GUNS >

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95%

of American public schools implement strict lockdown drills. these procedures for preventing school shootings. Instead, there impacts of scaring children into hiding. This is our life: daily threats education. During lockdowns, they tell us to hide under our desks protecting us from? This is what WE felt

A drill like this engrains the idea of a shooting into the minds of children. While all students are aware of the reality in America, is it necessary to push the anxiety onto students? A junior in front of me was crying. The same student was expected to return to class unfazed the next period. Why?

—Maya Dunkelman

I saw someone praying, and I couldn’t help the urge to recite some prayers in the back of my head as well. Sure, it was loud in the hallways, but it felt silent to me. Why do we have to treat this as the real thing? I’m just a kid.

—Janah Hassan

The anxiety I feel when there is a lockdown pales in comparison to what I feel everyday when my dad goes to work. I wish there was a day where I wouldn’t wonder if my dad was going to die in the classroom. Will there ever be a day I don’t have the additional paranoia about a school shooting?

—Kaitlin Swift

The teachers in the locker room started to raise their voices, ordering us to remain quiet and seat- ed. I overheard one of them whisper, “We didn’t know this was happen- ing.” The teachers started to shuffle boys from the gym into the room with us. There were boys in the girls locker room!

—Zoey Blackman