Mindful safety drills reduce trauma, build resiliency
In you are a kindergartner today, you might be taught to sing this song to the tune of “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” or “The ABC Song”:
Lockdown, lockdown, lock the door,
Shut the lights off, say no more.
Go behind the desk and hide,
Wait until it’s safe inside.
Lockdown, lockdown, it’s all done.
Now it’s time to have some fun.
These words, posted on a classroom wall, came as a shock to Georgy Cohen. Visiting the school where her pre-school-age son would soon attend kindergarten, she took a photo of the song and posted it on Twitter where it has prompted tens of thousands of responses.
More recently March for our Lives, the anti-gun violence movement, released a public service announcement in which a young girl teaches a group of adults about active shooter drills. With preternatural detachment, she explains the importance of barricading the classroom, hiding effectively, staying absolutely still and quiet, and not crying. The video has gone viral. Individuals’ comments about the video highlight several reasons for concern. They indicate that students and adults alike are experiencing trauma, not only from crisis situations, but also from the safety drills designed to protect them in actual crisis situations. For example:
“I arrived at my kid’s [elementary school] to volunteer in the art room just as a lockdown started. By the end of the utterly silent 5 minutes, I was a sobbing mess. Such silence and control in a 1,000+ kid school is unreal and terrifying.”
“Recently my daughter Bella told me that she made a new friend.
Me: ‘That’s great sweetie; what do you like about her?’
B: ‘She calmed me down when I had a panic attack during our lockdown drill.’”
School lockdown drills are on the rise.
In response to school shooting events that have occurred over the past decades, most states mandate that students and teachers in K-12 classrooms and some universities go through regular lockdown drills to mitigate potential threats such as an active shooter on campus. Most of us are familiar with fire drills during which students and adults quickly exit the school building in an orderly manner and gather safely in designated meeting spots. These drills are designed for emergencies like fire or bomb threats where it is safer to evacuate outside the building, away from the threat, than to remain inside. Conversely lockdown drills are based on the premise that it is safer to hide inside the building, potentially with the threat, than to risk exposure outside. The physical sensation of being trapped inside can add to the traumatic experience of a lockdown drill.
Safety drills are necessary. They undoubtedly save lives. Most students and adults take them in stride as part of the usual school routine. However, as revealed in the comments above, some individuals react to these exercises with real fear and anxiety, even when they know cognitively that they are simply participating in a drill. With exposure to news of mass shootings in places presumed to be safe – like schools, places of worship, and recreation venues – people are increasingly anxious. Drills that prepare for crisis situations can easily exacerbate this underlying anxiety.
How might safety drills trigger trauma?
In emergency situations, the brain goes into high gear. The amygdala – the part of the brain in charge of survival – activates a “fight, flight, or freeze” reaction in the body. The heart pounds, blood pressure spikes, stress hormones adrenaline and cortisol release into the nervous system. Rational thought is pushed aside as the brain prepares the body to fight, to run away, or to freeze.
In a typical lockdown drill, students and adults are taught to shelter in place: to lock classroom doors, huddle under desks, and to remain absolutely quiet and still. Even though it is “only a drill”, these alarming circumstances can trigger the brain to send a burst of stress hormones coursing through the body just in case they are needed. However if there is no way to discharge the surge of emergency energy, the adrenalin and cortisol can get trapped in the nervous system. If these hormones remain in the body instead of being released, they can do lasting harm to physical and mental health.
For individuals carrying a history of trauma or dealing with the effects of ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences), the stimuli surrounding safety procedures can lead not only to anxiety attacks during the drill, but also to persisting effects like sleep disturbances, irritability, hyper-vigilance, and inability to concentrate after the drill is over.
Mindfulness skills build resiliency.
The good news is that we know how to mitigate some of these risks. Although in most safety drills, students and adults are told to remain calm, they are rarely given specific instruction about how to remain calm in stressful situations. Practicing mindfulness can strengthen the brain’s frontal lobe – the part in charge of rational thought – enabling one to think clearly and respond rationally even in the midst of a crisis. This ability can mean the difference between life and death in an emergency. It can also reduce the trauma that students and adults experience and help them recover more quickly in the aftermath of extreme stress.
Lockdown drills are a reality, but they can be conducted in ways that promote calm instead of anxiety. By integrating mindfulness skills into the safety drills that are already in place in schools, we can leverage these existing opportunities to build resilience in students and adults that will benefit them beyond the drills themselves.
A Mindful Approach to Emergency Drills
Here are six ideas about how mindfulness may be applied and integrated into existing safety drills:
1. Use basic brain science to explain “why” and “how” to remain calm in an emergency.
As part of your routine coverage of safety procedures, briefly explain what happens in the brain when the amygdala senses danger. Students and adults alike can relate to “flipping one’s lid” under stress, as Dr. Dan Siegel explains in his simple “hand model” of the brain. Even the youngest children can understand the functions of the brain and learn skills for self-regulation. Once a student understands what is happening in his mind and body, he can “name it to tame it”, as Dr. Siegel says. When a student can identify anxiety as it arises, she is better equipped to use strategies like mindful breathing to reduce her anxiety rather than be overtaken by it.
2. Integrate yoga movements and mindful breathing into existing safety protocols.
During times other than safety drills, when students’ minds and bodies are calm, practice relaxing stretches and mindful movements than can be integrated into emergency drills. Yoga Calm recommends, “When students assume the huddle position, cue them into Child’s Pose. With head below the heart and a curved spine, this position naturally relaxes the body. Take long, deep breaths to activate the relaxation response. Another benefit to this pose is the elimination of the visual stimuli than can cause hyper-vigilance.” Check out the Move Mindfully Card Deck for suggested poses and language. At the end of safety drills, be sure to take time to discharge energy that may have built up. Invite students to shake their arms, legs, and heads, or better yet, take a brisk walk outside to help the nervous system bounce back to healthy, balanced functioning.
3. Practice mindful breathing with silent instructions.
Mindful breathing can promote calm even in stressful circumstances. When we feel frightened – and especially if we are trying to be very quiet – we automatically hold the breath or take shallow breaths that can lead to hyperventilation. Practicing mindful breathing equips us to override this tendency. Mindful breathing reduces anxiety by oxygenating the blood and activating the parasympathetic nervous system, the part responsible for “rest and digest” functions. One technique is called Starfish Breathing or (for older children and adults) Breath Tracking. This involves tracing the outline of the fingers of one hand with the index finger of the other in sync with one’s breathing. Once students are familiar with this practice, they will more easily follow a teacher’s visual prompt of holding up a hand and tracing it even in the midst of a silent drill or actual emergency.
4. Work with local safety officials and law enforcement to understand what movements might be required of students and adults in an emergency, and practice them mindfully.
Just as the “huddle” can be practiced as a yoga Child’s Pose, other movements can be practiced mindfully. Often the protocol for exiting a building requires children and adults to place their hands on their heads. This is an extremely vulnerable position for a human being to assume in an emergency, exposing the torso and rendering the hands useless. But as students practice this particular movement throughout the school day, not as an “emergency procedure” but as a relaxing stretch with mindful breathing, they develop neural pathways in the brain that link the movement of raising their arms with inhaling deeply. In a drill or an actual emergency, the muscle memory associated with placing “hands on heads” can assist automatically by helping students breathe deeply, stay calm, and think more clearly.
5. Be mindful of students or adults who may need special consideration and care.
Applying mindfulness to emergency drills includes mindfully considering the special needs of your school’s population. It is essential to plan for the safety of those with particular physical or emotional considerations. If a student is upset by safety drills, you might work with him to find effective ways for him to anticipate and navigate the stresses of safety drills. One student might feel more in control of her emotions during a drill if she has a specific job to do. Another student might benefit from having a pre-planned space — a designated corner or a reading tent — to which he will go in the event of a drill or emergency. These kinds of considerations can benefit not only the individual but the whole class by potentially helping drills and emergency procedures run as smoothly as possible. It may be helpful to work with students and their parents to develop a checklist like this one developed by Dusty Columbia Embury, an associate professor of special education at Eastern Kentucky University who has also co-authored a guide for supporting students with disabilities during school drills and crises. (Source: Washington Post)
6. Follow the wise advice of flight attendants everywhere.
“Secure your own oxygen mask before attempting to help others.” The vital role of trusted adults during a drill or emergency cannot be underestimated. Because students’ nervous systems are still developing, they latch on to the mature nervous systems around them for guidance and emotional stability. If a teacher offers a non-anxious presence in the midst of stressful circumstances, students will tend to feel less anxious themselves. It is critically important for teachers to have opportunities to to develop self-awareness, self-regulation, and resilience. Patricia Jennings, author of The Trauma-Sensitive Classroom: Building Resilience with Compassionate Teaching emphasizes the importance of teachers understanding and managing their stress, not only to enhance their own well-being, but also to model these valuable skills for their students. As a starting point for considering your personal ability to navigate and recover from adversity, you might be interested in taking Dr. Jennings’s Self-Reflection on Resilience.
Unfortunately, emergencies and crises are an inevitable part of life. Accepting this fact and doing one’s best to prepare makes good sense. Mindfulness helps us courageously turn toward unpleasant realities and meet them with wisdom and stability. Are you or your school integrating mindfulness into your safety drills? Do you have ideas to share? Would you like to explore more about how mindfulness might enhance the lives of you, your students, your classroom, or the culture of your school or district? Please leave a comment to share your thoughts, or forward this link to other parents and educators who might be interested in joining a conversation on this important topic. We are all in this together, and the safety of our students depends upon our active and mindful engagement.
Upstream Mindfulness is dedicated to enhancing the safety and well-being of educators and students of all ages by equipping them with mindful tools to lower stress, increase focus, and improve self-regulation. We offer classes, workshops, courses, and retreats customized to your school’s interests and needs. If you’d like to learn more, please be in touch.