"Back then, in the early 2000s, safety protocols for school intruders were nowhere near what they are today, if not unheard of altogether. I recall frequent fire drills and earthquake drills, but the threat of a school shooting was not on my radar. How lucky we were. These days, most schools have practised procedures for trespassers and specific plans for mass shootings."
"Aside from a child's home, the place that they are supposed to feel safest in the world is their school. That's what has stuck with me the most in the days since I returned from reporting on the mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia: the more than 100 students who barricaded themselves in classrooms and closets for hours while their friends and peers were killed."
"The place that was supposed to hold them-their expanding minds, their hopes for their future selves, their first crushes and kisses and breakups-had become an epicentre of trauma. And now that it has made that transition, I don't know how you reverse it."
The author reflects on a high school intrusion incident from the early 2000s, contrasting it with today's school safety landscape. While past decades lacked formal active shooter protocols, modern schools now conduct drills for mass shootings and trespasser situations, with even kindergarteners receiving training. The United States experienced seventy-eight school shootings in 2025 alone. Following a mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, over 100 students barricaded themselves in classrooms and closets while peers were killed. Schools, intended as safe havens for children's development and growth, have become sites of trauma. The author questions whether such trauma can be reversed once a school's protective environment is compromised.
Read at The Walrus
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