do anything you can” in case an active shooter gained access to the school.
Nina Atrokhov, a junior at Bethesda Chevy Chase High school testified remotely and described active shooter drills at her school as “terrifying.”
Atrokhov said during the drills, as students hunker down away from the locked classroom door, “You hear the door handle shake, the teacher looking down at all the students with sadness in their eyes, a student crying in the corner, and you feel the anxiety behind all the soft chatter.”
John Woolums, with the Maryland Association of Boards of Education, testified in opposition to the bill. He said he understands the potential for trauma that the drills can create, but he continued, “there is however, also the need to create the muscle memory if you will, of how to respond in a case of emergency so that folks are, in fact, prepared,” Woolums said.
Solomon said in an interview with WTOP, “We can keep our kids safe without harming their mental health.” Solomon is sponsoring the bill along with Delegates Dana Jones, Bernice Mireku-North and Joe Vogel.
