On January 23, students were a part of McKinley’s evacuation drill for school security. This most recent evacuation drill was practice for the procedures to take during a chemical, gas or major fire.

The drill began at 9:50 am at the beginning of period three. Teachers and students then began to exit their respective classrooms and followed the directions and procedures that were given. Unfortunately though, the drill lasted longer than expected and took the entire period before the drill finally ended. Principal Ron Okamura said that the reason for the delay in getting back to class was because of confusion in the locations of many students. Many students were not with their respected areas with their period three teachers, so many teachers would move from where they were meant to be in order to find those students. As a result, teachers and students had to be found, making the evacuation much longer than expected.

 Many aspects of the evacuation have been fixed and improved upon this year and teachers, students and security took notice in them.

“I really appreciated all the security that we had. We were able to get across the street to the park a lot easier and faster than the last time I remember because of them,”  Senior Joey Oshiro said.

Many Junior and Seniors who have been through their fair share of evacuation drills pointed out and appreciated the extra amount of security that assisted in stopping traffic and getting students across the street to Thomas Square. As opposed to before, where students would have to wait for the traffic signals before crossing.

Abrew said that she was very concerned with the difficulty that it took to follow the procedures of the evacuation. She stated that there were signs of confusion amongst the teachers and staff in their different sections.

Other teachers and staff shared their analysis of the evacuation as well. They said that some areas, such as the the overall flow of the drill, was very smooth and well planned out with a few bumps here and there. But the amount of time that students and staff took was longer than expected, mostly due to the lack of communication.

The Pinion spoke with students around the school on the day of the evacuation to see their opinions of the drill as well. Quite a few students thought it went very well, saying that it was went well and they had no complaints. However, many others thought the evacuation was too time consuming, saying that they had planned on getting assignments and work done for their respective classes, but were never given the chance due to the drill taking up the entire class period.  When told the reason for delay, students said that they definitely would have been faster and taken the drill more seriously, in a real-time situation.

A few days after the evaluation of the evacuation, Okamura said that all the problems that were seen have been addressed and changes are being made to ensure the best possible outcome for the next drill.