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I teach in Alabama. Fire drills occur frequently at my school most often due to a student pulling the alarm. Last year every teacher in our system was given a "security bag". Basically a canvan tote bag that says "SECURITY" on the outside. We are supposed to carry it with us during any type of emergency, drill or otherwise. We were instructed to put a copy of our rosters along with anything else we felt we might need in case of emergency. In mine I have my rosters, a small first aid kit, a flash light/batteries, and an extra set of keys to my car. The keys are in the bottom in a band-aid box. Some of the other teachers have only their rosters in their bag.
Procedure at our school in basically simple; get the bag, line them up get them out the door to the designated area. Yes, we are instructed to close the door as we leave, but this is a fire precaution. I lock it because I don't want just anyone in my room rummaging around while I''m not there.
Oh yes, I would not consider leaving without my cell phone.
This sounds like my experience. Alarm, children line up quietly and quickly, teacher grabs roster/emergency info, turn off lights, close door, exit building in orderly fashion.
There are no file cabinets, desk drawers, or closets within the rooms that can be locked. How weird is that???!!??
It is my understanding that the state requires drills to be run each month. Occasionally the local firefighters and or police would be there to monitor and assess the time it took to vacate the building. It was never my experience for them to remove children from their class lines as they exited the building.
I've never heard of children being removed from class lines.
I'm also baffled over stealing things and reprimanding teachers for leaving doors unlocked. In a real emergency, wouldn't you want them unlocked so firemen can get into the rooms? I can't see having fire in the lab and locking the room behind me when I leave with the kids. How are the firemen getting in there? Chopping the door down?
Edited to fix the typos. I'm not awake....
Last edited by Ivorytickler; 10-10-2009 at 05:16 AM..
I've never heard of children being removed from class lines.
I'm also baffled over stealing things and repremanding teachers for leaving doors unlocked. In a real emergency, wouldn't you want then unlocked so firemen can get into the rooms? I can't see having fire in the lab and locking the room behind me when I leave with the kids. How are the firemen getting in there? Chopping the door down?
This is exactly what I was thinking as well, Ivory.
I get the feeling that some of the fire department may have too much time and an interest in too much drama. The fire chief also comes into the classrooms and reprimands teachers for issues such as having books piled on the window sills.
Remember the good old days when you could simply go in and teach, deal with a few problem students, and had an administration/community that supported you? OK...things were never perfect, but this seems beyond the pale to me.
Some of these last several posts made me wonder..... are you certain it was a fire drill and not a bomb threat? It's been several years since I taught, but I seem to recall that the procedure for a fire drill was to just get the kids out of there as safely and quickly as possible, while the procedure for a bomb threat was to lock up and have the kids take their back packs with them. Just curious.
It was my experience that we had numbered levels of evacuation. There was a difference between a fire drill and something like a bomb threat/gas leak/unknown persons in building. The staff needed to know the difference.
In a fire drill we evacuated the students from the building into groups in a designated area, but we didn't take cover....level #1. We didn't go to level #2 which required we take the students to a high point behind the building and had them lay down in a gully. There was also a level #3 where we stayed in the building, locked doors, or pulled down security gates.
At least the teachers had no knowledge there was a bomb threat....before or after the drill. Plus, if there was a bomb threat, I would hope that the firefighters wouldn't take the time to confiscate staff car keys and deposit them in the office or removed kids on their way out of the building.
I can understand your thinking. This is just so wacky that it would seem that there must be a logical explanation. I guess that's why I posed the questions here. I thought perhaps someone may have had the same experience and be able to enlighten me.
This is a public school. I feel concerned about just who is making these choices or allowing such choices to be made.
I think the staff has voiced concern about many things. However, they receive less than professional treatment by administrators. When administrators treat their staff as if the teachers are part of the student body......well, it creates a system that inhibits the educational process.
Rockky, I completely agree. It just boggles my mind that the school stooped to that level. I think teaching is one of the only professions where they don't get treated like the professionals they are.
I teach special education. We get advance notice of fire drills, so we can be outside before the alarm goes off. There is no policy at my school to lock the doors, but they shut automatically unless you prop them open. Actually this is the first school I've worked at where teachers were not given keys to their classrooms, so locking the doors in a fire drill would not really work because then we couldn't get back in our rooms without help from the custodians. As a parent I would be extremely mad especially if my child was pulled!!!
I worked special ed as well, Spazkat. We often got prior notice....not always. It sure helped to get the PDD kids out of the building before the alarm sounded.
I also worked a classroom for fully involved, medically fragile kids. We were housed in main-stream public school. We needed to move oxygen, wheelchairs, and various other equipment. We had two kids on full life support. We didn't always get notice, but we managed.
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