How were they indicated at your schools if your schools did them? My high school played a siren tone over the PA system during the tornado drill.
None of my schools did them.
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One of two ways, A High-Lo siren over the intercom. http://www.federalsignal-indust.com/sites/default/files/UTMLibrary/tm3.wav Sounds sorta like this but its in code 3.
Ringing of the School Bell in short blasts.
Or: “Attention Teachers and Staff, a Severe Weather Warning has been issued for our area, go to shelter in place positions.”
All but one of the grade schools I attended would sound the mechanical bells 10 short times. (Stevenson High occasionally rung their bells in two sets.) A 5-10 second duration of the bells would signal the end of the drill. The lone exception to this indication was Riley Upper Elementary, which I attended in the 6th grade. They used a bullhorn sound (10 short blasts) over the public address system. Oddly enough, they would still ring the bells at the end of the drills.
My high school actually used to do three blasts of the class change bell for tornado drills (which was a tone over the intercom, not a mechanic bell). Then they started playing a siren tone over the intercom during them.
I’ve heard of a school someone online went to where they said that during a tornado drill they’d have the fire alarms set to code 3, whereas they typically sounded in continuous, but would go off in code 3 during tornado drills. Must of been put in place before code 3 became standard for fire evacuation signal.
We never did tornado drills, but for lockdowns they’d usually say “Attention teachers and students, we are now in a lockdown condition. Attention teachers and students, we are now in a lockdown condition.”
In my middle school, they actually did a coded message: “Mr. Tobias, please check your email inbox. Mr. Tobias, please check your email inbox.” Sort of like the old hospital “Calling Doctor Red to Room X” deal.
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For the few years I lived in Ohio, they made a PA announcement for tornado drills. Only place I lived that had them. Same procedure at every school I attended regardless of state for a lockdown. Of course, the school in Ohio loved to end their tornado drills with fire drills.
In my first 2 schools(Ann Arbor Clifford E Bryant Elementary and Pattengill, we were notified by a hi/lo tone via the PA system. At Tappan Middle School, not sure-cant remember. At Pioneer High School, it was the class change bell(short bell ring and 4 chimes on the PA at the same time, stopped, went again and repeated for quite a while. All clear was one long continuous ring