On Tuesday, August 27, all Amador students were given a presentation on proper safety protocol in emergency situations during their third period class. There was an altered bell schedule with shortened periods to allow for an extra 27 minutes in third period. 

During that time, teachers went over what students should do in the case of an emergency on campus. The presentation went over proper behavior during different emergencies, including fire, gas leaks, and intruder occurrences. 

The presentation also included the anonymous student tip-line for students who have concerns over bullying, drug use, or other risky behavior, and a map of the school for the evacuation drill.

“The purpose was to prepare students for the variety of drills that we will have and for the anonymous student tip line. I wanted students to know what they were going to do before they did it, which was the actual drill, and then we’ll have some more drills later in the school year as well,” said Mr. Mather, Amador Vice Principal.

With the influx of school shootings in our country as of recently, the intruder drill seemed to hit closest to home. For the remainder  of the safety presentation, students performed a lock-down drill in their own classrooms. Students were directed to gather near the “purple star” located in each classroom, and instructed to duck, cover, and remain quiet. 

Teachers were then instructed to put either a green or red paper in their window to indicate that they were either all accounted for and safe, or missing people and in danger.

For a training that could save your own life or the lives of others, one would hope that students would take this training extremely seriously. Well, sadly, this wasn’t the case in some classrooms. Some students were seen on their phones, talking, and not paying attention during the presentation and the intruder drill. 

“I’m a TA for my drama class, so I’m TAing Drama 1, which is full of freshman, and they were laughing, joking, and some were Snapchatting the whole thing. It was bad. We had a very long talk afterwards about respect and about how this sort of thing can happen, how it’s actually a scary situation, and how you have to take these things seriously,” said Kinsey Ferrera (‘20).

As a response to the growing amount of school shootings that occur in our country yearly, the Amador administration put together a well-informed safety training for both students and teachers. 

However, many students would benefit to realize that school shootings are not isolated to one particular part of the country, to one particular social economic, and the scary truth is that we must always be prepared to act properly and safely in a time of emergency.