Four times a year, schools put their students through a fire drill. The annoying alarms sound loudly and everybody exits the building. After everyone returns to their class, the alarms sound once again, but this time for a tornado drill. During the tornado drill, everyone sits facing a wall. The whole ordeal lasts about ten minutes at most. Honestly, though, is it something that is benefiting the student body, or is it just a time for students to get out of class, and talk with their friends? Haillie Vanderlinden, sophomore, says, “They are kind of unnecessary, we should have it less often.”

The drills that every school puts students through aren’t very helpful. “We don’t practice it correctly. We talk and laugh, and no one really cares.” Haillie explains how she feels about the drills. When the schools go through the drills they should think about things like bell volume, and the placing of the students in the hallway. Haillie says, “The bells are too loud, you can’t hear the teachers giving instructions. The school isn’t big enough because during the tornado drills, people are against lockers and they aren’t suppose to be.” Not to mention the directions of where to go during a fire drill tend to be unclear. “They should be more organized, they should teach the routes better. Some people get confused and don’t know where they are going,” rants Haillie.

If there were to be a real fire, or tornado, most likely schools would not function very well. It would be a hectic mess, and someone might end up getting hurt. “We don’t care or try during the drills, so we would probably get confused and hurt if there was a real [fire or tornado].” Is it the teachers’ fault though? Should the adults be more strict, and imply more authority in order to make us listen? Haillie doesn’t think so, “It’s not the teachers fault, they try, we just don’t care enough to listen.”

Yes, students need to know what to do in the case of a fire or tornado, but can’t the schools make drills more helpful and serious? Maybe if rules were enforced more, and the directions were more clearly stated, students would be willing to cooperate. Fires and tornados can be life or death situations, and if no one knows what to do, it can end very badly.