Gluesenkamp Perez pushes to make active shooter drills optional

U.S. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez told fellow House lawmakers that her 3-year-old son began talking about “shooting bad guys” after a recent active shooting drill at his day care.

During an impassioned speech Tuesday evening, she said other parents she talked with have expressed concerns about the adverse impact drills may have on their children and being unable to opt out, as they are mandatory in some states like Washington.

A proposal sponsored by Gluesenkamp Perez would block funding for mandatory school shooting drills unless parents of students under 16 have the option of keeping their kids out of the drills. The bill passed by a bipartisan voice vote during the House Appropriations Committee meeting to consider the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act for the 2026 fiscal year.

“School shootings are too serious a threat to continue to fund solutions that are not effective,” she said, while noting schools that wish to mandate participation would still be able to, but not with federal funding.

“There is broad consensus affirming what parents already know — mandatory active school shooter drills are deeply traumatizing for children and have no evidence of decreasing fatalities,” Gluesenkamp Perez, who represents Washington’s 3rd Congressional district, said in a social media post Wednesday morning.

A spokesperson for Gluesenkamp Perez did not respond to a request for comment.

The congresswoman’s social media post came hours before conservative activist and co-founder of Turning Point USA Charlie Kirk was shot and killed at the Utah Valley University campus in Orem, Utah.

Less than an hour later, two students were critically wounded in a Denver high school shooting. The shooter in that incident then died by suicide.

In Washington state, schools are required to conduct drills at least once a month. State legislation passed in 2022 prohibited live reenactments of active shootings in schools and required them to be developmentally appropriate.

The sponsor of that legislation, Rep. Amy Walen, D-Kirkland, told The Seattle Times that she “completely” agreed with Gluesenkamp Perez on her proposal, and said she had initially sought to prohibit active shooter drills in Washington altogether. Nonetheless, she said, her legislation was a way for her to “start the conversation,” and the end result moved the conversation forward.

Saeran Dewar, who graduated from Ingraham High School, was a student during a fatal 2022 shooting at the school and a founding member of Ingraham for Gun Safety. Dewar told The Seattle Times on Wednesday that school shooter drills are “definitely a distressing experience for students.” She said it is hard to imagine how drills can make a difference, as studies have shown drills are not demonstrated to decrease fatalities.

“If anything they amplify existing feelings of unease and lack of safety in schools,” Dewar said in a text message. “I’m not saying that those feelings are unfounded because they’re absolutely rational, but these drills aren’t in students’ best interests.”

In the wake of the Columbine High School shooting in 1999, schools began to consider their approaches to internal shootings and since then, many states including Minnesota and Nevada have mandated training for school shooter situations. Following the 2022 school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, schools nationwide have started to reconsider the drills.

Data from Everytown for Gun Safety, a nonprofit that advocates for gun control, shows 95% of schools in America hold active school shooter drills. The organization said they believe schools should reconsider using drills as there is no research to prove they prevent shootings, or reduce injuries and death if shootings happen. The organization concluded “schools should carefully consider” the distress and trauma that can be caused to students and educators “before conducting live drills that involve students.”

The Georgia Institute of Technology’s Social Dynamics and Well-being Lab partnered with Everytown to conduct a study on the effects of shooter drills on the mental health of students, and found they are associated with a 39% increase in depression, a 42% increase in stress and anxiety, and a 23% increase in physiological health problems.

The American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association also want schools to drop active shooter drills, and in 2020 reported there is little evidence they actually prevent deaths.

The American Association of Pediatricians recommended “eliminating children’s involvement in high-intensity drills and exercises” and said it believed drills should be conducted similar to fire drills that use a “calm approach to the safe movement of students and staff in the school building.” The association also recommended active consent of adolescent participants in drills.

While some do not support the idea of shooter drills, Hannah Strausz-Clark, a current student at Ingraham and member of Ingraham for Gun Safety, said she believes lockdown drills are still important.

At Ingraham, for example, she said students do lockdown drills which consist of closing blinds, locking doors, turning off lights, and hiding in a classroom away from windows and entrances. Strausz-Clark said the goal is to make it seem like no one is in the classroom.

“I personally think lockdown drills are very important and should be required because students need to be prepared for the worst and knowing how to do a lockdown could save their lives,” Strausz-Clark said in a text message. “It can be traumatizing to do these drills of course but in the end not knowing what to do is a safety hazard.”