how often do you do emergency drills?

i do fire drills once a week on the first month and then once a month after that and twice in october
i also do lockdown and tornado drills once a month
i also do earthquake, bus drills, tsunami drills, shelter in place and secure the building and also bomb threat drills

Maybe four or five drills a year at most; most years the number is three to four fire drills and one tornado drill. My school doesn’t do lockdown or SIP drills, and I don’t live in an area geographically where I would need to practice any weather drills besides tornado.

My school’s first activity period (usually a time for when clubs are having meetings or students have to do stuff etc) preforms lockdown, tornado, and fire drills on that same period, and usually theres no other drills after that. Often enough theres a few false alarms that fill in for drills but there’s only been one the entire year, so I’m wondering if they’re gonna pull one (haha) again before the year ends. If not, then oh well.

We might have to start doing earthquake and school shooting drills next year especially because of the new voice communication systems so that will be fun.

Elementary (1997 to 2004): I can’t remember the exact amount though some days we had two fire drills instead of one an hour after school started and an hour before school ended. This was done because we had AM/PM kindergarten at the time. Not sure what they do now since the school first made kindergarten full day and then got rid of 6th grade to bring in preschool which is also full day. When I usually was in school if there was two, it wouldn’t be uncommon for the first one to be in a unified arts class and the second to be in my homeroom.

Middle (2004 to 2006): Once again, don’t know the exact amount but when we did have them, they could occur during any period but for the most part they tended to be done during 6th or 7th period. We also did “dismissal fire drills” in which they would set off the alarms and we would have to evacuate but then we wouldn’t have to come back into the building.

High (2006 to 2010): Same across the board. Don’t know the exact amount but I can give you details. Mostly happened between 4th and 6th period. 2007–08 school year after Virginia Tech they put door alarms on most of the exit doors and we started doing lockdown (aka Dr. Bacon) and evacuation drills (which were the same as fire drills but they announced over the PA to evacuate three times). I think we did three of each.

College (2010 to present): I was never caught in a planned fire drill or any other drill here. I was only ever in two fire drills and each was because somebody burned something in the faculty lounge. I’m never up there long enough to see what they do in a fire drill but I’m pretty sure that they do them more than they did previously since in the 2011–12 school year they upgraded the fire alarm system.

[]Pre-K (1998-2001): I remember doing fire drills once a month, and at least 1-2 tornado drills per year; at both Edgewater and Indian River Elementary Schools. Fire drills were done at varying intervals, usually I remember most of our fire drills at Indian River were done in the mornings.
[
]Kindergarten & First Grade (2001-2003): We still did AT LEAST one fire drill per month, and two tornado drills. My school district (Volusia County Schools) implemented our four security codes (Red - Lockdown, Blue - Bomb, Yellow - HazMat/SIP, Green - Weather/Tornado), so we practiced those at least one or two times per year. We didn’t do a Code Yellow or Code Blue drill in first grade.
[]Second-Fifth Grade (2003-2007): I think we had only a few fire drills during my second grade year. We also continued conducting our security code drills once a year, and I remember one time we had a Code Yellow and Code Blue drill on the same day (in second grade). We also did a security audit once a year as well. In third grade, the state’s fire drill requirements were strictly enforced so we started doing them once a month. The Orlando Sentinel did a report in 2003 about schools in our area not meeting the State requirements for fire and tornado drills, https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os-xpm-2003-08-11-0308110226-story.html. In my third, fourth, and fifth grade years, we started having two drills during the first month of school, usually within the first 10 days of class.
[
]Middle School (2007-2010): We still had one fire drill per month, with 2 during the first two weeks; plus our district mandated security code drills (one code red, code blue, and code yellow; two code green) and our annual security audit. I remember one time in 6th grade where we had a fire drill during 8th grade lunch. In 8th grade, we did them during our PAWS/Study Hall period (our afternoon drills we did during 7th period), due to rotating periods at the time. However, IBC and the Florida State Fire Code requires fire drills and other drills to occur at “varying times of the day” so that was a big no-no IMHO.
[]High School (2010-2014): We still had one fire drill per month, with 2 during the first two weeks (we did ours during the second week of school); plus our district mandated security code drills (one code red, code blue, and code yellow; two code green). I remember during my sophomore, junior, and senior years my high school was lax to the point we conducted some our security code drills during the second semester - we are required by the district to do them during the fall semester - and did not complete the second of our two required tornado drills (during my 11th and 12th grade years).
[
]College (2014-2018): We never did ANY fire drills.

UPDATE: My school district has since switched to the Standard Response Protocol (SRP) with the installation of the Centegix Crisis Alert System.

[quote="Simplex 4051" post_id=83711 time=1556809931 user_id=18]

Elementary (1997 to 2004): I can’t remember the exact amount though some days we had two fire drills instead of one an hour after school started and an hour before school ended. This was done because we had AM/PM kindergarten at the time. Not sure what they do now since the school first made kindergarten full day and then got rid of 6th grade to bring in preschool which is also full day. When I usually was in school if there was two, it wouldn’t be uncommon for the first one to be in a unified arts class and the second to be in my homeroom.

Middle (2004 to 2006): Once again, don’t know the exact amount but when we did have them, they could occur during any period but for the most part they tended to be done during 6th or 7th period. We also did “dismissal fire drills” in which they would set off the alarms and we would have to evacuate but then we wouldn’t have to come back into the building.

High (2006 to 2010): Same across the board. Don’t know the exact amount but I can give you details. Mostly happened between 4th and 6th period. 2007–08 school year after Virginia Tech they put door alarms on most of the exit doors and we started doing lockdown (aka Dr. Bacon) and evacuation drills (which were the same as fire drills but they announced over the PA to evacuate three times). I think we did three of each.

College (2010 to present): I was never caught in a planned fire drill or any other drill here. I was only ever in two fire drills and each was because somebody burned something in the faculty lounge. I’m never up there long enough to see what they do in a fire drill but I’m pretty sure that they do them more than they did previously since in the 2011–12 school year they upgraded the fire alarm system.

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dismissal fire drill???

i actually do fire drills in different periods
like the first one we did it during study hall which is ninth period
second one during first
third one during second
fourth one during last
fifth one during lunch
sixth one during fifth
seventh one during seventh
eighth one during sixth
ninth one during forth
and the last one we’re gonna do it during study hall

Do they tell you in advance or do they only tell you?

they do it in advance

Elementary school, it was supposed to be 3 fire drills in the fall and 3 in the spring, and from what I can remember we did them even more than that.

High school, it was the same requirement, but we never got our quota down. 1st year, we did 4, 2 that were a day apart. 2nd year, 4 again, 1 in the summer school, 3rd year we did 5 drills, and 4th year we did 3.

Never experienced a fire alarm in my college, only when we were working on the test systems in the lab.

how about middle school

I think that he might have gone to a school that had the grades that went up to 8th.

I did it three times a year at work.

We would always do 'em monthly, weather allowing. Texas also recommends doing them in different periods, like during class, during passing periods, and during lunch, so that people are prepared to evacuate regardless of where they are in the school and at any time. We, however, never did drills during any other time except class periods.

I’m not sure if Oklahoma requires universities to perform fire drills, because as of writing this, I have never been in a fire drill during class at OSU - only dorm fire drills and dorm false alarms. Do I think they should? Yes - you should always familiarize yourself with an evacuation route in the event of an emergency, but I can see why it would be impractical for a university to coordinate when each building will have its own drill.

[quote=simplexspectralert post_id=83771 time=1557186383 user_id=4797]

how about middle school

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[quote="Simplex 4051" post_id=83788 time=1557335947 user_id=18]

I think that he might have gone to a school that had the grades that went up to 8th.

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Yepp, around where I live its usually just Elementary school (Junior kindergarden to grade 8) and then high school (9-12 with an option for a victory lap). There were some schools that were split, but they’re eliminating it, probably to cut costs and house everyone in 1 building.

[quote=fierlarmz_09 post_id=84509 time=1563176271 user_id=5255]

I did it three times a year at work.

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I also did a tornado drill once a year at work.

[quote=fierlarmz_09 post_id=84509 time=1563176271 user_id=5255]

I did it three times a year at work.

[/quote]

I believe my office does them semi-annually.

[quote="Gentex SPK4" post_id=84584 time=1563925745 user_id=3486] [quote=fierlarmz_09 post_id=84509 time=1563176271 user_id=5255]

I did it three times a year at work.

[/quote]

I believe my office does them semi-annually.

[/quote]

So, that means twice a year?!

So I’m guessing in Canada with what he just confirmed that it is more likely to have schools that are Preschool to 8th and then 9th to 12th then.

Though one question: what is a victory lap? Is that like a grade 13th or something?

[quote="Simplex 4051" post_id=84607 time=1564078852 user_id=18]

So I’m guessing in Canada with what he just confirmed that it is more likely to have schools that are Preschool to 8th and then 9th to 12th then.

Though one question: what is a victory lap? Is that like a grade 13th or something?

[/quote]

Yeah exactly, depends on where you are though, as each province has different education systems. & Yes, basically lol. I never did it, I took a year off and worked instead.