When documentary filmmakers Zackary Canepari and Jessica Dimmock asked for access to our trainings, we said yes.
Their film, Thoughts & Prayers: Or How to Survive an Active Shooter in America, was released on HBO on November 18, 2025. It is an examination of the multi-billion-dollar industry that has grown up around active shooter preparedness in this country, and it asks a fair question: is any of this good for children?
That is a question we think about constantly. So we invited the filmmakers into our active shooter, de-escalation, and situational awareness sessions, cameras running, and let them film what we actually do.
What they filmed
A room of early childhood educators. A calm conversation. A slide reading “When little people are overwhelmed with big emotions, it is our job to share our calm, not join their chaos.”
What they did not film, because it does not happen in our trainings:
- No simulated gunfire and no realistic weapons
- No masked intruders
- No unannounced drills or surprise exercises staged as real emergencies
- No one made to role-play a victim
This is a longstanding position, not a policy we adopted for the cameras. These sessions should leave people trained, not traumatized. An educator who has been frightened into compliance has not learned anything she can use on the worst day of her career — and the children in her care will read her fear long before they understand its cause.
Why we participated
Preparedness training for a two-year-old classroom is not a scaled-down version of tactical training, and it is not a K-12 program with the vocabulary softened. Since 2018, ICP has built its curriculum specifically for early childhood environments, drawing on guidance from Sesame Street, Disney, child psychologists, and trauma specialists to keep it developmentally appropriate.
We participated because a calmer, child-centered, developmentally appropriate approach exists, and educators deciding how to prepare their programs deserve to know that. If a film about this industry is going to reach a national audience, we would rather that audience see what responsible practice looks like than assume the loudest version is the only version.
For Andy Roszak, ICP’s founder and CEO, the stakes are not abstract. He is a father, a former firefighter and paramedic, and he has spent his career on the response side of the worst days. Children deserve to feel protected, not frightened.
Watch the film
Thoughts & Prayers: Or How to Survive an Active Shooter in America is streaming on HBO Max.
If you are weighing how to prepare your own program — and want an approach built for the age of the children in your care — our training team is here.