Drills have become an important part of schools safety and security plans. There are five drills that the school has implemented. These have become policies that all schools have to do.

The first drill and the most common drill is the evacuation/ fire drill. Schools have to do this every month. When the drill goes off, the fire bells ring and all students and staff are supposed to evacuate the building quietly and in orderly fashion behind your teacher and go to the football field and find your third hour teacher. Students find their third hour teacher because that is a class that every student has to attend during the day. (Seniors that get early start come that hour)

Next are lock down drills. Lock down drills are practices so people know what to do when there is a danger of threat in the building: Intruder or active shooter. The goal of this drill is to ensure that people know what to do when this is occuring to safely minimize the harm. During lock down drills teachers are supposed to lock their door/s and turn off the lights. Students are to move to a corner and crouch down, stay out of sight and be quiet.

Third is the hold drill. They don’t happen very often, but they are practiced just in case there is something going on in the hallways like: health issues with a student, or fights between students. What they do if this happens, everyone stays in their classroom and can’t leave while this is happening. If there are students or staff in the hallways they go to the closest classroom and wait in there until the hold is over.

Fourth is the secure drill. Get inside and lock the doors. This happens when there is someone outside; intruder, active shooter, or even someone that the school doesn’t know is acting suspicious. If there is a car chase on the road we will have a secure just in case. Students just keep doing their normal thing, the day just keeps going as usual. Principal Rob Geise, Vice Principal Molly Steiren or Superintendent Mike Apple will go to all of the doors that lead to the outside of the school and make sure all of the doors are locked.

Last we have the Shelter or tornado drill. Everyone follows their teacher to their designated tornado shelter and sits on the ground and stays there until the tornado has passed. A tornado last spring forced students and staff to take shelter, and they were prepared because they had practiced.

Overall emergency hazards are a very smart thing that schools do to keep everyone safe at all times.