US school shooting drills left Icelandic mother with nightmares
Tuesday 3rd November 2026 on 01:01 in
Iceland
After 12 years in the United States, Dagbjört Barringer Gunnarsdóttir returned to Iceland in September with her American husband and five-year-old son. She told mbl.is’s Dagmál programme that she was grateful for parts of her life in the US, but a series of hardships and her experience with the American system left her feeling there was little of a safety net. She was also relieved to leave behind her fear of a school shooting involving her son.
Dagbjört said she received an email from her son’s school praising him for doing well in a drill and telling her he had been given a lollipop. The exercise was designed to prepare teachers for what to do if an armed attacker entered the school. Surprised by the email, she asked her son’s teacher for an explanation. The response shocked her further.
The school held the drills twice a year. Teachers practised moving several children at a time to safety, locking them in soundproof rooms and keeping them quiet. Dagbjört said her son, who has special needs, would be unable to hide or remain silent in such circumstances. She asked what would happen if he could not follow instructions.
“If a shooter really comes in here, we save the children we can save and not the ones we can’t,” she recalled the teacher saying. “I heard it very clearly: if he doesn’t comply, he is left behind.”
Despite security measures including double doors with bulletproof glass, metal detectors and a camera system, Dagbjört said she was deeply afraid of a shooting at the school. She worried about how teachers could protect her son while also caring for other children with special needs. “I had nightmares about it,” she said.
Dagbjört had only recently returned to Iceland when news emerged of a shooting at an elementary school in Oregon on October 15. A 16-year-old entered a classroom for children with special needs, killing three boys and a teacher. A seven-year-old girl who uses a wheelchair and another teacher were injured.
The report brought back the fear Dagbjört had lived with in the United States. She said she thought of the children’s parents, who would likely have had the same worries as she did.