By Jake Meyers, Staff Writer
Being prepared for any emergency on campus is a priority for all schools. Students must know what to do and where to go in case of dangerous situations. To prepare for emergency situations, Mills conducted two drills this year.
This school year Mills has conducted two drills including The Great California Shakeout and a secure campus lockdown drill, which were drills implemented to help students and staff prepare for two different emergency situations. The Great California Shakeout is an earthquake drill that schools across California participate in. This drill has students and staff drop, cover, and hold to tables and desks. Eventually, students and staff are evacuated to an open area, such as our football field. After the earthquake drill, Mills had a secure campus lockdown drill, which was a drill to protect students and staff from a potential outside threat. This drill had classrooms to be locked and barricaded with heavy objects such as chairs and desks. Both of these drills can protect us from emergency situations, but there are also three more drills that schools use to protect us students. These five drills are nicknamed “The Big Five.”
The Big Five is a term used to describe the five different drills schools use to protect their students and staff faculty. The shelter in place drill has students and staff stay inside of classrooms to protect from external threats like the past gas leak on Millbrae Ave. Teachers are supposed to close windows and vents. Fires or unhealthy air quality could also cause a shelter in place procedure. As explained above, the drop, cover, and hold on is used for if an earthquake or explosion were to happen, which has students to take cover under desks, and to hold on. This protects students from falling debris, and is the best protection against earthquakes. If this happens during an earthquake, everyone must be aware of possible aftershocks.
Secure campus is to keep all doors locked and protected. This drill is used to protect from potential external threats such as violence in the nearby community, but teaching continues. Classrooms are locked, but the outer doors are only closed. Lockdown/barricade is to completely put all rooms on lockdown, preventing any person from entering or exiting rooms until law enforcement says otherwise. This happens if there’s an active shooter on campus or extreme violence outside. Since this would normally happen without warning, any action to protect students and staff can be taken. Hiding or escaping should always happen rationally and carefully, watching out for potential threats.
Lastly, an evacuation drill is to have all students and staff evacuate campus, and retreat to a safer location. This drill could be used if there was a fire, gas leak, or when any other emergency has happened. If there is falling debris, however, students should first hide under desks to protect themselves. With these drills, some people question if they are actually safe and effective.
When emergency drills take place, teachers play a big part. Having teachers participate in these drills raises different opinions. “I don’t like the drills because they take a lot of time, and half the time students don’t listen, but they are a necessary evil,” says Ms. Campbell. Drills often take a long time and become a waste of time if no one’s paying attention. All teachers see the pros and cons of having different drills. “Some of the drills are useful. During fire drills when we evacuate can be useful in a real fire emergency, but getting under desks in an earthquake drill does not seem as useful,” says Mr. Hensley. Another thing Mr. Hensley says that teachers often adjust their own teaching schedule after the drills are scheduled.
Not only do teachers have mixed opinions, but so do students. “The students often don’t take the drills seriously, and they are not effective because of that,” says Zhiyuan Ma (9). Many students see drills as a way to get out of class or talk with friends. Even though some students don’t think these drills are effective, others would disagree. “Emergency drills are effective in a way because if we didn’t have them, what would we do?” says Brendan Phimsoutham (11). Though people have different opinions on these drills, we still have to conduct them.
According to the California State Government, all of the Big Five drills are required to be conducted in all California schools. Elementary schools and middle schools conduct more emergency drills than high schools. As for now, emergency drills will not be going away even if some people don’t think they help us much.
