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INDIANAPOLIS—Keeping students safe took center stage at the Statehouse on Thursday, as a new bill could potentially force some schools to update how they conduct active shooter drills. Indiana schools have been required by state law to conduct active shooter drills since 2019. But with concerns over student mental health on the rise, a proposed bill could put harsher restrictions on how those drills play out.
The Indiana chapter of Moms Demand Action said while most schools conduct active shooter drills without loud noises and simulated gunshots, others take their drills to the extreme.
”For some children, this is very traumatizing,” Julia Chester, one of the chapter’s leaders, said.
Under a proposed school safety bill, schools could no longer require students to participate in drills that include prop guns, pellet guns, and simulations of gunshots and injuries.
”I think that this bill, you know, puts up some guardrails on how schools approach the training,” Chester said.
Students also couldn’t be forced to participate if a drill includes law enforcement with drawn firearms.
”So the intent there is to ensure that kids are not traumatized by drills but rather ensure that they do what they’re supposed to do and that’s to teach kids life skills,” Julie Q Smith, President of the Indiana School Resource Officers Association, said.
Smith said the bill is also a big win for law enforcement—ensuring officers maintain their pensions if they choose to work for a school later in their careers.
”If they decided they wanted to go be a school resource officer somewhere because they’re passionate about this work, this would force them not to forfeit their retirement, but rather keep contributing to it,” Smith said.
The bill passed unanimously out of committee Thursday, and now heads to the Indiana Senate.
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