Fire drills were never formally announced at any of my schools. The lone exception to that was when I was in first grade at a brand-new school with a new fire alarm system, so the principal announced that we’d be having a fire drill and that the fire alarms would sound different than what most of us were used to (the old school building had bells of some sort I think, while the 2008-built new school had TrueAlerts). Throughout the rest of elementary school, I don’t ever recall hearing about any fire drills, and testing was never done during the school day (except on one occasion in fourth grade following some issues with the system). In middle school, while drills were never announced by administration, our teachers would announce virtually every drill in advance. Even if a teacher didn’t announce a drill, a different teacher would, so everyone would still know about the drill. High school is pretty much the same way, but all of this talk about fire drills just made me remember something pretty interesting that happened my freshman year.
I don’t have any disabilities or a fear of fire alarms, so I had never been evac’d prior to a fire drill before. However, as it turned out our LA teacher my freshman year had a sensitivity to loud noises, so in one instance that year our entire class went outside before the alarms sounded. I thought it was a little weird, but I suppose teachers can have issues with fire alarms too. It was actually a pretty interesting experience, because I saw what happens “behind the scenes” before a fire drill as we left the building. Anyone else ever been evac’d prior to a drill because of a health concern with a teacher or someone other than yourself?