This is Not a Drill: A Conversation with Dr. Khadijah Costley White
Maplewood Division of Arts & Culture sat down with Dr. Khadijah Costley White to discuss her upcoming exhibition This is Not a Drill which will open at 1978 Arts Center on April 16, 2023. Dr. White, a well-known activist and professor at Rutgers University, organized the exhibition following a previous installation of the show in 2021.
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION:
As news of school shootings continues to break with agonizing frequency across the U.S., school districts have taken measures they claim will keep students safe. Metal detectors, armed guards, and active-shooter lockdown drills are now commonplace. But these changes in school security are often at odds with a healthy learning environment, contributing instead to a culture of fear and anxiety.
In a series of booths that blocks out the visual noise of everyday life, This is Not a Drill is a listening installation that meditates on the impact and experience of code red drills. NJ has some of the most extensive active shooter drill laws in the country and this work helps examine what that means for NJ students. Even more, it reflects on what it means to be a society in which our collective failure to adequately regulate guns falls on the shoulders of children.
This is Not a Drill will be on view from April 16 - May 28, 2023. Gallery hours: Thurs/Fri 6 - 8 PM. Sat/Sun 2 - 4 PM.
Maplewood Division of Art & Culture: Tell us about how this project came to be?
Dr. White: The community non-profit I help run – SOMA Justice - has been deeply involved with school and youth justice issues from the beginning, first tackling hunger disparities and police brutality. Knowing the research on the punitive and racially disparate impact of police presence in schools, a group of us in SJ paid close attention when the school district hired a former police officer as its first school safety director several years back. That safety director tried to bring in a new school active shooter program named ALICE that 1) trained children to fight gunmen, 2) was founded by a homophobic conservative, and 3) has hired as a trainer at least one former police officer who killed an innocent Black woman in her home while she was holding her baby and in front of her children. We organized against that program and started to hear horror stories about the active shooter drills local schools were already doing, and organized around those, too. One mom, Jennifer Serravallo, even filmed some of them and made a video for awareness. Kids were suffering health issues from not drinking water or going to the bathroom for fear of being left outside during a drill, a kindergartener locked out at one school was left alone for an entire drill, kids stuffed in closets together for 40 minutes to an hour. As a scholar and a local mom, I felt this deserved a closer look.
DAC: What has changed about this installation since it was last on view in Maplewood? What did the first installation teach you?
KCW: Some quotes from the folks who attended last year’s preview included words like “powerful”, “infuriating”, “eye-opening” and “profound” to describe the installation. That was really encouraging that I was landing in the right place with the experience.
I also got suggestions on making it more accessible with chairs and a warning for those with sensory issues, timed slots for entrance, and more context on the policy behind the drills and how to get involved, all of which I have added.
DAC: What do you hope visitors learn from experiencing the installation?
KCW: On the face of it, the installation is about a massive national intervention implemented in schools that make children responsible for our complete and utter refusal to control guns in this country. We have collectively decided it makes more sense to teach three-year-olds to hide from gunmen then to take the guns away. So, in part, I hope it's a space of reflection that urges people to think about how and why we should approach this differently. There is no evidence that these drills make kids safer, yet we have created an entire industry around fortressing and hardening schools in ways that contradict the findings and make kids less safe. There’s a lesson there, too.
I think the installation additionally pushes people to think about what happens in schools when we see them as targets instead of as spaces of refuge and comfort, learning, connection, and community. What happens when you are trained to see children as threats? What happens when the efforts to create safety actually make some children feel unsafe? When the efforts made to improve safety actually cause harm? I hope the installation makes people think about all the many ways our society forces the most vulnerable to bear the brunt of the collective cowardice and weakness of those who hold the most power. I want it to be something that helps people imagine what it means to be a child today in a society that has decided to accept mass shootings as part of our everyday lives.
DAC: As a long-time activist in this community, what does moving the needle on the decision-making around school shooter drills look like to you?
KCW: I believe that some of the recent changes made at the state level around school drills is the result of some of the work that some of us in SOMA Justice have done in writing and advocating around this issue, including helping propose changes to local and state policy, and spreading awareness about the impact of the drills throughout the community. Last year, a state law was passed that banned drills from being super realistic, mandated that they be communicated in developmentally-appropriate ways, and required the input of mental health professionals, students, and parents. That was major. Still, the state BOE association blocked key components – kids also don’t receive advanced notice that a drill will occur, which happens in other states that have actually had mass shootings in schools. In fact, kids in SOMA used to get advanced notice of an upcoming drill and at some point that was taken away .
Across the country, many schools don’t even tell kids that a drill is a drill because there’s this idea that students take it more seriously if they think it’s real – we don’t pretend there is a real fire with fire drills, we don’t test police officers by deceiving them about an active shooter, but somehow we think it’s ok to trick kids into believing that they’re about to be killed at school. It’s pretty outrageous.
Honestly? I think moving the needle meaningfully means we stop doing these active shooter drills. We need to lead with evidence. And there’s just not enough evidence to show that these drills save lives and a lot of evidence that they cause harm.
DAC: You grew up in SOMA. What are you most proud of about this community? Do you view the townships differently now that you are raising your own children here?
KCW: As an adult I am proud that this is a place that still feels like a beacon to so many people who are looking for an equitable, progressive, and welcoming place to raise their kids. That makes me really proud. As an adult I've grown to understand more deeply some of the disparities and issues that I faced as a student here, during a time in which my family really struggled. And, through that understanding, I’ve learned more about all the ways we fail to live up to our ideals.
DAC: How do you think that your activism intersects with the arts and cultural experiences available at a local level? Is there anything you’d like to see change on that front?
KCW: A lot of my civil rights heroes were activists in the 1960s and 1970s. During that time, the Black Arts movement fueled the movement organizing, empowerment, and outreach. The arts in general have contributed to the strength, beauty, and appeal of activism in this country and around the world. I think art is a reflection of who we are and offers us a space to wrestle with that. So locally I would love to see more art that helps people here see themselves a little more clearly than I think they are sometimes able. Art doesn't necessarily argue a point as much as it helps you arrive at one. Art can be especially helpful when our actions contradict our professed values. So I would love to see more art that is radical, visionary, world shifting and about reimagining what we know and think, especially when it comes to power and domination.
DAC: Finally, most folks in town know you as the founder of SOMA Justice and a prominent voice on many issues from school safety to racial justice to environmental justice to saving the CHS pool. Is there anything you’d like the community to know about you that they may be unaware of? What would folks be surprised to learn about you?
KCW: Well, I am a fourth generation New Jersey girl. My mom grew up in a housing complex in Newark called Baxter Terrace. It was one of the first public housing projects in the country – pieces of it are in the National Museum of African-American History and Culture. My grandfather was one of the few Black veterans in the entire state of NJ to get money from the GI Bill to buy a home at the time and he moved the family to East Orange. So I have pretty deep roots in this area. In fact there is a school in East Orange named after my great-grandfather, John L. Costley. This is home to me.
