Pali Participates in the Great ShakeOut Drill

Pali+Participates+in+the+Great+ShakeOut+Drill

Pali students and staff joined people at schools, homes and office buildings across the globe on Thursday, Oct. 18, by participating in the Great ShakeOut earthquake response drill.

During the 40-minute activity, students took cover under their desks and walked to the evacuation area at Stadium by the Sea. In order to minimize the drill’s disruption of instructional time, school officials followed an activity day schedule.

Students and staff were asked to evacuate classrooms as they would in the event of a real earthquake. Teachers led their students toward the football field, avoiding structures that could fall or collapse during an actual emergency.

Bowdoin Street was closed during the drill. A campus spokesman said that Bowdoin is usually secured using only the PCHS School Resource Officers and Security Guards.

Once on the football field, students found their Period 4 teachers, sat down and were counted for roll. Before the exercise concluded, every teacher had to send an attendance roster to the school support staff assembled near the reunion gate. This waiting constituted the majority of the drill, and many students complained about having be out in the sun for so long. Air temperatures reached 79 degrees, but it was much warmer on the synthetic surface covering the field, participants said.

Some students, including junior Isaac Law, questioned the drill’s usefulness in preparing for an emergency. Law said that the “general concept and idea [were] good, but it could’ve been organized better,” noting flustered teachers rushed to get students to the right place, large crowds spilled over onto Bowdoin Street and the long time spent on the field.

However, junior Daniel Hochberg thought “that the fact that we know where to go is helpful,” although he believes that the football field is sometimes difficult to navigate with the entire student body there.

Pali’s administration stands by the utility of the ShakeOut, saying that knowing and practicing what to do in an emergency event helps both students and staff.

The drill could prove useful, considering California is long overdue for the “big one,” a predicted earthquake of at least magnitude 8.0, according to the United States Geological Survey.