Active shooter drills harm students and teachers, lawmaker says. Here's what RI might do about it.

Rep. Jennifer Boylan was at her son's elementary school for a Valentine's Day party in 2013, shortly after the Sandy Hook mass shooting. During the festivities, the school held a lockdown drill, and Boylan found herself crowded into a closet with two teachers and a group of kids she was trying to shush.

"Law enforcement came through the hallway and tried the door, and we all jumped a mile," Boylan told The Providence Journal in a recent interview.

"A little tiny thing like that … it was very scary for me as a parent, given the reality of what just happened," she said.

Boylan is now part of a panel trying to reduce the damage those drills may have on the mental health of students and teachers.

It's called the Legislative Study Commission to Evaluate and Provide Recommendations on Mandated Safety Protocols for Rhode Island Schools – a long and formal name for a group of lawmakers, public safety experts and stakeholders in the education world who are trying to figure out how much lockdown drills (and fire drills) are traumatizing children and what can be done about it.

Sherri Simmons, who once taught elementary school in Maine, has vivid memories of going through an active shooter drill.

The practice, which most schools in America now conduct, is meant to prepare students and teachers for the worst. But Simmons says it hurt them instead.

"My fifth-grade students and I were negatively affected by active-shooter drills and simulations because we knew the unspoken truth – that in a real shooter event, no matter how quiet we were, the shooter knew exactly where we were [and] can very easily get to us."

Simmons spoke last week to the commission, which isn't aware of any active shooter simulations conducted in Rhode Island schools, only drills. Simulations differ in that they make those drills feel more realistic. Police may rush in, rattle doors and fire blanks.

But drills alone – ones in which students huddle in closets or corners, and doors are locked – can have negative mental health impacts.

More: Should Rhode Island change school safety procedures? New commission would make recommendations.

What does the data say?

A 2020 study from Everytown for Gun Safety and Georgia Tech cited "alarming impacts of active shooter drills on the mental health of the students, teachers and parents who experience them."

The study sifted through social media posts on X, formerly Twitter, and Reddit as researchers felt that was a good way to understand what people were thinking and feeling.

"Results revealed that social media posts displayed a 42% increase in anxiety and stress from pre- to post-drills (as evidenced by an increase in such words as afraid, struggling and nervous) and a 39% increase in depression (evidenced by words such as therapy, cope, irritability, suicidal) following drills," the study said.

What does the commission want to do about safety drills?

Among the measures the commission may recommend are notifying parents or guardians in advance of drills, and allowing students to opt out.

According to the state Department of Education, no schools in Rhode Island allow children to opt-out of lockdown or fire drills. Some schools alert families, but some do not. There is no uniform requirement across districts.

"I haven’t formulated my final conclusions on this commission, but I think there will probably be some consensus around certain issues," Boylan said. "I’m not sure that I can be convinced that not announcing the drills is a good idea. I think that in school situations where drills are announced it seems to work better."

Boylan is also concerned about the impact of alarms on special-needs children. Students with autism, for example, may be very sensitive to sound and could find the drill overwhelming. (The state Department of Education said all schools "have protocols in place to help special needs students navigate the stress of a lockdown or fire drill.")

Yet when it comes to minimizing the harm of lockdowns, Rhode Island isn't a regional leader. Vermont and Connecticut offer advance notice to parents, and the latter allows students to opt out. Maine, similar to Rhode Island, has convened a stakeholder panel to lessen lockdown trauma, and will deliver a report in 2024 on the efficacy of such drills.

What about swatting?

The commission is also examining the impact of swatting, or making a prank 911 call to mobilize a large group of armed law enforcement officers. Earlier this year, at least a dozen communities in the state were targeted by those hoaxes, causing schools to go into lockdown mode.

More: At least 12 RI communities targeted by false school shooting reports

Similarly, over the summer in Providence, a man called City Hall communications staff claiming to be armed with an AR-15 and a bomb, causing a City Hall evacuation and the lockdown of the nearby public library. Police, after closing off a section of downtown, found no threat.

"There seems to be no uniform protocol for what to do after a swatting event or in the aftermath of an actual lockdown," Boylan said, feeling there should be an opportunity for those impacted to talk about their experiences.

"The lack of guidance or best practices around the aftermath of something like that is troubling to me," she added. "There should be some kind of processing of that event."

The commission expects to deliver its recommendations in February.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: RI active shooter drills in schools may get overhaul. What's on the table?