Title: School Counselors’ Experiences With Lockdown Drills: A Phenomenological Investigation

Authors: Emily Goodman-Scott, PhD and Angela Eckhoff, PhD

Description: School shootings and gun violence are crises that students and school staff, including school counselors, must deal with. Goodman-Scott and Eckhoff (2020) stated that there were 37 active shooter incidents between 2000 and 2017 in elementary and secondary schools in the U.S. While school counselors are tasked with helping students with the emotional trauma of school gun violence and planning school-based violence-prevention strategies, there are few recommendations for school counselors’ specific roles in lockdown procedures. School Counselors’ Experiences With Lockdown Drills: A Phenomenological Investigation (Goodman-Scott & Eckhoff, 2020) conducted a phenomenological investigation of school counselors’ lived experiences with lockdown drills to gain insight into this phenomenon and make recommendations for schools implementing lockdown drills. This Continuing Professional Development resource provides counselors with a rationale to understand school counselors’ lived experiences with lockdown drills, recognize school counselors’ roles and the emotional consequences of lockdown drills, and discuss implications for school counselors and corresponding school procedures.