Drills not much good without students present
It’s probably a memory most of us have from early childhood: sitting in our kindergarten or first-grade classroom when an alarm sounded, and being herded outside onto the playground with all the other students in our school.
Schools have been holding fire drills almost as long as they’ve been holding classes. Well, most schools.
WPXI-TV’s Rick Earle did a story the other day in which he detailed how some schools in the Pittsburgh Public Schools system have been failing in their responsibility to drill their students on how to successfully exit their buildings in case of a fire or some other emergency.
State law requires schools to have at least one fire drill every month, and to keep records of their efforts and submit them to the state. Earle used those documents to uncover the fact that the Pittsburgh schools in question were holding fire drills on weekends, during times when students were on vacation and even in the dead of night.
WPXI reported that of 21 fire drills held over an 18-month period at Morrow Intermediate School, nine were done over breaks, on weekends or at other times when no students were present, such as one drill that was conducted at 11:45 p.m. At Brashear/South Hills Middle School, eight drills over two and a half years were done without students, the station reported.
David May-Stein, the chief of school performance for the Pittsburgh school system, laid the blame for some of the missed drills on bad weather, and he noted that the alarm systems were still checked.
At Norwin High School, where only five drills were held during the 2016-17 school year, officials blamed the weather and the demands of student testing.
But as WPXI noted, those excuses are not sufficient under state law, which requires all public schools “to conduct fire drills not less than once a month. The drill shall include the complete removal of pupils and teachers.”
The strange timing of the fire drills wasn’t the only issue WPXI uncovered. The review of the Pittsburgh schools’ fire drill logs found that “data listed for January 2016 was identical to the data for January 2015, including typos.”
The TV station brought the matter to the attention of state Auditor General Eugene DePasquale, who said, “I think it’s inexcusable when you’re talking about something that could potentially put lives in danger. I mean, having a fire drill on Thanksgiving Day does little good for anybody, except maybe the turkeys.”
But there’s not much that DePasquale, or even the state Department of Education, can do to punish those who fail to hold the drills as required. The Education Department is aware of the problem, and DePasquale’s office is reviewing the fire drill logs now as part of its school audits. But neither entity has enforcement powers. It would be up to a local prosecutor, said WPXI, to file misdemeanor charges against school officials who fall short in their duties to hold the drills as required.
There was some good news in Earle’s report. He found Washington School District has not missed a fire drill in the past year.
Said Superintendent James Konrad, “It really is a top priority. It is an aspect to ensure safety for our students.”
We would hope that leaders of the Pittsburgh schools and other districts that have failed to keep up with fire drills will adopt Konrad’s attitude on the subject, without having to be threatened with fines and jail time.