Why this stupid new fire drill method at school?

Factual Questions
21

After more thought.

The best approach would be to include a card reader inside some emergency stations around the school’s perimeter. Right next to the emergency phone and first aid kit.

The readers we use for our parking gates are weather resistant and use a wireless communication protocol. That one ID card does everything for students, Faculty and staff. It opens the parking gate, lets you borrow books from the library, eat at the cafeteria (if you have a meal plan prepaid). Very handy card. Everyone is expected to keep it on their person at all times when on school property.

It would take planning to create emergency stations around a building, include a card reader & a wireless interface to a computer (hopefully not in the burning building :smiley: )

The technology is there. Our gate card readers even know whether a student is currently enrolled. Their access to the parking lot is terminated if they aren’t enrolled. It’s all done through the wireless communications.

22

The only problem I see with using IDs and scanning technology is the cost; given that many schools in the US apparently already are seriously underfunded to the point of no paint for the walls or not enough text books for all children, installing a new technology is simply impossible them, while a teacher doing a headcount, maybe with the aid of clipboard and paper, is cheap and always works.

23

I propose implanting tracking devices in the children. Maybe coupled with a device that allows you do remotely deactivate any unruly or obnoxious child.
Seriously, that would rock. You may scoff at me now, but if you’re a parent or teacher, you will thank me later. :smiley:

24

Why not just tag the kids?

25

Electronically tagging the kids out really only make sense if the kids are electronically tagged in - or, at least, you don’t get the full benefit of the technology unless you do this. And there are obvious advantages, which have nothing to do with fire or safety, to tagging the kids in. Yet I doubt that many schools have made the investment needed to do this. The investment needed to tag them out in a fire drill would be greater, since is requires backup plant and installation to operate even if the building is on fire and the power is out. I don’t see this happening. Plus, teachers with clipboards can take initiatieve and look around for kids who don’t answer when called, or ask other kids if they have been seen, and where, and when. Barcode readers won’t do that.

26

Why not just assemble on the school football field?

Out of the way of firetrucks, & room enough, & assign each group to an area on a certain yard line.

27

Low tech is best. High tech is fun, but added complexity brings added chance of failure. I have an iPod and a laptop and a digital camera, but then again, my boots are held onto my feet with lengths of string for a reason: Because it’s simple, it works, and if it doesn’t work, it’s easy to fix.

I’m in the military, the proposed method is more or less what we do, except that generally everybody in any given building regroups at one particular location, and supervisors would get in touch with their subordinates and vice versa. For a high school setting, the method proposed in the OP sounds about as good as it gets, they just need to practice it until they have it down, making sure the kids keep a safe distance from the building, etc.

28

Not a bad idea.

Back in the dark ages when I was in school, in the US [I did some time in a french boarding school, and some time in Germany in kindergarden] each teacher was responsible for schlepping their class out - if we were in class, we were marked on attendance. During the day we had nothing to do with our homeroom teachers. For most years I didn’t even have any classes with my various homeroom teachers. About the only time that we were not logged in an attendance book was lunch. They never ran fire drills at lunch so I have no idea what they would do, other than the 3 schools I went to had the main football field outside the building in proximity to the caffeteria, so I would guess that they would herd us into the field and then run some sort of attendance on us based on our lunch schedule.

29

Sad experience has shown that if no authority figure is present, and people have been told to follow an authority figure, they will just sit and wait to die for the most part.

It is MUCH more sensible from a pure survival point of view to tell each person to leave by the nearest exit, then deal with organizing them away from the emergency, then to tell them to sit still and do nothing unless certain conditions (teacher assembly) are met.

The chance that a student is separated from authority figures in an actual emergency is high. The chance that a student is incapable of walking around the perimeter of their school building to a rally point is low.

We have the same system of rally points in my office building.

30

I think one crucial aspect being ignored here is the fact that it’s a school.

In a work environment, if the fire alarm goes off, everyone’s immediately going to get out of the building and go straight to where they need to go. If they aren’t there, then you know they probably couldn’t get out of the building, and the firefighters need to be informed of this. It’s highly efficient and works well.

A school, however, is not a work environment, and is somewhat akin to a prison in the reactions you can expect from the kids. In a prison, the prisoners are carefully tracked and if there’s a fire, they will be gathered by their designated guards immediately. In a school, the kids aren’t carefully tracked at all times.

So a school is probably one of the worst places for a fire to happen. The kids to worry about are the “problem students,” who may, in the case of an actual fire, assume that it’s just a drill and not hurry out of the building and to their assigned destination. These are also the kids who will, if they DO exit the building, take the longest amount of time to go to where they need to go, possibly stopping to chat with their friends.

This is a significant span of time during which the firefighters may need to be informed of the kids’ absence. If you assume the kids are walking around the outside of the building, you may lose precious minutes. If you assume otherwise, then the firefighters are probably going to have to deal with dozens of reports about kids who ARE walking around the outside of the building, possibly mixed in with reports that actually matter.

The “teacher gathers students from current class” method is quickest, but does not account for time periods when kids aren’t in class. The “go to homeroom location” method accounts for all students, but does so very slowly. Technological methods could be superior, but many schools can’t afford technology and often employ teachers who have trouble using it. It’s sort of a lose/lose.

31

Not all schools have football fields, you know.

32

It would seem to make more sense to assign each group of students to a specific outside landmark (swingset, dumpster, whatever). Then have the teachers report to that landmark with the list of students that belong there.

33

Duck and cover is good advice in case of nuclear attack. Sure there are places where nothing will do any good. But there is a much larger area not destroyed instantly and the main immediate threat is flying debris.

34

In any case, who says that the schools at which the football field is a convenient location aren’t already using them for fire drills?

Isn’t that more or less what the OP describes?

35

The problem with phone apps, card readers, etc. is a power failure. In a real fire, a tornado or something like that, you’re going to have circuits fail, breakers close, maybe even towers or transformers affected. And once the firefighters get theree, one of the first things they’ll do is cut the power anyway.

You don’t want a high-tech solution because, even though it’s easier and more accurate, it’s also more likely to fail. You want the most fail-safe system possible. A teacher with an attendence book is pretty low tech.

36

This method is the one used by several places I’ve worked. The reasoning is, as noted, so that they can account for everyone. It’s been worse at some p-laces I’ve worked, because you might be several buildings away, but you still have to report to your section, even if it means walking around a lot of buildings outside. But it makes sense – your own “monitor” is the one who has you on the checkoff list.

37

Having done disaster planning in the past, accounting for students (employees, patients, etc.) is standard operating procedure. The last place I worked, in the event of a building evacuation, after heading to the designated meeting point you were instructed to check in with your supervisor so they could provide a head count to the responders. It’s the easiest way to determine if everyone made it out.

38

What about students who got to school late on the day of the fire?? If one shows up after 3rd period and the fire happens duing 4th period, he/she would be marked absent on the homeroom/advisary period attendance sheet. That teacher would not be expecting that student. If that student is th en trapped in a burning latrine inside the building the teacher will never know. She will say she has 100% accountability.

39

I don’t know, but when I was in public high school, there wasn’t a system for keeping track of the kids in that situation that I was aware of. I think I remember some teachers trying to keep us together if we went out as a class, but they couldn’t have done much between classes.

I also haven’t seen much organization when I have been working at high school blood drives during fire drills or “real” (prank) alarms.

40

That should be part of their disaster plan, but it is an issue. Schools around here require students to check in if they are late. They can’t just show up to a class without going to the office first. If the schools have no idea who is actually on site, then that’s a problem all in itself.

We had the same issue of trying to figure out who was at work, who was out to lunch at the time, etc. If an incident occurred, we would have attempted to contact the missing people. It’s a real help to responders to know that 100% are accounted for, or 10 people are unaccounted for and were definitely here at the time of the incident, as opposed to the opposite “we have no clue.”