At Woodside, students are often fooling around and not taking emergency drills seriously, leaving some worried about the preparedness in case of a real life situation.
Danny Avina, a Woodside student, does not believe that students would follow the guidelines: “Since we have so many kids, and it’s so slow, and if there was an actual disaster, I really don’t think any of the students would follow the rules and just leave.”
With past campus construction, there have been several different times when false alarms occurred, and students and teachers stayed in their rooms. As a result, today most classes wait, anticipating an announcement stating that it is a false alarm.
“There’s so many false alarms I’m not sure we can take fire drills seriously” added Woodside junior Madison Bohanan.
Students often seen fooling around and misbehaving during fire drills, and they often lag in response time.
“We take the fire drills as a joke,” Avina added. “I think everyone would be on edge [in a real emergency] and not do what the school would want them to do.”
Even teachers are pessimistic about the chaos that could occur if there were a real emergency,but they have a little more faith in students’ performance.
Jesse Manzo, a second-year teacher at Woodside, gave his input on whether he believed students are ready for a real life emergency.
“The purpose of the drills is to basically go through the motions so that way, in case of a real event. With that being said I think it would be a little bit chaotic at first[in a real emergency] but then the teachers would take control and the students would know what to do and where to line up,” commented Manzo.
Manzo also would like to see more and different types of drills on campus.
“I think it would be a little bit more beneficial if we incorporated more lockdown or earthquake drills where we have to stay in the classroom, then evacuate,” Manzo added, hopeful that both he and his students would get the experience.
Both students, Avina and Bohanan, do not believe that Woodside is prepared if there were a real emergency.
Avina stated that “I don’t think we are prepared,” and Bohanan simply answering no when asked if she believes we are prepared for a school emergency.
On the other hand, Manzo has faith that the organization of the drills would produce positive student behavior in a real emergency.
“From my experience, that one drill was really well organized,” Manzo commented, but he agrees that “things may be a little chaotic at first just because they’re all excited” if there were a real emergency.
From fire drills to a real life earthquake, students feel ill-prepared for the chance of an actual emergency on campus.
“If we’re prepared for any sort of emergency, it’s an earthquake” added Bohanan.
