Growing up, we all experienced occasional fire drills. Emergencies can certainly happen and knowing where to go when a school suddenly becomes unsafe is definitely important. However, by the mid-2000s, we would start incorporating another drill that taught us an unfortunate reality: Leaving a school when it becomes unsafe isn’t always possible.
This was the start of what today’s children now know as lockdown drills. Although the general idea of turning off the lights and hiding in what seemed like an empty classroom was similar to the modern variants of it, they’ve only become more sophisticated in the years since.
And as the full video shows, that evolution has happened because surprisingly young children are all too aware of why they’re important.
The video comes from March For Our Lives, an organization rallying for stronger legislation regulating the availability of guns.
As Time reported , the organization was founded by survivors of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida last year.
The name comes from a day of protest on March 24 that, according to the organization’s website , attracted millions of participants throughout the country.
They are currently supporting a bill under discussion in the U.S. Senate that would require background checks before private citizens can transfer firearms to each other.
Should the S.42 Background Check Expansion Act pass, it would require private parties to let a licensed gun dealer, manufacturer, or importer take possession of a gun and perform a background check before they can transfer guns to each other.
To outline why this bill is important, March For Our Lives has unveiled #GenerationLockdown.
This project is intended to make it disturbingly clear that the current climate of frequent mass shooting, particularly in schools, has forced children to become well-versed in survival tactics before they reach junior high.
The video begins with a staff meeting where a group of coworkers are told they’ll learn what to do in the event of an active shooter.
The person leading this seminar then introduces a guest speaker who she describes as “an expert on this.”
As those gathered are shocked to learn, their expert speaker is Kayleigh, a child who shares what she learned in school.
As the group softly discusses her presence, Kayleigh commands their attention by saying, “If there was an active shooter, you would all be dead.”
She goes on to explain that talking out loud gives the shooter a chance to find out where you’re hiding.
It’s for this reason that she says her class often plays a game where they can see who can stay quietest the longest.
She specifically mentions that this means you can’t cry, as doing so “gives away your position.”
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She also says that you can “try and protect your friends” by pushing tables and chairs against the doors.
However, this should be accompanied by placing a piece of paper over the door window so the shooters can’t see inside the classroom.
As her audience becomes visibly disturbed, Kayleigh outlines further instructions for surviving in the event that a shooter strikes while you’re in the bathroom.
The full video also features her discussing how to judge the distance of gunshots and window escape plans before sharing a song that helps her classmates remember what she told the group.
Be advised that viewers may find it hard to watch.
