Hi, this is Dalia Lithwick and I am here to tell you about a special project that we've been

working on here at Slate and we want to share it with our Amicus listeners too. By now we're all

aware I think that students across the United States learn to do lockdown drills. That's just a

part of going to school today. What we may be less aware of or frankly haven't really wanted to

think about much is how these drills are affecting the millions of kids who do them and then do

them from kindergarten through 12th grade. Well you're about to find out this special audio

story from Slate and the trace is titled Lockdown, living through the era of school shootings,

one drill at a time. I am in kindergarten. First grade. Second grade. Sixth grade. Eighth grade.

Ninth grade. I'm in the 10th grade. I'm in 12th grade. And I live in San Diego, California. I'm

a touch in New Jersey. Louisville, Kentucky. Baltimore City. LA County. South Orange, New Jersey.

I live in Seattle, Washington.

I'm Elizabeth Van Brockland. I've been covering gun violence as a reporter for the trace for four

years and for the past couple of months in partnership with Slate. My colleague Alon Stevens and I

have interviewed two dozen students of all ages in towns and cities across the country.

We wanted to know what they see, what they hear, and what they feel during what has become a

routine experience in America, the school shooter drill. As I listen to these kids in their living

rooms and bedrooms, two things struck me. First, this is a generation that has grown up doing lockdown

drills. Second, most of these kids know exactly what the drills are for, whether we adults realize it or not.

Before I had these conversations, I didn't really understand how the constant

threat of shootings has changed the experience of going to school. You're about to hear from some

of the kids we spoke to, from kindergarteners through high school seniors. You'll hear about the

many different ways these drills affect nearly every student in the country.

...