Skip to main content
Work with the NEU
The American nightmare: the US now run school shooting practice runs
Teachers' unions have condemned the now mandatory ‘active shooter’ drills that traumatise students, reports MARK GRUENBERG

IMAGINE a shaking, scared kindergartener or pre-schooler hiding in a closet or under her desk, hoping and praying the man with the gun won’t shoot her — and being scared of loud noises and similar phenomena for the rest of her life?

Real, right? Real all too often since the Columbine High School massacre in Colorado 20 years ago? Even more real since the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School murders of 14 students and three teachers on Valentine’s Day, 2018, right?

Correct. Except in the cases we’re talking about, the kids are hiding during an “active shooter” lockdown drill and the gun-wielder is acting a role — although in one such elementary school drill in Monticello, Indiana, law enforcement officers lined teachers up and “shot” them with air gun pellets. The teachers, too, were traumatised.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
A Eurostar e320 high-speed train heading towards France through Ashford in Kent
International Women’s Day 2026 / 7 March 2026
7 March 2026

Sexual harassment on Britain’s railways is rising sharply, according to the British Transport Police, yet too many women still feel reporting is futile. LYNNE WALSH asks why the burden of safety all too often remains on women themselves

National Nurses United RN members take part in an Anti-ICE vigil at Sutter CPMC Van Ness Campus Hospital in San Francisco, January 28, 2026. Photo: Scott Strazzante/San Francisco Chronicle via AP
Features / 30 January 2026
30 January 2026

The fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, a registered nurse and union member, has sparked nationwide protests and renewed calls from National Nurses United to dismantle Ice and related agencies, says MARK GRUENBERG

universal credit
Universal credit / 25 November 2025
25 November 2025

DYLAN MURPHY reports that far from helping people back into work, the sanctions regime is inflicting unnecessary trauma on working-class families