Twenty Years Later, What Have We Learned from the Columbine Massacre?

Marsha Levick, co-founder of the Juvenile Law Center, finds that turning schools into high-security facilities and training children for active shooter scenarios have created “a false level of security.”

“Kids are doing all kinds of crazy drills,” she said. “We are creating a generation in which we are making fear and concern for public safety part of their daily lives.”

In the 2015-16 school year, the most recent period for which data is available, about 95% of schools had drilled students on lockdown procedures, according to a report released this month by the National Center for Educational Statistics. Critics say the practice can provoke anxiety or even traumatize children.

Levick said that school districts have been forced to take dollars from counseling to fund physical security measures and active shooter training.