The unwanted situations one must be prepared to handle in schools evolve as a response to the risk society. This has led to public guidelines for emergency preparedness work in schools and education in Norway. Based on educational theories, international research, government documents and reports, and a qualitative study, we have investigated how emergency preparedness work regarding incidents of ongoing life-threatening violence is implemented in the schools in this research. Our findings suggest that students and teachers in the schools are not involved in the emergency preparedness work in an appropriate way, and that it may have a negative effect on the school environment in addition to weakened preparedness.