Creating a Lesson Plan
School shootings in the United States are among the violent acts that have dominated the debate about school safety. The last decade, especially, has had the most significant number of school shootings in the country’s history. Notably, school shootings in the country escalated after the infamous incident at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012 (16 Facts About Gun Violence And School Shootings, n.d.). Comprehensive research into incidences of school shootings shows that they are increasing and happening fewer days apart. Between 2015 and 2018, active shooters either engaged in or attempted to kill people within K-12 school grounds every 77 days (Melgar, 2020). Until 2018, research shows there have been up to 30 school shootings every year (Walker, 2019). This number seems appalling mainly because only a few incidences of school shootings make it into the public domain. The media has often publicized school shootings involving multiple victims and paid little attention to those with fewer victims. Although school shootings indiscriminately affect all schools, mass casualties are more likely to affect white schools in suburban areas (Walker, 2019).
The number of school shootings reduced in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic that resulted in remote learning (Maxwell, Peele, & Superville, 2021). However, there were concerns about more school shootings as schools reopen in 2021. Already, there have been 37 school shootings as of April 2021 (Densley & Peterson, 2021). This number is set to increase because of several factors. First, there was an increase in the purchase of guns in 2020 following several civil unrests prompted by the killing of George Floyd (Densley & Peterson, 2021). Second, statistics show that more than 60% of the guns used in gun-related incidents in schools were taken from the home (16 Facts About Gun Violence And School Shootings, n.d.). This implies that shooters used their parents’ or relatives’ guns that were accessible to them. One example is a gunman at Sandy Hook who used his mother’s guns. His mother was described as a gun enthusiast. Another factor that would likely escalate school shootings is mental health, especially among young people.
School shootings are part of the broader issue revolving around gun control and mass shootings. Federal efforts geared towards gun control have been driven by incidences of mass shootings and, by extension, school shootings. Educators are often caught off-guard by school shootings, leaving unanswered questions about the signs displayed by people who engage in school shootings before enacting the activity. However, several reasons exist why school shootings occur other than accessibility to firearms and mental health issues. These reasons include revenge, bullying, physical abuse, especially at home, conflict at home, drug and alcohol abuse, gang membership, violence in the media, little value for human life, and feeling isolated, especially by teachers (Why Do Shootings Occur?, n.d.).
There is no prior experience required for the people attending this training. Still, it will be constructive for everyone that participates in the activity. One aspect of teaching is to support new education with prior learning. Therefore, the participants will be evaluated on their previous knowledge of the topic. This will help in addressing the gaps that exist between their prior knowledge and the new one. The training will involve school administrators, teachers and non-teaching staff, and students. The learning objectives of the lesson include 1. How to recognize the indicators of violence in the school environment. 2. Describe possible actions to take to prevent incidents of active shooters in the school environment. 3. Describe actions to take to prepare for potential incidents involving active shooters. 4. Describe the actions to take when confronted with an active shooter. 5. Describe the actions to take when responding to law enforcement officials in an incident involving an active shooter. 6. Describe how to manage the effects of an incident involving an active shooter. 7. Gain an understanding of how school shootings affect the school environment. 8. Gain a better understanding of incidents with an active shooter. 9. Be able to define an active shooter. Generally, by the end of the training, the participants should know what a school shooting is, how it is caused, the identifiable characteristics of a potential active shooter, and what to do when a shooting occurs, including responding to law enforcement.
The are several measurement methods that will be used to determine learning and lesson effectiveness. The first measurement method is a questionnaire administered to the participants at the end of the training period. This questionnaire will have specific questions whose answers will provide an insight into how well they understood the contemporary issue. Other than theory, the participants will be engaged in a drill to test their response to an incident involving an active shooter. This measurement method assumes that the participants will likely use the knowledge learned in training to respond in the presented scenario. However, it is essential to note that a drill may elicit negative emotions because of the trauma associated with school shooting incidents. Still, its inclusion as a measurable method of determining the lesson’s effectiveness is necessary. Such drills are implemented by more than 90% of K-12 schools today.
Additionally, the training will incorporate feedback and opinions from the participants about the effectiveness of the lesson. Besides the questionnaire, there will be an assessment after the drill, whose results will be compared to those of an initial evaluation done on the topic before the training commenced. The first assessment was done to identify the participants’ prior knowledge of the issue and identify gaps, which would then be addressed in training. One of these training aims is to build on existing knowledge to increase the participants’ understanding of the contemporary issue. Therefore, higher scores in the assessment done after the training, compared to those of the initial evaluation, would indicate that the lesson was practical.
The lesson type will be a lecture that will include interactions between the trainer and the participants. These interactions will consist of time allocated for questions, feedback, and demonstrations. Precisely, the questions and feedback will gauge the participants’ understanding of the contemporary issue. The lecture will be divided into two sessions of two hours each, with a break in between. One session is for students, and the other is for school administrators, teachers, and non-teaching staff. However, the drill will involve the participation of both groups because the issue affects everyone in a given school environment. Thus, dealing with the issue also requires the efforts of everyone involved. The lecture sessions are divided among the two groups for efficiency purposes and to study or provide insight into how school shootings affect the two groups independently. This inquiry will refine the training for future use and guide future research into the matter.
The drill will be conducted after both groups have attended their lectures and involve all school students. It is worth noting that participation in these lectures is mandatory given the importance of the issue being addressed. The same also applies to the drill. In order to mitigate the risk of trauma associated with the use of live firearms in the exercise, there will be no use of real guns. There have been reports that using real guns resulted in trauma among those involved in drills, especially students. Those interviewed for such studies indicated that using real guns made the training appear more authentic and terrified the students (Moore-Petinak, Waselewski, Patterson, & Chang, 2020).
The materials needed for the lesson include videos, literature, and audio recordings about the contemporary issue. Literature on the topic will be both in hard and soft copy so that the participants could use them later to gain more information. This literature will include research findings on the subject and any referrals on dealing with the issue. Video material will be in the form of Powerpoint presentations to make it more appealing to the participants, especially during the students’ lecture. The content will consist of news coverage of previous school shootings, including the response to the same.
Additionally, videos of simulations done in other schools to prepare for an active shooter will be included in the lectures. Finally, the audio materials will contain instructions on what to do in the event of an active shooter. Further, the training will involve real law enforcement officers during the drill exercise so that the participants can get a natural feel of how the events in a school shooting are likely to unfold. The School District will fund the lesson and training, whose cost will be part of the allocated budget for the school year. The pertinence of this contemporary issue influences the School District’s involvement who are concerned about school safety.
References
16 Facts About Gun Violence And School Shootings. (n.d.). Retrieved from Sandy Hook promise: https://www.sandyhookpromise.org/gun-violence/16-facts-about-gun-violence-and-school-shootings/
Densley, J., & Peterson, J. (2021, April 14). Knoxville school shooting serves as stark reminder of a familiar – but preventable – threat. Retrieved from The Conversation: https://theconversation.com/knoxville-school-shooting-serves-as-stark-reminder-of-a-familiar-but-preventable-threat-158916
Maxwell, L., Peele, H., & Superville, D. R. (2021, March 1). School Shootings This Year: How Many and Where. Retrieved from Education Week: https://www.edweek.org/leadership/school-shootings-this-year-how-many-and-where/2021/03
Melgar, L. (2020, September 17). Are School Shootings Becoming More Frequent? We Ran The Numbers. Retrieved from K-12 School Shooting Database: https://www.chds.us/ssdb/are-school-shootings-becoming-more-frequent-we-ran-the-numbers/
Moore-Petinak, N., Waselewski, M., Patterson, B. A., & Chang, T. (2020). Active Shooter Drills in the United States: A National Study of Youth Experiences and Perceptions. Journal of Adolescent Health, 509-513.
Walker, C. (2019). 10 years. 180 school shootings. 356 victims. Retrieved from CNN: https://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2019/07/us/ten-years-of-school-shootings-trnd/#storystart
Why Do Shootings Occur? (n.d.). Retrieved from Alfred University: https://www.alfred.edu/about/news/studies/lethal-school-violence/why-do-shootings.cfm