This article was originally published in Maryland Matters.
By Marissa Jelenick
Active shooter drills in Maryland schools will be different next school year under a new set of state guidelines intended to limit the impact these drills have on students’ mental health.
The new guidelines aim to ban trauma-inducing elements such as imitation of gunfire or explosions. They also require school systems to notify parents in advance when students will practice what to do in the event of an active shooter in their buildings.
The new guidelines were released this fall by the Maryland Center for School Safety, following orders from a new state law that requires the center to set new parameters and create a new process for collecting and analyzing data on its effectiveness. The center will also investigate the psychological impact of the shooting exercises on staff, parents and students.
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Parts of the guidelines — including the ban on gunfire and the requirement to notify parents — are already in effect because they are explicitly written into state law. The full set of guidelines will come into effect at the start of the academic year in 2025.
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“The mental health crisis we are seeing in our youth is undeniable,” Del said. Jared Solomon (D-Montgomery), who sponsored the measure in the House of Representatives earlier this year. “As we normalize dealing with school shootings, we create more fear and more problems among young people.”
Although schools have long practiced safety drills, active shooter drills are relatively new, following the Columbine High School shooting in 1999, according to the guidelines.
While school systems have made efforts to keep students safe by implementing active shooter drills, concerns have been raised across the country about the impact these drills have on students’ mental health. This led to the passage of the Maryland bill in April, as well as an executive order signed by President Joe Biden to strengthen federal guidance on the subject.
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Maryland’s new guidelines, released in October, call for uniform terminology among districts to discourage miscommunication between the school system and the relevant public. They plan to increase communication between staff and students to create an open dialogue where everyone feels comfortable raising concerns, and to create a diverse planning team that will work on planning the exercises and will do a post analysis of how it went and any shortcomings of it. confronted.
The guidelines emphasize that active shooter drills are not a one-size-fits-all issue and should be tailored to the age group.
“These will be part of a young person’s life for the foreseeable future, but that doesn’t mean you can’t do them in a way that is both trauma-informed and age-appropriate,” Solomon said. “It is very important that the way school systems organize these types of events reflects the care and age appropriateness of the grades that are affected.”
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The guidelines also recommend that a mechanism be put in place to pause or stop practice when necessary, so that schools can notify parents before and after each practice to increase trust and communication, and to encourage students and to offer staff who feel uncomfortable the opportunity to opt out of the exercises. .
The bill’s lead sponsors, Solomon and Senator Cheryl Kagan (D-Montgomery), believed that the impact guns have on today’s children should be mitigated as much as possible, and sought to balance focusing on their safety and priority for their mental health. health.
“The bill that Del. Solomon and I supported and passed attempted to walk the fine line of thoughtful preparation that is not traumatic,” Kagan said. “And we also had to consider parents and community members who are understandably alarmed and concerned when they see the impact of these exercises… Our concern was that [the drills] were not strategic in the way they were treated and actually caused trauma for those involved.”
An active shooter exercise that took place in Solomon’s district served as the driving force behind his involvement.
“Families were literally getting texts from their kids saying, ‘I don’t know if I’ll ever see you again,’ and it was an exercise. They did not know,” said Solomon. “Previously, there was no requirement for a school or school system to notify families before or after.”
Additional motivation for the bill included the shared experiences of other parents Solomon spoke with, he said. Many shared their frustrations about the lack of foresight about when the exercises would take place and what would happen during the exercises, which prevented parents from having appropriate conversations with their children to prepare them.
From January, schools will distribute a new survey, created by the National Center for School Mental Health, to gather feedback from staff, parents and students on how effective the exercises are and the mental impact they have on everyone involved.
“The goal is not to instill fear, but to instill confidence and preparedness,” according to guidelines from the Maryland Center for School Safety. “By working together as a community, schools can promote safe and supportive learning environments.”
This story was originally published on Maryland Matters.
