AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 After Britt Kelly\u2019s son participated in a lockdown drill two years ago in his Lamar, Texas, kindergarten class, he had nightmares and wet his bed. Now 8, he can sleep only with a light on.<\/p>\n

In August, Mary Jackson\u2019s daughter, a kindergartner in Leander, asked her mom to put a \u201cspecial lock\u201d on her bedroom door to \u201ckeep bad adults out\u201d in the wake of a separate lockdown drill.<\/p>\n

Clay Giampaolo, a high school senior with special needs, said that after drills at his school in Plano, he goes to the special education room to \u201ccalm down.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the nation reevaluates its gun laws<\/a>, training for violent threats has become a grisly yet commonplace reality in K-12 schools. More than 40 states require schools to prepare students to react when a campus comes under attack. Nearly every student in America experiences at least one or more of these drills a year, even though their effectiveness has been hotly debated by state legislators, school staffers, safety experts, and parents.<\/p>\n

About 98% of public schools taught students lockdown procedures before the pandemic, according to the National Center for Education Statistics<\/a>. The reasons for them are clear: The 2020-21 school year saw 93 school shootings with casualties, the highest number in two decades, according to the NCES<\/a>. While school shootings are rare, they have devastating consequences<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But the preparations for these events also can come with a price. \u201cThe literal trauma caused just by them is horrifying,\u201d Giampaolo said.<\/p>\n

Anxiety, stress, and depression increased 39%-42% in K-12 students following lockdown drills, according to a study published in December in the journal Nature<\/a> that examined social media posts. The drills, especially those that involve simulations, heightened students\u2019 fear around the possibility of a shooting and made them feel unsafe in school. The more realistic the drill, the more fear they provoked. Students like Giampaolo who have special needs, and those who have experienced previous trauma, are among the most affected, according to safety experts.<\/p>\n

At least one state is taking a step toward balancing school safety and student health. To minimize trauma to participants, new Texas regulations<\/a> require schools to ensure that drills don\u2019t simulate shootings \u2014 a change that comes just one semester after a gunman killed 19 students and two teachers in Uvalde.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf some kids are coming away traumatized or we\u2019re magnifying existing trauma, we\u2019re not moving in the right direction,\u201d said Nicole Golden, executive director of Texas Gun Sense, an advocacy group that supported the bill.<\/p>\n

Texas mandates that schools complete two lockdown drills a year. But there was confusion and wide-ranging interpretations about how they should be conducted, said state Rep. Claudia Ordaz Perez, a Democrat who sponsored the bill that passed during the 2021 legislative session.<\/p>\n

Despite a growing body of research about how to prepare for worst-case scenarios, not all schools are following best practices and there\u2019s no way to tell which ones are, said Jaclyn Schildkraut<\/a>, an associate professor of criminal justice at the State University of New York-Oswego, who has argued in favor of drills<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have no national standard, no national guidance, and no tracking system,\u201d Schildkraut said.<\/p>\n

In extreme cases, schools simulate shootings, with officers brandishing weapons or mimicking gunshot sounds, which she said is unnecessarily traumatizing for both students and staff members. \u201cWe don\u2019t set schools on fire to practice a fire drill,\u201d said Schildkraut.<\/p>\n

The Texas rules now more clearly distinguish between lockdown drills, which are required, and active-threat exercises, which are voluntary and can involve re-creating aspects of a shooting.<\/p>\n

A drill doesn\u2019t involve fake injuries or gunshot sounds. Instead, students either talk through what to do, or practice activities like turning off the lights, locking doors, and staying quiet and away from windows.<\/p>\n