Teachers throughout the Cedar Rapids Community School District (CRCSD) use certain tactics to keep their classrooms safe. Plans for fires, tornado safe rooms and steps to keep out intruders. But why do we constantly practice these situations?
“We have been doing fire and tornado drills for such a long time because when you practice what to do, your brain will be more likely to remember what to do in the event of a real emergency,” consumer science teacher Tammy Miller said.
Some teachers are more cautious than others, going over their expectations monthly while other teachers value the one scheduled drill per semester.
“We go over them at the start of the semester, and I’m not sure what the value would be of doing it more often,” social studies teacher George Anderson said. “Outside of starting a live simulation with blank rounds and mock deaths in the halls, how do you train for the reality of the situation? I think that focusing on positive relationships, students not bullying/harassing/isolating one another, and active attention to social media for a preventive approach is the best way to prevent these things.”
This school year, the entire CRCSD shut down on Oct. 2 due to a social media threat. Multiple days were spent finding out which school was to be targeted directly; the authorities didn’t even know if the threat was real. But they knew to take the situation seriously.
“If something like this is going to go down, very few people will respond correctly the average person does not train how to respond to live fire situations while the bodies are flying, there are no drills or weekend training that are going to convert educators into a tactical response team that is cool under fire,” Anderson said. “It’s not the mental makeup of educators in general and it is not in our training wheelhouse.”
Students and teachers become more aware of the seriousness of safety precautions as incidents continue to arise. On Jan. 4 at Perry Middle and High School building, a 17 year old student shot and killed a sixth grader and injured five others. Principal Dan Marburger was protecting two students and was critically injured, dying later that Sunday around 8 a.m. Educators nationwide were left devastated by the news.
“I’ve been to Perry and know some folks in that community. Every time I hear about one of these things I just think about how far we’ve fallen,” Anderson said.
Teachers always do their best to keep the school and students as safe as possible. They work to go through each drill and make sure that students are aware of what to do in each situation.
“I think for the most part we are doing a lot to keep our school safe, but we can always do more. Individuals can do more, the school can do more, the district can do more and our community can do more,” Miller said. “I don’t believe safety has a limit to reach.”
Despite all of these precautions taken there are still dangers that can arise. Speaking out about anything that you hear or see can be important for keeping everyone in the community safe.
“I think we should be doing more so we can ingrain safety protocol into everyone’s brain,” Miller said. “I also think we need to keep an ongoing conversation about school safety and speaking out when you see or hear something unsettling.”
