Schools preparing with active shooter drills

CARMEL, Ind. — “Lockdown, lockdown, lockdown. This is a drill.”

With those seven words, calmly announced over the intercom system, an eerie silence overtook a bustling elementary school of 650 students in suburban Indianapolis. Lights were turned off and blinds shut. In some classrooms, doors were barricaded with small desks and chairs.

From start to finish, the “intruder drill” at Forest Dale Elementary School in Carmel took about 10 minutes — an exercise now as routine at the school as a fire drill.

What might sound terrifying to some parents has become the norm in many schools nationwide after a rash of school shootings.

More than two-thirds of school districts surveyed by the U.S. Government Accountability Office conduct “active shooter” exercises.

Some schools make their drills very realistic, simulating the sounds of gunshots and using smoke and fake blood. In one case, armed police officers with weapons drawn burst into a Florida middle school, terrifying staff and students alike.

Staff and teachers are usually given warning that drills will happen.

GAO investigators said one district noted “the difficulty of striking a balance between providing knowledge and inciting fear, particularly at schools with younger children.”

Between 2000 and 2013, there were 25 shootings at U.S. elementary and secondary schools, resulting in 57 deaths, according to the FBI.

These numbers include the shooting at Connecticut’s Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012 when an intruder gunned down 20 first-graders and six educators.

But a school psychologist, Dr. Melissa Reeves, says schools need to be prepared and conduct age-appropriate exercises like the Forest Dale drill.