How do parents and students react to armed shooter drills

2018 was on record the worst year for gun violence in schools. There were 24 school shootings in the United States. With all the news and talk in the past year about school shootings, is it making parents concerned to send their kids to school?

“I mean you hear about it and it gets your immediate attention, as well as the thoughts running through your head — are my kids safe, could this happen here?” said Aaron Schaerrer.

Aaron and his wife, Lorraine, have five kids. They range from 6-years-old to 16-years-old. School shootings are something that they both hear about, but it’s nothing they stress out over.

“We kind of had a choice,” said Aaron Schaerrer. “Do we live in a climate of fear or do we go on with our lives?”

A few years ago, Aaron and Lorraine were at their kids school volunteering when the school went into a soft lockdown drill because of crime in the area.

“They said that they police were chasing (the criminals),” said Lorraine Schaerrer. “The school said that they were going to lock all the doors. That gave me anxiety, I’m like ‘Oh my goodness,’ just kept thinking that there was somebody a fugitive around the school and just wondering if they were going to try and get into school.”

Schaerrers remember seeing kids put tables and chairs up against the walls and doors, grabbing books to cover their chests, huddling in a corner and turning the lights out.

“That was a humbling experience, not anything we grew up with,” Aaron Schaerrer. “I mean we had fire drills and earthquake drills, but nothing like that.”

Even with the fear of not knowing what is going on around them, the parents had a peace of mind that the school district had policies in motion that if something like a gunman came onto campus, Faculty, staff and students knew what to do.

“Very comforting that they take (things seriously),” Lorraine Schaerrer said. “They listen and they know what’s going on and they are trying to protect the kids.”

“Especially in a moment that is comfort-less,” Aaron Schaerrer said. “The last thing you want to know is that you don’t know where your kids are or what they’re doing or who they’re with. I’m sure (the school districts) are doing the best they can.”

Hearing about things going on around the nation still made some parents anxious about their children’s safety.

“Parents will reach out with concerns and most of those concerns are based on what they don’t know what we’re doing as a school district,” said Gordon Howard, the director of technology and safe schools for Bonneville Joint School District 93.

Bonneville Joint School District 93 have access control in the buildings so they are able to regulate which doors are open. It has single point entries at all of the elementary schools, so any visitors must go through the main office.

The district also has multiple school resource officers from Bonneville County Sheriff’s Office. As well as 1,200 cameras within the district to monitor what is going on.

“Then we have protocols like our simple fire drill protocols, we have an active shooter drill protocol that we practice, lockdown practices and hall checks,” Howard said. “We have these things in place that we practice on a regular basis so if a situation does come up, we have that ready to go.”

The district even said they’ve reevaluated just how they do procedures, like an active shooter drill.

“We have one now that we call “Move, Secure, Defend” that our school resource officers have trained all the schools with so they’ve practiced that at least once a year.” Howard said.

Move means to get out of the area and get away from the danger. Secure means that if you can’t get away from the danger, go to a spot where the shooter cannot access. And defend means to defend yourself, but as a last resort.

“We practice that and it’s a change in mindset for teachers and students to think about, ‘Hey, what can we do in these situations besides just sit here and hide under a desk?’ which really offers very little protection,” Howard said.

These policies and procedures in effect can be reassuring for parents, but how do students feel having to go through these drills to protect themselves from an armed shooter?

“I’m personally glad that we do have those drills,” said 15-year-old Sariaah Schaerrer. “I would probably be a lot more scared if that ever were to happen and I didn’t feel prepared in the way that I (do now).”

Some kids say the biggest thing that gets them the most stressed about the drills is when other students in class do not take it seriously.

“They mess around and they talk and they make noise,” Sariaah Schaerrer said. “It’s not fun to realize in the moment if that were to happen in a real thing, that it could cause your death.”

Sariaah believes if more discussions were to happen about why this is going and why they are having to do certain actions, more people will understand the severity.

“(The school doesn’t) necessarily talk you through what happens and what it would mean for someone to come in and what would you do,” Sariaah said. “We’ve never had those discussions.”

For Aaron and Lorraine Schaerrer those conversation start at home.

“As a parent because you want to protect and you want to preserve that innocence and naivety, but there is a time for each parent and child where they have to have difficult conversations,” Aaron Schaerrer said.