A couple of weeks ago, Locke, who just started first grade was exposed to his first “lockdown drill.” In today’s world, these drills have just become part of life. Those that were in school during the cold war remember the drills held in case of a nuclear attack. I’m too old to have experienced them, but Claire did and has talked about them occasionally.
But drills today are in response to a different threat — mostly school shootings.
Realistically, school shootings are extremely rare, but they are absolutely increasing at a steady clip. All parents and teachers worry about such an event. Kids probably seem to worry less about these things than adults.
Growing up in Oklahoma, tornado drills were, if not routine, fairly common — but tornadoes were actually pretty rare. Everyone was used to the testing of the tornado warning siren and we all knew the procedure of staying away from windows and getting under our desks — it all seemed pretty basic. I never went home thinking that a tornado was imminent, and I don’t think any of my friends did either.
But tornadoes, floods, etc, are not human-driven, intentionally barbaric events. All disasters can cause traumatic responses, but events in which intentionality is clear — someone trying to do something bad —causes the greatest risk for traumatic syndromes among survivors.
I certainly don’t have the answer for this dilemma, but we should make it clear to kids that while most people in the world are not harmful, there are some people who will do bad things —and, we need to know how to respond. We should also let them know that there are more good people in the world than bad and that adults, like teachers, taking care of them are doing their best to keep them safe.
These are not easy times —anxieties exist for all sorts of good reasons. But we should try not to add to these anxieties. How we approach lockdown is important and hopefully we can come up with an approach that strikes the right balance.
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