As schools reopen with in-person learning, there are scores of questions about what that will look like. Between COVID-19 health protocols and concerns about school shootings, what should be done about active shooter drills?
COVID-19 guidelines are the latest protocols in the evolution of classroom safety, according to JP Guilbault, CEO of Navigate360, which owns and operates ALICE, an emergency preparedness, threat assessment and active-shooter training and response organization.
“You have progressing and emerging responses that happen to society,” Guilbault told ABC News. “We’ve gone from fires to mass shooting to now, we’re faced within our schools, managing health and managing contagious disease.”
The gamut of school safety drills, from lockdown and active shooter to fire and evacuation, may also need to be adjusted amid social distancing protocols. Guilbault said he is starting to see some school districts update their policies considering the coronavirus.
“We’re seeing things where the normal drill protocol is going to happen, but it’s going to happen more frequently with smaller groups,” Guilbault said. Schools may also have teachers walk through and visualize the response.
“The need for drills, the need for refreshment and the need to know is still paramount in the school in the event of an emergency,” he said.
Meanwhile, national school safety expert Kenneth S. Trump told NBC News that although school districts understand the need to change safety drills and procedures this year, most have not been able to determine yet what those changes will be. It is just one of what he termed “unknown unknowns” school officials are grappling with while they try to plan their reopening amid the COVID-19 outbreak. He noted that weather, violence, and other emergencies will not stop just because a major health crisis is happening at the same time.
“The reality is that social distancing is going to go out the window (in an emergency),” Trump said. “Your kids are going to have to remember those protective measures that they’ve been taught to do when there’s an actual, real threat or an incident. Social distancing will take a backseat in that given moment.” Thankfully, he said, most schools will not see a real-life situation. Still, safety drills and preparedness need to continue in some format. “If we’re holding some type of (In-person) school, we have to have some reasonable level of preparation,” he said, “but the underlying word there in bold and underlined is ‘reasonable.’”