When it comes to student safety, hope is not a viable technique. Disasters do not wait for us to be ready. They do not occur when it is convenient. It is everyone’s responsibility to be ready for emergencies no matter when they might happen, which is why administration must change the current emergency drill procedures.
Currently, all three of our announced safety drills (not including the unannounced fire drills) are practiced consecutively during periods one through three or eight through nine, which conveniently leaves out four periods – almost half – of our school day. Since the school does not practice drills during lunch periods, this leaves students helpless and unprepared if a tragedy were to occur during the middle of the school day.
Tornados, fires, and gunmen do not happen according to our lunch schedules. If an emergency were to occur during periods four through seven, absolute chaos would unleash in the cafeteria. Students have never been instructed where to go or what to do if an emergency occurred during the lunch periods. Kids would run in every direction possible, trampling each other and blocking the exits, causing harm to fellow students.
“I think for us to sit here and say whatever emergency would happen, whether it’s a fire or something worse, is going to happen during second period or not during a passing period or a lunch period is a very naïve way for us to think,” Ryan Rubenstein, assistant principal of student activities and facilities, said. “What I think is important are the values we try to instill in the teachers and students throughout the drills, like being quiet and listening to law enforcement. Follow those procedures. Our bottom line is we want to save as many lives as we possibly can.”
Instilling these values in all students is important, so it makes sense the school practices safety drills when students who attend Tech campus are at the high school. But during periods three through seven, when those students are not here, the majority of students at LZHS still is, and this policy leaves them at risk.
To prepare students, administration should vary the times the drills take place and have the drills occur during a lunch period at least once a year. Some people may think this idea will be too much work or too confusing, but imagine what would happen in a real emergency. Spending at least 45 minutes one day a year to practice emergency drills is not a big sacrifice to potentially save lives.
“It’s something we know we haven’t done in quite some time,” Rubenstein said. “Truly, that’s been on my mind and it’s something we need to do this year for sure, planning drills during a passing period or lunch period. No rhyme or reason as to why we haven’t done it, but it’s definitely on our radar and probably will be something we’ll be doing sooner rather than later.”
Emergencies cannot be planned, which is why we must prepare for every crisis possible to the best of our ability. Moving one of the groups of safety drills to a lunch period will prevent deaths and should be seriously considered by administration. It is the school’s obligation to protect students, so why would we not implement a plan to make a tragedy less tragic?