Planning a “Realistic” Active Shooter Drill? Don’t.

I recently learned about a company planning an active shooter drill that made my jaw drop. Their plan? Stage a hyper-realistic scenario with fake guns, fake blood, actors playing attackers, and here’s the kicker: don’t tell employees it’s a drill until after it happens. The thinking apparently is that this will give employees the “most realistic” experience possible.

If they go forward with it, let’s also hope they have their attorneys on standby because this is just a crazy reckless idea. If someone at your company even proposes anything remotely similar, this post might save you from a legal nightmare.

The Legal Disasters You’re Creating

Workers’ Compensation Claims

When you deliberately create a scenario where employees believe they’re in mortal danger, you’re creating a workplace injury. Psychological trauma can be a recognized workers’ compensation claim.

Employees who experience panic attacks, anxiety, PTSD, or other psychological injuries from believing they were about to die will file workers’ comp claims. In droves. And they’ll likely win, because the company intentionally created the traumatic situation. Unlike a real emergency where you’re responding to an outside threat, the company actively chose to terrorize its own employees.

Medical treatment for PTSD and anxiety disorders can run into tens of thousands of dollars per employee. Multiply that by however many employees the company traumatizes, and add the impact on the company’s experience modification rate and future premiums.

Emotional Distress Lawsuits

Beyond workers’ comp, some intentional acts are so egregious that employees may try to raise lawsuits in addition to claims. For example, it wouldn’t be unheard of for an employee to sue for negligent infliction of emotional distress by claiming the company owed a duty of care to its employees and breached it by creating an unnecessarily traumatic situation.

Even worse, intentional infliction of emotional distress requires conduct that is “extreme and outrageous” and goes “beyond all possible bounds of decency.” Deliberately making employees believe they’re about to be murdered would certainly create a colorable claim.

These aren’t workers’ comp claims, so the exclusive remedy rule may not apply. In such an instance, employees can sue for full damages in civil court with no caps on emotional distress damages. Add in punitive damages if a jury thinks the conduct was particularly egregious, and that a very very expensive lawsuit.

OSHA Violations

OSHA’s General Duty Clause requires employers to provide a workplace “free from recognized hazards that are causing or are likely to cause death or serious physical harm.”

Intentionally creating a situation where employees believe they’re in mortal danger could be viewed as creating a recognized hazard. OSHA has cited employers for creating unnecessarily dangerous training scenarios before. Penalties can reach tens of thousands of dollars per violation, with serious or willful violations carrying even higher penalties.

The Physical Violence Problem

And then there’s this scenario which should terrify every risk manager: What happens when an employee, believing they’re facing an actual active shooter, takes physical defensive action?

The “run, hide, fight” protocol specifically contemplates fighting back as a last resort. So if the company trained employees that if confronted with a shooter, they might need to attack.

What if an employee tackles your “fake shooter” and injures them? What if an employee has a concealed carry permit and draws their own weapon? What if an employee grabs a fire extinguisher or scissors and uses them as weapons?

In such a case, the employer would’ve created a situation where employees might reasonably believe they need to use force to survive. When someone gets hurt, the company is going to likely be liable for creating the dangerous situation.

What You Should Do Instead

Active shooter preparedness training should include advance notice, classroom-based education on “run, hide, fight” protocols, tabletop exercises that walk through scenarios verbally, and if you do a physical drill, make it absolutely clear it’s a drill beforehand. Use obviously fake props if any props at all. Make repeated announcements that “this is a drill.” If emergency responders announce these types of drills, your workplace can too.

Indeed, your company can even work with local law enforcement or professional security consultants who know how to conduct this training safely and appropriately. Provide access to counseling services for employees who find even properly conducted training stressful.

The Bottom Line

In these times, a company may think it’s best to make training “realistic” so employees will take it seriously. But there’s a massive difference between effective training and workplace trauma.

The company planning the surprise “realistic” drill with fake guns and fake blood isn’t being innovative. They’re being reckless, creating massive legal exposure, and prioritizing shock value over actual safety.

Your goal should be prepared employees, not traumatized ones. You can achieve the first without creating the second.