Last year, AFT joined with the Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund and the National Education Association to lay out a comprehensive safety plan that combines carefully tailored gun safety policies with school-based intervention strategies, including proactive measures schools can take to prevent mass shootings.
The groups have jointly created an overview of the detrimental impact of active shooter drills, as well as considerations and recommendations for schools that decide to include students in these exercises. In particular, AFT is strongly objecting to drills that include simulations of an actual incident, and it proposes guidelines for drills if they must be conducted–including advanced notice to students and parents.
In an NPR story AFT President Randi Weingarten says, “Those terrifying and traumatizing drills—they have no basis in fact and they harm more than they have ever helped.”
- Read the White Paper with research on the effect of drills and guidelines for appropriate use.
- “I have not seen any reason to re-enact the violence…where you have people simulating being shot…we really need to take a step back and rethink how we’re doing it.”
— Texas AFT President Zeph Capo on Houston’s KHOU TV.