Lockdown Drills in Kindergarten

Abstract

This chapter, “Lockdown Drills in Kindergarten,” examines the primary childhood experience that sets Generation Disaster apart from previous cohorts: their early awareness of the threat of school shootings and other types of mass gun violence. It explores the impact of participating in school lockdown drills throughout primary and secondary school and how these security activities can increase distress and anxiety for some children. It describes how extremely rare school-based rampage attacks are relative to much more common forms of gun violence that receive less media attention. The chapter also discusses the role of social media in mass shootings, including as a motivator for copycat attacks and a source of vicarious trauma through exposing viewers to unfiltered images of violence.