CVHS practices earthquake drill

An earthquake drill was held on Thursday, Nov. 27.  Students and staff members all cooperated to run the drill properly as they evacuated their classrooms quickly and headed toward the stadium, where they waited for further instruction.

“The students acted appropriately and we are very proud of them,” said Assistant Principal Matthew Steinecke.  The students generally did as they were told and there were no problems to complicate the drill.

The earthquake drill’s purpose was to make sure the school was adequately prepared to handle earthquakes.  During the drill, students were arranged to meet in a certain place with their teachers, and were assumed to know where to go if a real earthquake ever strikes.

In the case of a real earthquake, the process of evacuation would be very different.  Although students and staff spent what seemed to be a large amount of time sitting in the stadium, the drill was actually a sped up version of the real evacuation.  In a real earthquake, the trip to the stadium would take at least two to four hours because a thorough check of the classrooms, buildings, and students would be done.

Many people were frustrated with how much time it takes just for everyone to get into the stadium.  However, they did not realize that once they were out in the parking lots, they were already safe.  There, the first priority would not be to get everyone into the stadium, but to check if there could still be anyone stuck inside the school. Although no one was really “stuck” inside the school during the drill, something like that could happen in a real earthquake, so the practice was packed with all the different scenarios that could possibly occur.

Overall, the earthquake drill was a success this year with a few minor things that need to be improved.  Next year, the school will focus more on having the drill flow more smoothly.  CVHS will also practice sheltering in place and provide more student training in September.  The school also hopes to have a video production about what to do in an earthquake that the students could watch on the TVs in their classrooms.