Good ol’ fire drills. At this point, students are used to them. The loud alarms sound off and if you’re lucky enough, you get to skip out on a couple minutes of class.

Last Tuesday’s drill however lasted a little bit longer than a couple of minutes. Of course, fire drills are nothing new to Lake Ridge or any other school. However, the length of the first fire drill of the year left students such as junior, Adasia Wilkes, standing around outside and confused.

“All I know about what went down during the drill is rumors and I don’t really take them that seriously. I was out there for at least 15 minutes and got bit by some ants. I understand why we need to do these drills and all. I would just like to know why this drill went on for so long, but at the same time I also know that they can’t disclose everything to us too,” said Wilkes.

After the long drill, students went back to class and carried on with their day. Not much was said about it since then. With all the confusion and ant bites it’s good to set the record straight. Assistant principal, Rob Romeguera, believes the delay was caused by some students not following proper procedures.

“There was a delay returning to the building last Fire Drill due to some students not following procedures of lining up and remaining together with their class as they exited the building.  Some students did not stay with their class and had to be located before the drill could be considered complete.  Thus it is critical that all students conduct themselves appropriately by calmly exiting the building and staying with their group so we can account for every student,” said Romaguera.

On the topic of safety, emergency drills here at Lake Ridge have gained new terminology. Those new terms include: Lockout, Lockdown, Evacuate, Shelter, and Hold each one being a different type of drill. Towards the end of the last school year, meetings were held at Lake Ridge and other campuses regarding school safety. Junior, Summer Johnson, thinks that the new terms are a result of those meetings.

“I remember last year when all that stuff happened in Florida people were really worried about safety and reasonably so. I think this is the school district’s response to all those students and parents who were worried about our safety and for the most part I think it’s pretty reasonable aside from the tsunami mention. I don’t think we’ll be having a tsunami any time soon,” said Johnson.

These aren’t the first measures the school has taken in order to keep us safe. All students are required to wear their IDs at all times. Not wearing an ID will get you sent to an AP’s office to get one made and potentially at a cost. Students are also not allowed to prop open or open any doors for students and teachers as they should come in through the front entrance. If caught doing so, it will automatically get you in AC. Junior, Jakob Conrad, thinks that these rules are sadly necessary.

“At this point, I don’t really care what they have to do. As long as we take the measures necessary in keeping us safe. Plus the rules that we have right now aren’t that strict. I don’t mind wearing an ID and the door rule is almost common sense,” said Conrad.