The Case for Drills
The numbers that prompted mandatory active shooter drills in American schools are not ambiguous. The FBI’s Active Shooter Reports document a two-decade escalation:
- 2000–2019: 333 incidents, 2,851 casualties
- 2020–2024: 223 incidents, 1,070 casualties
Educational facilities are consistently the second most frequent target. The question was never whether schools should prepare — it was how.
State Mandates: Ohio as a Case Study
Ohio mandated School Safety Drills in March 2015. Under Ohio Revised Code 3737.73(D), all schools must conduct no fewer than three safety drills per school year. These drills instruct students in both rapid building evacuation and lockdown-in-place procedures. The law requires that drills be conducted in conjunction with local law enforcement.
Similar mandates now exist in most states. Programs like ALICE (Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate), Run-Hide-Fight, and Avoid-Deny-Defend provide standardized frameworks. The goal is consistent: through repetition, build the muscle memory and procedural familiarity needed to act decisively when fine motor skills and rational thinking degrade under extreme stress.
The Psychological Concern
Critics raised a legitimate question: are active shooter drills frightening students and causing anxiety? Does the need to prepare the majority outweigh the potential psychological harm to emotionally vulnerable children?
The National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) developed best-practice guidelines that address this tension. Their core recommendations:
- Drills must be age-appropriate. Scenario-based training with theatrical makeup, simulated blood, and gunshot sounds is not suitable for elementary-age children.
- Schools should determine the appropriate level of realism based on student age and developmental capacity.
- Role-play and scenario training may be appropriate at higher levels of learning where students can comprehend and apply training objectives.
- Parents should be notified before drills are conducted.
- Counseling support should be available for students who experience anxiety.
CISA’s K-12 School Security Guide similarly recommends that drills be conducted regularly but designed to empower participants rather than traumatize them. The emphasis should be on calm, practiced response — not fear.
When Drills Go Wrong
Some training exercises have crossed the line. An Iowa-based insurance company paid out more than $250,000 in claims related to injuries sustained during active shooter training in less than two years. Overly realistic drills have resulted in physical injuries to staff and psychological harm to students.
The lesson: know your audience. Elementary students benefit from practicing how to quietly move to a safe area and lock a door. High school students can handle more detailed scenario discussions. No drill should physically endanger participants.
Drills Plus Physical Barriers
Drills teach people what to do. Physical barriers help ensure those actions work. A locked door is good. A locked and barricaded door is better.
The Bolo Stick door barricade deploys in one step — designed specifically for the stress conditions that drills are meant to prepare people for. When adrenaline surges and hands shake, inserting a round peg into a round hole is an action anyone can perform. The device withstands over 4,200 pounds of force, buying critical time for law enforcement to arrive.
The odds of any individual student being a victim of a mass shooting at school are statistically low. But they are not zero. Drills create survivors. Physical barriers protect them.
Strengthen your school’s safety protocol with proven door barricades. Shop Bolo Stick or contact us for district-level guidance.