ALICE Drill taken more seriously this year

Angela Ruby

As usual, Mrs. Nemeth announced that we did a great job during the A.L.I.C.E drill on Friday and I agree with her for the most part. This year was much better than last year’s drill.

Unfortunately it seems that the student body will never be completely quiet during one of these drills (and they probably wouldn’t be even if it was a real life situation) but they weren’t as loud as they have been in previous years.

This time, I was in the B wing in Mr. Bylicki’s classroom. Mrs. Nemeth announced that an “intruder” a.k.a a police office had entered the building. My class hid out of sight of the door window and waited until we were advised of his whereabouts  in the building.

We heard the “gun shots,” (simulated by an air horn) and Mrs. Nemeth told us he was on the first floor D wing, headed for the second floor.  Since he wasn’t too close, we took the opportunity to flee the building.  

Everybody seemed to cooperate at first; however, things changed when we entered the hallway. There were many students trying to get through the same door, creating a bottleneck.  Some students were laughing, yelling, running and even shoving.

None of those actions were actually going to help the situation. They weren’t going to get out of the building any faster by doing any of that.  They should have tried to be a bit more orderly and at least trying not to laugh or yell. If an intruder heard yelling, they’d head right for them.

Teachers were helpful in guiding us out as fast as possible. They were monitoring us, making sure we were first to get out. In that moment, I  really realized how much our safety is a priority to the teachers, when in previous years I thought they couldn’t care less.

Everyone seemed to get out pretty quickly and for the most part, safely. It was a success for the most part and much better than the past few years and definitely an improvement since last year.