Safety by Practicing School Shootings?

News 4 in Washington, DC ran a segment yesterday about a school simulation designed to mimic a violent shooter on campus. The simulation took place at Alice Deal Jr. High School and featured a scenario where an enraged parent comes to campus to inflict as much horror as possible. The video speaks for itself, but this is some scary stuff. Two questions?

• How effective is a drill like this?;
• Do students become desensitized to violence when we make it as inevitable as a fire or a storm?;
• Did anyone in the drill run at or throw objects like desks or anything heavy and blunt at the police officer who was acting as the shooter, because that’s what you are actually supposed to do in a situation like this?

DCist community comments here.