PEA Reacts to Campus Wide Lock Down Drill

As F format drew to an end on Monday, some students were finishing physics demonstrations and  others were outside tanning in the sun. Suddenly, sirens blared throughout campus and a scratchy voice sounded over the PA system. Exonians received an alert on their phones informing them to migrate to the Cage for the drill. Within minutes, a mob of students, faculty and staff stopped what they were doing and strolled across Front Street.

The Academy is required by law in the state of New Hampshire to do two mass drills a year, whether it be a lockdown or relocation to dorms, and this year the administration decided to conduct an extensive transportation procedure.

“Since we have not done one of these in a while, we decided to do a mass movement evacuation drill,” Dean of Students Melissa Mischke said.

Although it might have seemed like a nuisance, Mischke believes that Exeter gains valuable information from drills.

“There’s the debris afterwards, pulling the activity apart, seeing what worked and what didn’t work and also projecting what your needs would be in the future to insure the best possible outcome,” Mischke said.

Some faculty found the drill to be disorganized and confusing, while others were very satisfied with it.

It appeared that many students were already aware of the drill beforehand. In certain instances, students said, faculty informed them that the drill would be conducted.

English instructor Johnny Griffith felt that this negatively impacted the participation of the drill. “I think it would make lockdowns more beneficial if students didn’t know about them. 15 to 20 minutes before [the drill], students already knew about it. It was on Twitter apparently. Students clearly knew it was going to happen and that affected the participation.”

Faculty were instructed to lead their students to the Cage. In some instances, however, teachers let their students out before fat block, which led to many of them simply not participating in the drill.

 “They miscalculated the number of students that were still in classes; I think most classes had been dismissed by the time the alarms sounded,” Griffith said.

Faculty and students disagreed on the extent to which advanced notice for the drill should have been given. Math instructor Gwynneth Coogan was glad that advance notice was given for the drill so it did not interfere with major assignments. “We were told [about the drill] a week before. I was given plenty of notice to make accommodations.”

Mischke commented on the great deal of thought the committee puts into deciding which periods drills should occur during.

“We try to think of how complicated the day is—we have a very long school day, and we don’t like having to cancel classes or having classes interrupted. We try to find the best time of day where people might be  transitioning or finishing up a fat block class, then we would hit as few complications as possible. There’s never a good time, it’s hard,” she said.

Others, however, felt that the advance notice resulted in the drill failing to simulate actual emergency conditions, which they saw as essential. Students also questioned why attendance was not taken to ensure full participation.

“I thought the fire drill was a waste of both the students and faculty members' time. If they wanted to encourage people to take it more seriously, they should have actually taken attendance,” lower Meena Jagadeesan said. “We would not be prepared if there was a serious threat—since no one took it seriously, it did not simulate real conditions at all.”

Some students even turned and walked back from the Cage once finding out attendance was not taken.

“It was a little silly that they didn't check people in.  Many of us turned around  halfway there everyone was shouting that no one was being checked in,” upper Rowan Rainwalker said.

Lower Emma Kim reaffirmed this idea. “It could have been more clear about whether we needed to go all the way to the cage or not,” Kim said. “A lot of kids turned around by Wentworth, but I walked all the way down to the cage. We didn't need to check in though, so I think they could have told us that before we walked the extra distance.”

Certain faculty members were not required to participate in the drill at all, stating they had been told at the Faculty Meeting that if they had no class during the F format, they did not have to participate in the drill.

Although some felt that the drill was not well executed, they still agree with the principles behind it. “I think the ‘fire drill’ was a nuisance, but I do see the necessity for it,” lower Mahesh Kumar said. 

“ If there were to be an actually dangerous situation, it is nice to know the school has a system set up to make sure nothing is wrong.”