With the 2023-2024 school season underway, in addition to their studies, students throughout Northern Lights Public Schools have also been practicing fire drills, relocations, and lockdown procedures.
NLPS superintendent Rick Cusson said these exercises are a regular part of what takes place at the beginning of the school year to ensure students and staff are aware of what to do in the event of an emergency.
“We want everyone to feel safe in our schools and an important part of that is knowing that if something were to happen in a school, we have procedures in place that are focused on keeping our students and staff safe,” he stated.
For this year, in addition to the customary drills, students also participated in an exercise that involved exiting the school and walking to a relocation site such as a local church, community facility, or another nearby school.
Nicole Garner, Communications and Public Relations Manager with NLPS said the relocation drills are something new this year.
“This was the first year we are requiring schools to do a relocation drill and specifically to do one at the start of the school year,” she told Lakeland This Week, explaining that although schools within the division practice various safety drills through the year, there is a particular emphasis placed on doing them at the beginning of the year as each school has new students and staff who may not be familiar with the procedures.
“We make sure that each school does at least one fire drill with a relocation and one lockdown drill within the first couple of weeks of school starting,” Garner said, explaining that event if actual emergencies happen infrequently, it’s always best to be prepared “It also helps everyone feel safer when they know that in the event there is an emergency, they know what to do and know that others around them will help keep them safe.”
