Towards the beginning of the school year, Rocklin High School underwent an evacuation drill to better prepare our school incase of an emergency, but issues emerged that showed us how unprepared our school really is.

Much concern was heard from students after the lockdown announcement  was unable to be heard from the intercoms in a section of the V-building.

“None of the microphones worked so we didn’t even know when the evacuation drill had already started,” said freshman Marissa McCrary. “We didn’t know the evacuation drill started until the teacher called the office and she said that we were already supposed to be in lockdown; we didn’t really do anything, we just sat there with the door locked cause we couldn’t hear that over the intercom.”

With the intercoms not functioning, it left people wondering what would happen in a real emergency situation.

“It would be really scary if there was an intruder on campus, because we wouldn’t know what was going on” said McCrary. “They definitely need to fix the intercoms, because we would be in trouble if it was a real situation.”

Justin Bradbury, another student in the V-buildings during the time of the evacuation shared his opinion of the situation. “I didn’t feel like it really prepared us for when there was actually a threatening situation. Our class just put up a couple of chairs and sat there until it ended. We didn’t really get a feeling for what a lockdown drill would really be like.”

The intercoms not working showed our school what needed to be done in order to keep us safe during an actually emergency, but will they take it seriously and fix it? Drills aren’t going to do anything for our school if we don’t fix the actual problem.

In order for students to feel more safe on campus, our school needs to take these drills more seriously. They need to make sure each classroom is accurately prepared in case of an emergency, and instead of just throwing a couple of chairs against the door, we need to thoroughly walk through and plan what would happen in case of an emergency.

If we have a prepared and connected campus, students at Rocklin High School can feel confident and safe if a dangerous situation were to occur.