How Perceptions of Active Shooter Drills Relate to the Safety and Retention of K–12 Educators

• In Event: Friday Roundtable Session 9:45 am
  In Roundtable Session: New Directions in Practices and Procedures to Promote School Safety (Table 25)

Abstract

Active shooter drills, a common approach used to prepare school personnel and their students for school violence, have mixed results. This is important because 95% of schools utilize such drills to prepare for violent incidents. Using a sample of 5,107 educators, this study examined how teacher perceived effectiveness of school active shooter drills directly and indirectly related to educators’ professional decisions, namely, decisions to transfer schools or quit the profession of education, and how teacher victimization moderates these relations. Effectiveness perceptions of shooter drills negatively related to teachers’ retention decisions both directly and indirectly through safety. Teacher victimization moderated relations between drill perceptions and quit intentions such that drill effectiveness negatively predicted intentions to quit when teacher violence was low.

Authors

• Andrew Holmes Perry, The Ohio State University

• Linda Reddy, Rutgers University

• Christopher M. Dudek, Rutgers University

• Andrew Martinez, Center for Court Innovation

• Susan D. McMahon, DePaul University

• Eric M. Anderman, The Ohio State University

• Ron Avi Astor, University of California - Los Angeles

• Dorothy L. Espelage, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill

• Frank C. Worrell, University of California - Berkeley