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  • Essay / Controversies over school shooting drills

    There is no doubt that the number of shootings in the United States has increased in recent years. According to CBS News, there have been more than 280 mass shootings in 2019 so far, including 22 at schools. Say no to plagiarism. Get a Custom Essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an Original Essay When discussing shooting drills in schools, a controversial question has been whether the drills are a way to ensure the safety of students or if this puts them in danger. in danger. On one hand, Erika Christakis, author of “Active Shooter Drills Are Tragically Misguided,” says school shooting drills are not beneficial for students. On the other hand, John Iannarelli, author of “Schools Need Active-Shooter Drills,” says these drills are a necessity and can only help students. My view is that school shooting drills are not beneficial to students in an emergency. My high school being only a twenty minute drive from Marjory Stoneman Douglas, one of the schools that unfortunately experienced an active shooting, allows me to truly understand the severity of the situation. Young students in grades K-12 could be placed in extremely dangerous situations and a school shooting drill can be stressful. What's far less clear than whether school shooting drills are a stressful situation is what to do about it. Christakis says, “During the 2015-2016 school year, 95 percent of public schools held lockdown drills, according to a report from the National Center for Education Statistics. » I was one of the students who participated in these exercises and the teacher made the students sit silently in the dark. All the kids took this free time in class and just talked. No one took these exercises seriously, meaning they would not be prepared to defend themselves if the event occurred. As a K-12 student, I understand the appeal of teaching a child how to protect themselves in an emergency. However, most of the time the attacker attends or has attended the school he or she intends to attack. According to the New York Times, the top motivations for attackers were: intimidation/persecution/threat (75%) and revenge (61%), while 54% said they had many reasons. Since most shooters attend or have attended the school they plan to attack, carrying out the drills could put other students at risk. These drills would allow the shooter to know the plan, where the students are trying to escape, how they plan to fight, and where most are hiding. Practicing these exercises exposes students to an increased risk of physical and psychological repercussions. A handful of schools surprise their students with active shooter drills, which usually astounds them. With these surprise exercises, students become stressed and, according to science and Christakis, "persistent stress alters the architecture of the growing brain, putting children at increased risk of developing a host of medical and psychological problems during their childhood." life ". There was a student in North Carolina who wrote a goodbye letter to his parents during one of these exercises, truly believing he would survive the day. This is a lot of pressure to put on children and can bring up a plethora of psychological problems, including anxiety. I have personally been diagnosed with generalized anxiety and I can attest that it is not easy to live with. I live to question all my daily choices, one,.