Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Patrick- In Case of Emergency...

Today, we had an earthquake drill. This is like a fire drill in the US; all the students calmly line up and exit the school and are timed to see how long it takes them.


But a few weeks ago we had something different-- a fire drill. This "fire" drill assumed that the students would not be able to evacuate the building via the stairs because of immense flames. Instead, students would slide down giant chutes from the fifth floor to the safe ground below.


Of course, the students enjoyed it tremendously. But I am not sure as to its practicality. First, the school is largely concrete, and would likely not quickly burst into flames. Second, although many schools have a balcony running the length of the school, where students could escape safely, mine does not. Instead, students would have to travel the entire length of the hall to the opposite side of the building-- past both sets of stairs-- in order to reach the chutes. Third, it took us forty-five minutes to evacuate 100 students. At that rate, if the flames were that strong...


But anyway, we had fun, and isn't that what matters during safety drills?

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