US state moves to allow teachers to ‘be shot’ with pellet guns during school shooting drills

Just a week ago, authorities banned the practice of shooting teachers during the drills after an incident in January

(AFP/Getty Images)

Just a week after shooting teachers with pellet guns during school shooting drills was banned in Indiana, state politicians are attempting to loosen the restriction.

Citing the need for raw “emotions and adrenaline”, state senators are pushing forward with an amendment that would allow of individuals participating in the drills at schools to hit teachers with projectiles like plastic pellets, if they consent beforehand.

“It’s got to do with reality and making sure they experience the emotions and adrenaline,” state senator Jeff Raatz, the chairman of the state Senate’s education committee, told the Indiana Star.

The amendment effort comes just a week after the practice was banned, and months after teachers at an Indiana elementary school were injured during an active shooter drill.

During that training, two teachers said they had been told there would be airsoft guns during the drills, but did not expect to actually be shot.

The language allowing the use of the non-lethal pellets has been opposed by the Indiana State Teachers Association, which had asked for the ban after the incident at Meadowlawn Elementary School in Monticello, Indiana.

Morgan Ballis, a school safety trainer, told the Star that the training program is counterproductive if it leads to trauma during the shooter drills.

“If we are physically or emotionally creating training scars, then we're not going to meet the training objectives,” she said.

Active shooter drills have become commonplace in the United States over the past two decades as school attacks have become more and more common.

The issue was thrust recently into the spotlight following the deadly massacre in Parkland, Florida, where 17 people were killed after a gunman opened fire in Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

Since that shooting, a national debate about the appropriate response has been launched, with several significant victories being seen for gun control advocates at the local level even as federal efforts have stalled.