[arkansas parent]

I got a call this morning saying school was being evacuated in 15 minutes. I freaked out. I had no clue what was going on. When we got close to school we seen police everywhere, which scared me even more. I thought maybe there was a shooting or something awful had happened. After I got to where we were suppose to pick up the kids someone told me there was a bomb threat, but they thought it was just a prank. It took me about 45 min to get both kids. It was very unorganized. Parents where cutting in line, kids where being given to who ever asked for them, (no questions asked) and the kids where spread out all over the football feild. I hope this shows the school they need to have a better plan in place.

[jp4ga]

This is unreal! I can not believe that they handled the situation like that. I am a teacher and when we have a bomb threat parents are not notified. The kids are removed from the building to a safe location until the building is proven to be safe or unsafe. Having parents there upset and everything unorganized just causes unneeded panic.

[binkybear]

wow, that's terrible. Makes me think of the other thread about how old your kids shoud be before you leave them alone.....6 year olds are expected to keep their cool, remember the do's and don'ts and be ok "if" presented with a crisis situation while alone. here an entire school of functionins adults couldn't do that when the stuff hit the fan. That's really really scary. I hope you're invited to a school meeting very soon and able to express your concerns and get exact details of how they will ensure this disorganization never ever happens again.

[DannieAS]

wow there has to be a plan in place. At the school I work at, the teachers filed a grievance because the principal decided she didn't want to hassle with the earthquake drill last week and that it should just be modified with the teachers explaining safety to the kids...

ummmm excuse me? yeah CA is a state of a natural disaster you do have to have a plan so that things are done in an orderly manner, AND in order to get there, you have to practice. UGH!

[mom2samuel]

I teach high school and we had this happen a few years back. We evacuated to the elementary/middle school gym while the school and grounds were checked out. This being the lovely age of cell phones, kids were contacting their parents to come pick them up, etc. However, we had a station set up where the parents had to sign the students out, then someone came to the gym and called out the students names for them to leave. It was a very long, crazy day, but it could have been a lot worse.

Michelle

[crick]

I'm really shocked at this level of chaos! Not only do they not seem to have any type of plan at all, but that means they don't do drills either. Every student must know what to do in an evacuation as well as every teacher. Our school does drills for several situations, including one on "lockdowns".

Definitely voice your concerns and anger at the school board and demand they put in a safety plan!

[arkansas parent]

First I want to correct something I wrote in my post. The call was to tell us to pick our kids up in 15 min, the kids was already out of the buildings. They had a plan it just wasn't very good. All the kids are to gather at the football field. But they had them spaced out all over the place. I had no clue where my two where at. They either called the kids names over a speaker or the teachers would find kids for parents. The art teacher found T for me. ALL the parents (elementary and high school parents) where sent to one entrace, but some teachers were rasing the fence up so the kids could go to their parents. None of the kids where signed out.
They really needed to have the kids and parents lined up according to grade. And all kids should have been signed out.

Oh,the threat was written on the boy's bathroom wall.

[Withay]

Can't wait for this one to hit the national news and have the principal interviewed. Wonder just how he/she will explain the lack of organization and drills.