Initiated by wailing alarms and flashing lights, students and staff evacuated to the sports stadium during Academy on August 16 as part of the annual emergency drill.

Prior to the physical practice, teachers reviewed procedures for various emergencies. One notable procedure is the requirement that each student memorizes the meeting place for each of their classes.  This is a change from the previous system, which had students meet with the same class and teacher regardless of when an evacuation took place.

Some students are worried that this may cause confusion in the event of an actual emergency. Junior Sebastian Fojut said, “I think it is much easier for students to remember to go to 1 location and 1 teacher as opposed to having to search for the spot they are supposed to be.”

This year’s 1st fire drill also took place earlier than in past years, before students even got a chance to get to know all their teachers.

“I think it’s better to get it done early on so people are prepared. A couple of months is a fair amount of time and something might happen in that period. The sooner students, new students, in particular, are aware of it, the better,” said German teacher David Blumberg.

According to vice-principal Jon Drury, the campus is well prepared. “Logistics are set up to ensure that evacuations are as efficient as possible. Campo evac[uation] drill times are extremely fast, ranging from 9 to 14 mins from the time the alarm is sounded to having all students accounted for.”

Science teacher David Talcott said that “the new fire drill procedures worked fantastically,” adding that it was a “great job by the administration in creating procedures that work and clearly communicating them to the school.”

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