Objectives:The recurring mass murder of students in schools has sparked an intense debate about how best to increase school safety. Because public opinion weighs heavily in this debate, we examine ...

Public Support for Policies to Reduce School Shootings: A Moral-Altruistic Model:

https://scholarworks.boisestate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1047&context=hes_facpubs

Bringing forecasting into the future: Using Google to predict visitation in U.S. national parks.

Widespread concern exists that participating in lockdown and active shooter drills, practices that although discussed synonymously are different, may be similarly traumatizing for students. This st...

State Anxiety Prior to and After Participating in Lockdown Drills Among Students in a Rural High School

Background Active shooter (AS) situations on school campuses have been a serious threat. Students play a significant role in the effectiveness of safety procedures in these situations. Evaluating student perceptions of preparedness and safety is important as schools implement AS preparedness policies. Methods This study was conducted at a private university in the United States of America (US). A total of 421 undergraduate students participated in a survey that asked about their perceptions of preparedness and safety at their University. The survey was sent to the students via email. Inferential statistics were utilized for data analyses. Results Over half of the students were aware of the locations of the AS guidelines, but a limited number of students were aware of the University resources. The more confident they felt to respond to AS events, the more susceptible they felt to AS events. The more they felt that the University was prepared and safe, the less they felt susceptible. The more they were confident in responding to AS events, the safer they felt. In addition, students' perception of safety depended on their perception of the University's preparedness, especially among those who felt that the University was susceptible. Conclusions The results indicated that students who were more involved in emergency preparedness activities had both a higher awareness of susceptibility and higher perceptions of preparedness and safety. Providing appropriate emergency preparedness programs may help students familiarize themselves with the resources and enhance their preparedness.

Perceived safety and preparedness for active shooter incidents among undergraduate students

\n In response to the threat of school shootings, lockdown drills have become commonplace in K–12 schools throughout the United States. Educators, parents, and others continue to debate the potential disruptive and traumatizing impact drills have on children. A small number of quantitative studies have examined the effects of lockdown drills on students’ perceptions of safety, preparedness for crises, and fear and anxiety. Less is known about children’s actual lived experiences of lockdown drills. This pilot child-centered qualitative study explored how children ages eight to 11 thought and felt about their experiences of school lockdown drills. Fear was found to be their common emotional response to the drill and, to a lesser extent, so were feelings of safety, annoyance, and excitement. Although children were found to have good understanding of what to do in lockdown drills, they were not always clear about what the purpose of the drills was and what threats the drills were intended to protect against. These findings support professional and advocacy groups’ recommendations for planning and implementing lockdown drills and offer original recommendations from children’s points of view on ways to mitigate negative outcomes of drills for students.

Children’s Experiences with School Lockdown Drills: A Pilot Study

Debates concerning active assailant protocols across American schools have grown in size and contention. While both sides of this debate have the safety and well-being of our nation’s youth at hear...

Are Students Scared or Prepared? Psychological Impacts of a Multi-Option Active Assailant Protocol Compared to Other Crisis/Emergency Preparedness Practices

Despite a recent surge of visitation and frequent media accounts of lawlessness in America’s national parks, little empirical research has been dedicated to crime and law enforcement in the U.S. na...

Brooke Miller Gialopsos

Papers

Are Students Scared or Prepared? Psychological Impacts of a Multi-Option Active Assailant Protocol Compared to Other Crisis/Emergency Preparedness Practices

Are We Loving Our National Parks to Death? A Call for Research on Crime and Law Enforcement in the U.S. National Park System: