Hi Kathy,
Yes, gosh, these drills are inherently traumatizing! I think you’re ahead of the pack on this one. Trauma-informed participatory emergency drills sound oxymoronic to me.
I did a little research and found this School Crisis Guide (I realize you’re not a school but schools seem to be the setting for the little research that is out there) which states:
"Provide training for the school crisis response team members, including on-site mock training exercises with public safety officials. When planning exercises, think carefully about who should be present. When is it appropriate for police and fire to practice in the building without staff? When should staff be present for drills? When should students be involved in the drills?...”. p 12
"Practice major aspects of the plan regularly, such as lockdown and evacuation procedures, using tabletop exercises and actual drills with law enforcement officials, so everyone is confident in fulfilling their roles." p 15
http://crisisguide.neahin.org/crisisguide/images/SchoolCrisisGuide.pdf
At least this guide brings up the questions.
This resource from the Dept of Education’s Emergency Response and Crisis Management (ERCM) Technical Assistance Center came from the bibliography of the document* below:
Weimerskirch. (2006). "Emergency exercises: An effective way to validate school safety plans." U.S. Dept. of Education: Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools, Technical Assistance Center.
http://rems.ed.gov/docs/Emergency_NewsletterV2I3.pdf
It states: “Develop scenarios based on actual vulnerabilities and risks the school district may encounter. Carefully review the proposed scenarios to ensure their appropriateness for the school setting and its students. (For example, full-scale exercises involving law enforcement may frighten younger children.)…”
This quote is the closest I’ve found in writing to validate your findings. Of course, some adults (w/ their own trauma histories) will have the reactions you found as you stated. Your findings should be a part of what this document calls “An Effective Post-Exercise Evaluation.” You might want to add ACE research to show that a certain percentage of the population/your staff will be vulnerable to participating in these active drills. This brief is really excellent and could perhaps provide the template of how your department evaluates its plan. Note the last section: “How Do I Obtain Buy-in From All Stakeholders?”
The website this brief came from may be worth exploring: http://rems.ed.gov/Display.aspx?page=homepage
Please see this website, too: http://www.ercm.org/preparedness-plan/ which reinforces evaluation:
"By taking a second look and re-evaluating your existing emergency preparedness plan, you will have the opportunity to make any important changes, add-ons, and modifications to your list. With this additional step, you will be sure to find some areas or categories that might need an important tool or supply that would have gone unnoticed if it wasn’t for your re-evaluation of the plan."
And I found this interesting thesis that may provide some additional food for thought:
*Van Sparrentak. (2008). “BUILDING SCHOOL RESILIENCE IN AN ERA OF MULTIPLE THREATS.”
http://calhoun.nps.edu/public/bitstream/handle/10945/3920/08Sep_Van...
I scanned it for the words “drill” and “trauma” and nothing specific to your concerns came up, fyi, but it seemed worthy of mentioning. It has an interesting bibliography that might prove helpful.
Sorry I couldn’t provide you with anything more solid. There’s not much out there on this topic. Maybe some other members will be able to speak on this issue.
If I can help you with any additional research, please let me know.