How Traumatizing Are Active Shooter Drills?

Ninety-five percent of American schools now conduct drills to prepare students for a school shooter. For adults who were out of high school by the time of the 1999 Columbine shooting, this is an unfamiliar phenomenon. We don’t have a clear picture of how the drills are experienced by the children they were designed for.

In this partnership between Slate and the Trace, we spoke to more than 20 students from different parts of the country, to learn what they see, hear, and feel during what has become a routine...