Question
Recently, our 8-year-old came home from school talking about whether the best way to run away from a “bad guy with a gun in school” was in a straight line or in a zig-zag fashion. Apparently the whole school had practiced a drill for this very specific scenario. I was at a loss as to what to tell him and a little angry with the school for providing needless details—I thought an “emergency drill” would have sufficed. How do I now soothe the fears of our child who is worried about an active shooter in his school, and can you comment on strategies we (and our school) can use to rationally address this possibility?