By Brian Malter, Center for Health Journalism, September, 18, 2019
In a few days our nation’s children will return to school --- some already have. They will be greeted with the usual staples of education in America: new classes and teachers, the latest and trendiest technology and school supplies followed shortly by relentless test taking. It is probable they will also be met with more recent school staples: active shooter drills and armed guards or police monitoring their hallways. The first few back-to-school staples are benign. But the newer practices are a real problem. For our children, going to school has never been so terrifying – not because they are likely to encounter an active shooter – the vast majority won’t – but because for several years now we have drilled the terrifying possibility into their impressionable bones.
We tell kindergartners to hush while they hide under desks or in closets; we teach them songs to sing and games to play so they will remember how to hide and stay quiet if a shooter is in their school. We teach them how to scatter, running in different directions away from a gunman - a game known as popcorn in some schools. We direct elementary school children, as a last resort if they hear a gunman about to enter a room, to fight back, pelting him with books, erasers, or anything handy. And we show them how to balance while standing on the toilet so the shooters won’t be able to see their tiny feet.
It’s true that gun violence is at epidemic proportions in America. But while the deadliest and most horrific public shootings break our hearts and stoke our outrage, the truth is that we are preparing children for an event that more than 99% will never experience – while creating a source of potential trauma for 100% of children trembling under their desks.
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