School shooter drills terrify students: We've taught kids to fear school shootings. To the contrary, they appear to do considerable harm to the emotional well-being of many students, needlessly scaring impressionable youngsters by reinforcing the notion that they are in constant danger. But despite positive comments from some survivors, there is no hard evidence that these drills actually make children safer. Michigan law requires schools to hold three lockdown drills a year. The hope is that students and faculty will be prepared, should some dispirited student or deranged intruder decide to turn the school into a battle zone. And to enhance the sense of realism, some schools stage unannounced drills, even going so far as declaring over the PA system that it is not just a drill - like an unannounced, realistic drill held in December at the Hawthorn Center in Northville that prompted four parents and six workers to file suit against the youth facility.

But for students of this millennium, they involve barricading the classroom door and sitting quietly in the corner during an active shooter simulation - possibly featuring fake blood pretend victims, and someone playing the role of an armed assailant lurking about in the hallways. There was a time when school drills meant practicing multiplication tables and expanding one’s vocabulary.

The Crazy School by Cornelia Read