period. This will disrupt the next class, but students will be able to eat
their lunches.By implementing all or some of these strategies, a school leader will
greatly reduce the disruption of instruction caused by required drills. It is
important to make sure staff and students know the proper fire drill proce-
dures and exits; however, this must be done in such a way as to minimize
impact on teaching and learning.
Another problem that disrupts instruction and upsets everyone—parents,
students, and teachers—is the school evacuation. The most common rea-
sons for a principal to consider evacuating a school are an actual fire or a
threatening phone call.
Depending on the community and the construction materials used in
the building, fires in a school will be on a range from nonexistent to rare.
With one exception, Principal Niles-Perry’s experience with real fires
consisted of those set in a trash basket by a student attempting to disrupt
the school day. By having procedures to locate and put out such minor
fires, evacuations can be prevented.
In most schools, whenever a fire alarm is set off, an office in the school
has a panel that indicates the location of the ringing alarm. At Ms. Niles-
Perry’s Los Angeles school, this panel was in the custodian’s office. As
soon as it rang, he sent his staff with fire extinguishers to the location and
notified the school security agents and supervisor of school security. The
time lapse from the sounding of the alarm to the arrival of staff could be
measured in seconds, and a small fire was put out while the alarm was
still ringing.
Ms. Niles-Perry used the standard procedure found in most schools. As
soon as a fire alarm rings, staff and students line up at the door for evacu-
ation. They wait a few seconds for a confirming gong or the “all-clear”
signal. In the case of a fire extinguished by the custodian, there would
be an all-clear signal and a short PA announcement that a small fire was
completely extinguished near room xxx (so that any staff or students
smelling smoke would know the danger was past).
Every now and then, there is a student who thinks it is a good idea to set
off fire alarms to disrupt the school day. On these occasions, the custodial
and security staffs arrive at the location of the sounding alarm and find
Be Aware of Workplace Issues 93