Pali conducted a safety training week at the beginning of the spring semester so that students and staff could review safety procedures in the event of an emergency. The week consisted of an informational game of Kahoot, class discussions on hypothetical emergency scenarios and a fire drill. 

Safety training week hoped to address the lower classmen’s lack of familiarity with Pali safety procedures, being deprived of the chance to train in a virtual setting. According to Pali Assistant Principal Chris Lee, the active shooter rumors circulating campus on Dec. 6 were also a motivation for organizing the safety week. 

Yet some students questioned the effectiveness of the training. 

“I didn’t learn anything from the safety training,” freshman Willa Browne said. Instead, she said she thinks that a video demonstration would have been “more effective.”

Some teachers believe that safety training would have been more successful if it had been offered earlier in the school year. 

“[The training] revealed how unprepared we were,” Pali social studies teacher Jeanne Saiza said. “It was put on a backburner. They should’ve started in the fall.” 

Additionally, as a result of a large number of positive COVID-19 cases, student attendance was low during safety training week. “Unfortunately, we were missing so many students, so it was a tough week to do safety training,” Saiza said.

Lee agreed, adding that he wishes “the pandemic never happened, and we therefore would not have stopped doing safety drills in the first place.” 

However, both students and staff share optimistic views on the future of safety training. 

“Having all groups be more aware of what the appropriate responses to various safety incidents, and knowing the details of the responses, is in and of itself helpful,” Lee said. 

Browne added, “I think they had the right idea, starting a conversation about it …  I would feel safer if they could do a better job at making us prepared.”

Pali intends to continue safety training and is aware of the changes that need to be made, according to Lee. In the future, the administration plans to incorporate an annual safety training week at the start of each school year, instead of during the spring semester. 

“There is room for improvement – always – and we’ll continue to try to get better with each training drill,” Lee said.