A natural thing in American High Schools is practicing what to do during a school shooting. In most other countries, guns are illegal and so there won’t be lockdown drills at school. Here are some reactions to the lockdown from foreign exchange students:

At first I was surprised because I had never done that in Spain, but then I realized that here guns are legal and that there have been several problems in some schools.
– Maria, 16, Spain

When the lock down started, I was in the weight room. As we heard the announcement we sat in the corner and just waited. After about 15 minutes, two policemen came in and said it was over now and we could go back into the gym.
I generally think it is weird that we even need to practice a lockdown. In Germany, we don’t have security at school, but we don’t need it. No one has guns, so no crazy person could come in and kill people.
– Rosa, 16, Germany

Personally, I think practicing for something terrible like this is really good. You never know what might happen so it’s better to be prepared for the worst. If something like this would ever happen, at least people would know what to do and where to go. This way there is less chaos. I am from the Netherlands, where guns are illegal. We don’t have any lockdown drills at school, which made this a very interesting experience for me. I do think it’s important to do these drills here, to have a plan in case of emergency and to make students and their parents feel more safe.