On May 12, Rose Hill Elementary conducted its first comprehensive all-school emergency drill. The students were instructed to go into their safety positions under their desks for the earthquake drill. After teachers checked to see that the students were correctly in position, they were evacuated to the playground.
Ms. Joyce Teshima, Rose Hill Elementary principal, asked several intermediate students to remain in the building unbeknownst to their teachers.
Classroom teachers had to take very careful attendance and list their missing students. The lists were given to the search-and-rescue team who went through the building checking each room for the missing students.
While the students waited patiently on the playground with the student supervision team, other teams went about their duties as if in a real emergency. These included utility/site inspection, search and rescue, medical/first aid, traffic control, incident recorder communications, supplies, student reunion and volunteer teams.
Teams practiced their duties in realistic scenarios. Several parents came to school to check out their children. This allowed teams to practice the protocol and procedure to allow students to leave with their parents.
The first aid/medical team took students who were identified as "injured" and treated them as if in a real emergency.
Following the drill, each team gave suggestions for improvement to the safety committee. The committee is meeting to go over the recommendations and make changes for the next all-school drill in the fall of 2005. Although this was the first drill of this type, it was a success, with changes to be made as a result of this practice.
Jan Blaud is the office manager at Rose Hill Elementary.[[In-content Ad]]
