HIT: Tornado drills

["Jacqueline A. C. Keith" <jkeith@PEN.K12.VA.US>]

Thanks for all the tornado drill responses.  Here's a
summary:

Where do the kids go?

Each classroom has a designated place to go in the event
of a tornado. These places are away from doors and glass
(generally hallways,bathrooms, closets etc.)  Many go
into basements. Stay away from cafeterias and gyms.
As one person put it: " The idea is to get away from
flying glass and to be in areas where the building is
most structurally sound."

One person remembered hearing that the southwest corner
of a building was the best place to be. No scientific
confirmation, but supposedly storms tend to come from
that direction.

What do they do?
The most common response was that they sit in a crouched
position with their hands covering their necks and
crouch down, facing the wall, with their arms over their
heads.
If time is extremely short, kids can also get under
their desks.

At some schools, all students kneel, put their heads to
the floor, and cover their heads with their hands. One
person said "Another interesting fact is that unlike
fire drills where students are instructed to close
classroom doors, for tornado drills we leave
doors and windows open to equalize the air pressure."

At one school, the tornado sucked open the latched doors
tot he school.  Several people said that the storms came
and (thankfully) went  so quickly there wasn't much time
to do anything.


Who keeps track of things?

The local fire department probably would be your best
resource. In the building at some schools that have
frequent drills, things work like fire drills.  There
are emergency location signs posted, teachers keep track
of their students, and each teacher has a flashlight.
Assigned people monitor the radio for news during
threatening weather.

One person in a Catholic school said that when the
sirens went off for real once, the kids got very scared
and things were not as quiet as during drills.  Someone
started the kids praying the rosary and they calmed
down.  While she pointed out that this wouldn't work for
us public school folk, I bet there would be a bit of
praying going on!







--
Jackie Keith, Librarian                                 jkeith@pen.k12.va.us
Battlefield Middle School      11120 Leavells Road, Fredericksburg, VA 22407
Battlefield's Home Page:
http://www.spotsylvania.k12.va.us/middle/battlem/index.htm

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=
    All postings to LM_NET are protected under copyright law.
To quit LM_NET (or set-reset NOMAIL or DIGEST), send email to:
 listserv@listserv.syr.edu         In the message write EITHER:
 1) SIGNOFF LM_NET 2) SET LM_NET NOMAIL or 3) SET LM_NET DIGEST
 3) SET LM_NET MAIL  * Please allow for confirmation from Listserv
 For LM_NET Help & Archives see:  http://ericir.syr.edu/lm_net/
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=