Yes, absolutely. I haven't personally been present during these drills but my wife has. No children were crammed in a closet. No teacher made the "mental shift, if only for a moment, from the routine to a pure, clear terror." I believe the context presented to the JK and K classes was that of taking attendance, but my wife is sleeping and if I wake her "because I need to comment on HN" I think I'll get in trouble. :-)

Drilling for fire alarms or an earthquake are entirely different in my mind than drilling for a terrorist roaming the halls. That's why I think it's toxic, because it's spreading fear, and to an extent it's conditioning children to expect such a thing.

Fire drills don't create an environment of fear because it's in the context of a passive/accidental/natural event. Fires happen all the time. When my daughter was in pre-school a couple firemen spent an hour in our daughter's classroom and then fully suited up, because apparently kids who have never seen a fully geared up fireman will often hide/run from them instead of going to them in a fire. She had a wonderful time playing dress up with them, but she also started to learn about how fire is serious and to stay away from it.

But, let's play the "Hide-from-my-terrorist-classmate" game... just I don't know.... I don't want to think about, "Daddy, why did we practice hiding in the closet at school today?"