In August, we published a story about an active-shooter drill that took place at Harriet Tubman Village Charter School in early 2023. During the drill, an administrator played the sounds of screaming and gunfire over teacher’s walkie-talkies, terrifying both staff and students, who assumed an actual active-shooter situation was unfolding at the K-8 school.
While research shows those strategies do much more harm than good, California had no guardrails surrounding how schools do active-shooter drills that would forbid such a drill. That’s no longer the case.
Gov. Gavin Newsom last month signed a bill into law authored by San Diego Assemblymember Chris Ward that reigns in how California schools are allowed to conduct active-shooter drills. The bill, AB 1858, which we also wrote about in August, prohibits the use of simulated gunfire during drills, mandates they be age appropriate and that parents are notified before they take place, and requires schools to connect students with resources after drills should they need them…