Thursday, April 8, 2010

CODE RED AT GREEN CENTRAL

Code Red at Green Central
By Mr. E.

How do we learn what to do in case of an emergency?  It takes practice, practice, and practice.  For the third time this year, Green Central Park had a code red drill.  Teachers, students and staff practiced locking the school until officers restored code green.

At 1:05 p.m. when the bell rang 6 times, I was in room 229, Mrs. Lazo’s room.  The teacher reacted promptly, but calmly.  First she locked the door, then asked students to sit on the floor against a wall, away from the door.  She also asked students to relax and stay silent until things got back to normal.  Some students felt nervous during the drill.  When I talked to Charline, she said, “I'm scared.  Is this a practice code red drill?”

Five minutes later, the principal announced that we were on code green again.  We were all relieved that it was just a drill!  Nobody panicked, but some kids were really worried because they didn’t know what to expect, especially the little kids.  In kindergarten, it was still a stressful moment.

When I talked to Ms. Smith, a kindergarten teacher, she said, “It went OK but lots of kids were scared.  Some of them were crying even if they knew it was just practice.”

According to one middle school student, the drill was difficult.  Emily said, "I was bored, but other students were screaming in the dark.  We had a substitute teacher.  We ran to the corner.  Some students were really loud and the principal came.  She wasn't happy about it."

For all the people involved in education and schools around the Twin Cities, code red is a very important part of learning to keep our community safe.

1 comment:

  1. This is a really good way to write this, you gave a lot of details in your writing. The way that you was telling it made me the read feel like i was there like i could picture it in my head. It was good how you included different people in it that really helped it. the fact that how you was telling like some of the students was scared that made it good to because you let the reader know how you are going to feel when you are reading. Everything was really fantastic about you writing!

    ReplyDelete