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Active shooter drills can result in trauma
GBHS practices protocol in case of an emergency BY LINDSEY ZABELL
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Granite Bay Gazette wFriday, March 6, 2020
lzabell.gazette@gmail.com
ver since the mass shooting in Parkland, Florida, on Feb. 14, 2018, schools nationwide have begun to take serious precautions regarding how they can prevent such a situation. On the GBHS campus, there are certain mandatory safety precautions that each classroom must go through. This ranges from certain safety slideshows to practicing how to hide and lock classrooms in the event of a real threat on or near the campus. In recent weeks, the American Federation of Teachers and the National Educators Association – the two biggest teacher unions in the country – have released a report stating that practicing active shooter drills on K-12 campuses can actually cause more trauma and fear in students. This is because of the fact that in some cases, these active shooter drills can turn out to be too realistic, causing trauma to students, especially those with special needs or who are younger. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, about 95% of American public
schools conduct some form of regular active shooter safety drill – sometimes called a lockdown or active-threat drill. Granite Bay High does not participate in these types of active-shooter drills. Instead, GBHS does non-active lockdowns, in which students, teachers and staff members are instructed to be silent, lock the doors and turn off the lights – but there is no shooter simulation.. Although these lockdown drills do not involve the realistic aspects of an actual active shooter, they can still cause fear and anxiety. Rob Wilcox, the deputy director of policy and strategy for the Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund, told Maine Public Radio that these active shooter drills are scaring students across America. “We’re seeing students who are suffering pretty significant trauma from lack of ability to pay attention in class, to nightmares, to nail-biting, to kind of constant fear and anxiety,” Wilcox said. After the extended GBHS lockdown that was initiated in response to a concerning note left in a bathroom stall in February 2018 – just 11 days after the school shooting in Parkland, Florida – several students and parents began to show
concern about lockdowns and what they could really mean in an the event of a real threat. “The unknown can be the biggest fear,” said assistant principal Greg Sloan, regarding lockdown drills at GBHS. “That’s kind of been a focus in our district conversations, is how do we make the reunifications smooth and appropriate and also not scare parents beyond what they need to actually worry about.” Senior Sienne Le agrees that these lockdown drills can sometimes cause more unwanted fear in students. “I understand that it’s really important to practice it, and I’d rather us practice doing the (lockdown) drills than not,” Le said. “But it makes you just think about what could happen more than if (we) didn’t practice the drills.” According to Sloan, GBHS has taken several steps to reduce the odds of an active-shooter incident from happening on campus. “Some of the precautions are the physical environment,” Sloan said. “The fences that were locked (and certain) procedures (such as) coming through the front. It doesn’t prevent everything, but the idea is slowing down what could occur because every minute is crucial.” Wilcox, in his interview, reiterated that preparation is important, but it can go overboard. “Staff in schools certainly need to be made aware of the procedures and protocols. If there’s
an emergency, they need to be ready to lock down a school at a moment’s notice,” Wilcox said. “ But when it comes to preparing students, we have to be mindful of the impact that this could have on them, because the data and evidence is showing that extreme drills, unannounced drills are not doing anything to prepare students and are really causing more harm than good. Because of the emotional toll active-shooter drills can have on students, the schools in the Roseville Joint Union High School District all avoid the most realistic sorts of drills. “I’ve actually been in active shooter drills where someone has a gun with blanks and they actually try to break into the room and you actually run and barricade,” Sloan said. “I signed a waiver and I’m an adult, and even I felt, ‘Oh, this is intense,’ and to do that schoolwide ... that’s pretty controversial, and that’s not something we have planned at this time. Our (drills) are lockdown drills (that) every teacher knows. It (was just) lock your doors, (administration) checked (and) everybody did it appropriately.” Although GBHS students have never experienced these types of intense and emotional drills, the reality is that thousands of students nationwide have participated in these activeshooter drills – and they have had to deal with the aftereffects.
Personal finance course contains errors District-wide online class includes spelling mistakes, missing links BY ASHLEY LUCIA
alucia.gazette@gmail.com
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s the class of 2020 at Granite Bay High has been swept up by a number of changes – including a new graduation date and location and a “senior week” for senior activities the last week of school – the required personal finance course has stirred controversy. This year, for the first time, students have to take an on-site final exam to complete the course. “The intent was to ensure that all students are completing their own exam,” said assistant principal Jessup McGregor, who noted that GBHS students in the past had paid students to take the online exam on their behalf. This year, seniors were told they had to complete all course materials at an on-site final exam – and their failure to do so would put their graduation at risk. “Per (district) graduation requirements, all students must pass the exam in order to graduate,” McGregor said. The new requirements have resulted in several challenges. According to a senior female who asked to remain anonymous, her exam was “score boosted” after she failed the exam several times. According to the student, an adult proctor – who was not a GBHS staff member – identified herself as “admin” and allowed the student to pass even though she had not achieved the 70 percent minimum passing score. The student could not identify the district official who boosted her score. A senior boy who struggled to score above 68 percent said the same thing happened to him. “I tried so much, but then the administrator … came inside the classroom and said ‘I appreciate your effort and I’m glad you came out here. Let me just ask you a true or false question since you were so close to passing and if you get it right, then I’ll boost your score,’ ” the senior boy said. “So I answered right and she changed my score to a 70.” In addition to score boosting, according to students, the course contains numerous content and spelling/grammatical errors, as well as irrelevant information. “To me, I felt as though the information that was given was not effective as I went through the whole course without watching one video and I did not retain any information after I took the test,” the senior boy said. “There were a lot of spelling errors, (and) I felt
like the whole course was quickly made and no effort was made to revise any mistakes.” As students have found more problems with the course and exam process, they are being encouraged to report them to the administration. “I’ve been able to get a number of items fixed as they are reported to me,” McGregor said. “I would encourage students to bring up their concerns so we can address them.” Several students presented the district with screenshots of misspellings and of broken links for videos, as well as a list of exam questions for which the course provided no information. Some students brought their concerns to GBHS AP government teacher Jarrod Westberg. “Seeing... what my students showed me with the amount of Source/ BLACKBOARD mistakes and lack of care … that was frustrating,” Westberg said. Several spelling errors were found throughout the course “It’s unbelievable that’s the product they decided was going to be a Students have reported grammatical errors, broken links and requirement for your graduation” inaccurate information. Fischer said he believes the student focus Westberg was further disappointed by the fact that the course on the course is a sign they are viewing it as an important graduahas been consistently approved and supported by the school tion requirement. board. “The fact that there are recent issues being raised about the con“As a government teacher, I teach (students) how governments tent seems to be a sign that students are paying more attention,” are supposed to matter – then you see a local government who Fischer said. praises that,” Westberg said. “It’s incredibly disappointing.” The feedback of students and staff has ignited conversations in Former GBHS assistant principal Mike Fischer, who now serves the district to consider including the personal finance course as as the district’s director of STEM curriculum and instruction, was part of the curriculum in economics courses, which students are the original creator of the personal finance course content, but he required to take as seniors. no longer oversees the course and is not responsible for the recent This adaptation would allow trained teachers to make the perrevisions that have sparked negative feedback. sonal finance content part of their classroom focus and avoid the “When the course was first developed, board members actually problems with an online course. vetted the course outline, reviewed the material and gave very speWestberg said these conversations should include acknowledgecific feedback about the original content,” Fischer said. “I do know ment of the inconveniences the class of 2020 has endured as a that a new editor made some major revisions about two years ago, result of the poor management of the requirement. so it’s changed quite a bit since the original version.” “If they cared, they would admit they put together a pretty weak Fischer was able to gather the content from various sources product and have (the) wherewithal to come back and say ... sorry, including other state courses, the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank, seniors,” Westberg said. “My fear is (students) are going to leave commercial banks and credit unions, which often sponsor content here not knowing anything and thinking it doesn’t matter.” specifically for high school finance courses. Although the personal finance course has created additional The revised course, however, has significant problems. frustrations for the class of 2020, students are open to new ideas “I know the revisions that were made a year or two ago were to further improve the efficiency of their financial education. pretty significant, and that there have been some concerns raised “I feel as though this course could be taught proficiently if recently about some of the content,” Fischer said. (there) were an actual class for it during the last term of senior According to superintendent Denise Herrmann, instructional year,” the senior boy said. “That way, people are more engaged to technology coordinator Marie Criste was responsible for the actually retain the information given to them.” changes.
