Active Shooter Drills’ Efficacy, and Their Impact on Children

Khadijah Costley White’s installation, “This is Not a Drill,” embarks on an exploration of race, class, and school safety in a community —South Orange and Maplewood, N.J.— and delves into the effects of active shooter drills on students, parents, and teachers.

These two towns are known for progressive politics but are marked by a continuing failure in school integration and racial disparities in education (despite high numbers of affluent African Americans). Costley White built upon her work with race, equity, storytelling, and policing in the area to collect voices about the emotional impact of active shooter drills by employing an immersive listening installation.

Booths, where visitors can experience the voices of those affected, are the heart of the installation— a place for real-time reflection on the ethics of national active shooter protocols, American gun culture, the paradox of prioritizing drills over gun control, and to inspire action toward a safer and more equitable future for all students. A final booth allows participants to explore and record their thoughts on the installation and the issues. As the project was unfolding, it adapted to the COVID-19 pandemic, transitioning from a film series to a more engaging and interactive format.

“On the face of it, the installation is about a massive national intervention implemented in schools that make children responsible for our complete and utter refusal to control guns in this country,” Costley White told the Maplewood Division of Arts and Culture. “There is no evidence that these drills make kids safer, yet we have created an entire industry around fortressing and hardening schools in ways that contradict the findings and make kids less safe. There’s a lesson there, too.”

Sara Wakefield, an associate professor in the School of Criminal Justice at Rutgers and a community member, worked with SOMA Justice to compile a comprehensive literature review for the South Orange-Maplewood School District Board of Education that showed the drills are harmful, do not make kids feel safer, and do not improve outcomes in emergencies. In 2019, the working group led by Costley White made recommendations for revising the school district policy on crisis situations, and the revised and updated policy contained many of their suggestions for reducing the impact and harmful effects of the drills on students.

The public installation was housed at the 1978 Maplewood Arts Center in April-May 2023 and can be experienced virtually through the website, “This is Not a Drill: The Feelings, Memories, and Cultural Impact of Active Shooter Drills.” The installation premiered in 2022 to local politicians, participants, and community members engaged in the issue.

Costley White hopes to expand the reach of the installation to different communities, showcasing it at various conferences and venues to spark dialogue and awareness. “My hope is that with each installation I’ll create more and more contacts to show each series. I’ll publish this work in a journal article, but this is also a way to share this data and my findings in a real and tangible way to the public for whom safety and fear in schools affect them deeply every day.”