Practice makes perfect: Sagle students prepare for emergencies

SAGLE — Faculty and students of Sagle Elementary participated in drills Friday, practice for a real emergency.

The combined lock-out and evacuation drill was a first in 10 years for kindergartners through fourth-graders — fifth- and sixth-graders were on a field trip — at the rural school nestled between Highway 95 and a busy railroad track just a few hundred yards away.

Unlike the recent lock-down at Farmin Stidwell Elementary in Sandpoint, where teachers and students locked themselves inside the their rooms, sheltering in place for protection behind locked rooms, the Sagle drill was both a lock-out — keeping a potential intruder from entering the building — and an evacuation drill in the event of a disaster such as a train derailment.

County Commissioner Glen Bailey was on hand to observe and evaluate the drill.

“I’m sure there will be lessons learned, a little bit of confusion,” Bailey said just before the drill began.

His expectations of teacher-student management and an orderly movement to the evacuation point a short distance away were well met.

Principal Erik Olson announced the start of the lock-out drill over the school intercom, and exterior doors were immediately secured with special locking devices. After some brief confusion — one class began to leave their room prematurely rather than staying inside — the evacuation portion of the drill was announced, and students quietly filed down school hallways into the bright spring sunshine, ushered along by their teachers.

The drills were no surprise to anyone. Notices had been sent to parents, and students were aware the training was to take place ahead of time; they had been thoroughly briefed by teachers about the purpose of the drill and expected conduct.

“I talked to them beforehand,” third-grade teacher Kathleen Taylor said. “I told them this is serious practice … that we should be excited about being involved in this grownup drill. That’s really motivating to third-graders.”

The drills followed the Lake Pend Oreille School District’s crisis response plan, according to Becky Meyer, assistant superintendent of teaching and learning. The plan covers four main types of emergency responses: lock-down, lock-out, evacuation, and shelter. A simple poster located in each classroom outlines what to do in plain language for quick reference, Meyer said.

A lockout protocol dictates that any students or staff outside the building be brought back into the building before access is secured. Attendance is taken and normal classroom routines continue, even as a heightened state of “situational awareness” is maintained until an all-clear signal is given.

An evacuation plan is the exact opposite of a lock-down or a lock-in: staff and students get out and relocate to a designated safe point outside the building. Things like books, personal belongings, lunches, skateboards, are all left behind. Teachers maintain control of students as they evacuate the school. A head count is taken once each class arrives at the rally point.

Outside, Sagle students walked quietly and in single file down Sagle Road, ushered along by their teachers. Evaluators, law enforcement and fire and EMS personnel lined the route, taking notes and directing sparse traffic.

At the rally point, students lined up in the bright sunshine by class. Roll call was taken. Feet shuffled, but students remained quiet as Olson praised them for their self-discipline.

And back they went to their classrooms, walking quietly along a dusty dirt road.

As the last students were filing back inside the building, status reports came back over radios while Olson and members of the Bonner County Sheriff’s Office, Sandpoint Police, Bonner County Emergency Management, and evaluators listened and debriefed about what they learned and what could be done better.

“Mrs. Smith’s class accounted for,” a radio squawked.  

The drill was generally considered a success by evaluators. Olson, a Wisconsin transplant in his first year at Sagle, was commended for taking the initiative in arranging the drill.

“This is the kind of planning that makes it all happen” Bonner County Emergency Management Director Bob Howard said. “With what’s going on in the world today, the more we can train and the more we can exercise, I think it prepares everybody for a major event.”

The school bell rang as the debrief wrapped up, and the formerly quiet students flowed into the playground, laughing, screeching and clambering onto playground equipment under a cloudless blue sky.