Lockdown drills are a fact of life in US schools. What does that mean for students?

Updated October 30, 2025 at 12:05 PM ET

Since the start of the school year, there have been more than 70 shootings on campuses across the U.S., according to the K-12 School Shooting Database.

That level of violence is why educators in the U.S. face what feels like an impossible but very American question: How do you prepare kids for the possibility of gun violence at school without traumatizing them?

It's a question Amy Kujawski, principal of St. Anthony Middle School near Minneapolis, thinks about a lot.

"The biggest, the most important message I can share to my students and my families and my teachers," Kujawski says. "Schools are really, really safe places."

It's likely her school will never have to deal with violence, but she has to prepare the kids anyway.

'We will emphasize t