Opinion: Students do not take emergency drills as seriously as they should

At schools, safety drills are supposed to be a means of practice for students and staff in case of a real emergency ever occurs. Although the school tends to take fire, lockdown, and earthquake drills seriously, many students do not.

Students may not be taking these drills seriously because in their minds, they know nothing is actually happening. However, if a student chooses to not treat drills like they are the real deal, then when a real emergency occurs, they will not be prepared.

When earthquake drills occur, many students nowadays are more concerned with adding a picture or video to their Snapchat story of everyone under their desks instead of properly getting under the desk and protecting their necks and heads. If a real earthquake were to occur, students would be more concerned with protecting themselves than documenting the moment. So during drills, students should put away their phones and focus on protecting themselves.

During a fire drill, students should not stroll out of the classroom; they should walk swiftly and evacuate the building. Many students take their time exiting the “burning building” during a drill and find themselves talking to classmates as they slowly make their way to wherever their safe destination is during an evacuation. If a building was actually burning, everyone would want to evacuate as fast as possible, but due to the leisurely exits during drills, mad chaos would ensue due to inadequate practice as everyone tries to escape.

With everything that has been occurring, lockdown drills should really be taken more seriously by both students and staff. During these lockdown drills, many teachers just lock their doors, turn off the lights, and close the blinds. Some teachers even stop their lessons while others continue. Even if teachers do stop their lesson, many do not keep students from remaining quiet.

Even though someone may not take a drill seriously, that does not mean they will not know what to do if an emergency did occur. It is just important to make the most of every drill and to treat it as though it is the real deal. Although the way drills are treated varies from place to place, it is important to note that proper preparation only ensures a better result if anything were to ever happen.