I’m not sure. Lots of people have the mentality that stuff like that can’t happen to them so they might just think it is a big joke.
NFPA 101 stipulates once a month for educational facilities, which is what most states end up going with. But, some states adopt that standard with changes, making required drills more frequent depending on the AHJ.
That’s the brass tacks of it all, but if you want to know why the standard stipulates that, it’s because of tragedies like the Our Lady of the Angels School fire. Unfortunately, changes to the code are often reactive rather than proactive.
Because most states do.
In Canada, we do monthly tests (not really called drills), and the purpose is to test your battery life of the system, and to make sure each NAC is working on battery power.
I think the more drills schools do the more distrust of the fire alarm teenagers have, they’ll end up ignoring the signals.
[quote=idontwannaknow post_id=84501 time=1563075491 user_id=3956]
I think the more drills schools do the more distrust of the fire alarm teenagers have, they’ll end up ignoring the signals.
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I’ve heard that the point: they’ll treat every alarm as a drill, then only find out later it’s an actual fire. Not sure if that’s true though since that’s pretty risky and (like you said) will have a great chance of backfiring.
I’m seeing adults do this which is a sign that we might need to change up how things are done. I might consider pushing for some type of way to make fire drills more meaningful rather than the “evac and come back” approach.
[quote=DownsLife+Safety post_id=84535 time=1563502638 user_id=4181]
[*]Doing Unannounced Fire Drills (Only the first two drills should be announced in advance)
[*]Conducting them at varying times of the day (including lunch, assemblies, and class change periods)
[*][u][b]Blocking exits[/b][/u] for practice during some drills, forcing students to take alternative routes
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I might consider pushing for some type of way to make fire drills more meaningful rather than the “evac and come back” approach.
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I think I know of a few ways…
[list]
[quote="Gentex SPK4" post_id=84536 time=1563509308 user_id=3486]
[quote=DownsLife+Safety post_id=84535 time=1563502638 user_id=4181]
[*]Conducting them at varying times of the day (including lunch...)
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I might consider pushing for some type of way to make fire drills more meaningful rather than the “evac and come back” approach.
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I think I know of a few ways…
[list]
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IIRC this may be difficult in some states due to laws requiring a specific amount of lunch time.
That is why they never happen at lunch or during passing periods at least for me over here. If it takes too long to evacuate everybody you would have kids scarfing down their lunch. Its very critical especially at the elementary school level to eat a good lunch. Also if they gave the students that were in lunch during the drill more time it would push everything back and result in less instructional time for teachers.
While it is a good idea in theory, it messes the whole school schedule up. In elementary and middle school for me, the only time there was an alarm during lunch was when someone pulled it. In high school, we joked that the culinary program burned something. :lol:
[quote="Simplex 4051" post_id=85030 time=1568306909 user_id=18]
That is why they never happen at lunch or during passing periods at least for me over here. If it takes too long to evacuate everybody you would have kids scarfing down their lunch. Its very critical especially at the elementary school level to eat a good lunch. Also if they gave the students that were in lunch during the drill more time it would push everything back and result in less instructional time for teachers.
While it is a good idea in theory, it messes the whole school schedule up. In elementary and middle school for me, the only time there was an alarm during lunch was when someone pulled it. In high school, we joked that the culinary program burned something. :lol:
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fire alarms do occur during my high school lunch hours (4th through 6th period) but similarly not in the form of drills
Well if it is not actually a drill then it doesn’t count as a drill. LOL
Although this is an older thread, I decided I would comment on it:
In the state of Iowa, we require two fire and tornado drills before December 31st, and two of each after January 1st. A singular shooter drill is required in each time period as well. At my school, the drills and contingency dates are on the master calendar sent out to everyone at the beginning of the year. On the first full week of school, we have all 5 drills for the first semester, then in the first week of may, we have all 5 drills for second semester. I don’t exactly agree with this layout, but it’s how we do it.
I’m lucky if we have more than one fire drill in the school year at my school.
My school district requires one fire drill for each of the first two weeks of the school year and then once a month for the rest of the year.
They also require lockdown drills once a month.
Florida which is my state requires 10 fire drills each school year. Two are to be done within the first two weeks of the school year and then once a month after that
An unplanned evacuation can replace one of the required drills.
my former high school only has three fire drills per year (a private school, which is exempt from state standards)–two in the fall and one in the spring, whereas all the public schools (inner-city and most of the richer suburban districts) follow
the standard plan of at least one fire drill per month
That’s what exactly we did, in addition to at least two tornado drills annually.