New York State is banning realistic active shooter drills in schools, citing the trauma they cause students of all ages.
There are different types of drills conducted in schools, but what is at issue is the one where an active shooter situation is acted out.
“They have people coming in with firearms or what look to be firearms, they play very loud sounds that mimic gunshots over the PA system, those sorts of things,” said Dr. Ragy Girgis, a professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia University.
The state’s new rules say drills cannot use props, actors or tactics depicting violence.
Girgis said studies have found that anxiety, depression, and stress increase by about 40% in young people exposed to these sorts of drills and that these effects can last for several months after the drill.
“In New York State these drills were conducted up to maybe 3 or 4 times a year and so they decreased those, the frequency, and that was pretty unusual in terms of the frequency of these sorts of drills among states in the United States,” said Girgis.
The rules will take effect in the coming school year. New York schools — public and nonpublic — will still be required to conduct evacuation drills and lockdown drills every year.