Just as there is practice for natural disaster situations such as fires and tornadoes, the school also conducts drills on what to do when there is an intruder in the building or for occasions when the entire school needs to come together after a major event.

Both of these drills will take place April 27, but with a change on the regular format.

In an email sent to the school, Chief Officer for Student Services Dr. Tom Greer wrote, “(Students) will hear the warning signal or (they) might hear a PA announcement or both, but whatever communication (they) hear, (they should then) receive a text indicating what the issue is. No matter where (they) are, (they need to) read the text, listen to the announcement and then decide the best thing (they) should do. That might be run, it might be hide or it might be fight.”

Giving students this choice prepares them for a real-life situation, where planning and carefully thinking things through just doesn’t happen.

After this event “an all clear warning will be issued to (students) in a text and/or a PA announcement. Once the all clear has been issued then we as a school will gather on the football field in our counties and then in our towns,” Greer wrote.

Greer calls this reunification because “we are going to gather together again as a school (as if) after we had been separated by (an) incident. The purpose is to account for all students as well as adults at (one) location. We would never relocate unless it was totally safe. Relocation would only occur after the authorities have told us that the school is safe to relocate to make sure we can all be accounted for.”

The county system provides an easy way to ensure no one is forgotten or left behind. “Because there are many of us, we break into towns to make it simpler and quicker to identify that everyone is present,” Greer wrote.

He described the drill as something students should take seriously and personally. He said, “Think of your own family. If you had something happen in your home, you would all want to account for one another. But you would only do this after you knew the incident was over. Someone might say ‘is everyone OK?’ or ‘is everyone here?’ You can only (say) so when you gather together.”