One of the most important aspects of a school is students’ safety.  An essential way to achieve this is through fire and lockdown drills, monthly tests in which students and staff are required to take the necessary precautions in case of an actual emergency.  But, if teachers are unaware of when these drills occur, their importance drastically decreases.

In previous years, Schreiber has always alerted teachers when there were upcoming fire and lockdown drills.  The administration would email them a time and date for the drills, allowing them to properly plan their lesson schedule knowing that a part of their class time would be taken away.

However, starting this year, the plan changed.  Teachers no longer are aware of when the drills are, which negatively impacts the school.

First, because teachers don’t know when drills occur, they may have their lessons interrupted.  In AP classes specifically, it is vital that classes stay on track, as students must take a final exam in the beginning of May.  If drills interrupt the lessons and the students aren’t able to learn all of the material come May, then they must teach themselves certain content.  In any class, let alone an AP class, self-teaching is seemingly impossible, and in many cases, leads to a lower test score.  

Along with AP and final exams being impacted by this new policy, regular testing has also been affected. It is only the second month of school and many students are already complaining about having tests pushed back due to unexpected fire and lockdown drills.  This can also take teachers off schedule, because they will have to alter their testing plan after being interrupted.

While it’s certain that academics are affected by the change made by the administration, the overall safety of students is at risk.  The purpose of these drills is to prepare for unlikely, yet possible, emergencies.  In order to optimize this system, students are taught where in their classrooms they’re supposed to hide or which exit route to use in case of a fire.  In prior years, teachers would disallow their students from leaving the classroom, knowing there would be a drill.  But now, if students are in the bathroom, for example, and are told to go into the closest classroom, they are less safe. They may not know where to exit the building or where to go during a lockdown, and are separated from their class and teacher.

In today’s unfortunate world, gun violence is a looming issue, and fires can occur at any time.  As a result, it is necessary that proper precautions be taken to limit the effects of these horrific circumstances if they were to occur.  This starts with notifying teachers when these drills are scheduled to happen.