Stealing the topic’s tile from last year and adding something we do at my school, everyone’s favorite thing is starting soon!.. SCHOOL
Although my school doesn’t start for another month or so, I know some college students in my area go back in the next 2 weeks, and a friend of mine who lives in Arizona’s school starts next week, and the topic was created this time last year. I figured while browsing today I’d create the topic.
Post about Fire Drills, Weather drills, lockdowns and evac drills that happen during the school year, or if you are lucky and get to see a school’s yearly inspection (I want to ask my school about when they have theirs, probably this month.) post them here! Feel free to post about any real emergencies that happen aswell.
REMEMBER: If a real emergency is to happen, don’t delay to pull out your phone and record. Follow the instructions for the specific emergency, and once at a safe distance, go and record.
Topic idea from ccs46 from last year
IMO, I think it would be fine to record, as long as you’re not actually delaying anything. (But that’s just my opinion.)
Another type of emergency we might want to add: Obsessed idiot attacks.* :lol:
BTW, could a mod/admin sticky this?
*Just kidding… but now that I think about it… lol
Yes, I got the idea of obsessed idiot attacks from ccs46 in the old thread.
I agree with you, but I try to make myself as minimally liable as possible, I don’t want an “obsessed idiot” to go around recording and ignore what should really be being done in an emergency.
We’re actually told in my school to not use phones during an emergency, especially if it’s a lockdown, because the line needs to be kept open for district/emergency personnel. But I don’t think they would mind recording unless you just stood there and didn’t move, then that could be a safety hazard. I start school on August 22nd, not really looking forward to junior year because I have harder classes this year…ugh.
Ah emergency drills. How I miss having those frequently and being able to leave class for a few minutes during them. I’ll be in college for 8 years in 2018 and I’ve only been caught in 2 fire drills because of a microwave in the professor’s offices burned something. Granted, it WOULD have been a treat if that had happened BEFORE the Simplex 4051+4050-80s were replaced with SpectrAlert Advance Speaker/Strobes, but it is something.
System Sensor SpectrAlert Advances: the replacement alarm.
First Fire Drill, Tornado Drill… and Lockdown Drill today- yes we had them all at the same time. You see, we have this “Activity Period” where most of the time it’s an assembly, meeting, something to prepare for a dance or occasion. Only once at the start of the year is it drills.
Anyways, the first one was the lockdown. It was supposed to be very quiet, until someone unfortunately to go to the bathroom in the middle of it, causing kids to start quietly giggling. After that, we had the tornado drill. Lot different since there isn’t a no-talking rule, so everyone was rambling. The entire class was told to go to the boys locker room, the lowest part of the building (disgusting :P) After that, we returned to our classrooms for the fire drill. Again, we were allowed to talk for some reason. The Siemens ZH ceiling mount horn strobes (we had two because it was a divider classroom) were not really too loud, but still loud. I was surprised the Wheelock AH horn outside of the school wasn’t sounding, but it might’ve gotten disconnected due to the new system. After the safety drills, we resumed to next period.
Ok what the heck. So the water completely stopped working in my area, and we get told that the schools first building’s fire alarms went off (the Siemens ZHs) five minutes later the alarms in the new building go off too! (Simplex 2901-9846s on 4903 9105 plates & TrueAlerts) So I’m not sure why the alarms went off, probably some sort of issue in the sprinklers because the entire area lost water.
The old building had a huge malfunction with the old system (used to have Siemens UMMTs and MTLs, remote strobes in classrooms), so they replaced it around 2015. The second building is fine
Today was my first day back and first day as an upperclassman (I’m a junior in high school this year) and we had a drill today. I recorded a video, SimplexTech style, with the camera pointing at the floor. This way I don’t have to go through the hassle of making the videos audio only and adding pictures and I don’t plan on putting the camera in my pocket as it blocks out the sound. I just have to go into my video editor and change the orientation from portrait to landscape (had it in horizontal position, but my phone didn’t change from portrait to landscape). Also got a short shot of a horn strobe going off and you actually get a little strobe action here! No faces were shown in the video, nor any school identifying marks, so just the minor edit and it’ll be uploaded later tonight.
Anyways, here’s the drill stats and notes for all the hobbyists like me:
Date: today (8/22/17)
Time: 2:00 PM EDT (Fire Dept. arrived at 1:53; we have a window in my classroom and I saw the fire truck pull up)
Notes: All the devices worked as intended, which is good, but there was a 9846 combo that sounded real scratchy (you’ll hear it once I upload the video and I will reply to this post when I do so) and another was rather high pitched. Both minor issues, but unfortunately they likely won’t be fixed, especially since we’re getting a new building in the next couple of years (although I will already have graduated). Strobes are coded, but that’s typical with an older system and alarms, and they’re set up as two wire so you can’t really make it flash normally on march time. But they still flash at a decent rate since they flash a little fast (the 2903 strobes flash pretty fast). But anyways, video to be up shortly! And even though it was only 45 seconds long as I like to walk to the march time (unlike everyone else) and I walk fast anyways and I like being one of the first out of the building…don’t ask why…I just do for some reason. At least since it’s the first one we got a heads up announcement so I wouldn’t be scared half to death (lol) when the alarms went off.
Some departments want to witness a fire drill to see how long it takes to empty the building and make sure everyone actually does. Ours has witnessed drills at offices and then walked the building writing tickets for everyone that did not leave.
Yes…the local fire department oversees all fire drills in our district. Whether it’s one or two firefighters or a truck full…they still show up every time, however I believe it is the custodial staff that sets off the alarms, etc.
