By Talia Gerard
Executive Opinion Editor
Duke Saunders
Opinion Editor
Recently, Mira Costa administration conducted its first official bomb threat drill on Feb. 3 in order to prepare students and staff in the likelihood of an actual threat. While the intentions of this drill were justified, the administration needs to make some improvements because the drill was not an effective use of time overall, and many students did not attend, as stated by a La Vista poll.
During the bomb threat drill, the administration instructed all teachers to lead their students through specific hallways to their designated evacuation area, which is either the football field, baseball field or the field behind the wrestling gym.
According to the poll, the drill was a large step in the right direction in ensuring that students feel more secure at school. At the drill, teachers seemed to receive clear directions, making students and faculty more calm about the procedure they follow to take in the case of another potential threat.
As stated by the poll, the school should always be prepared to be put in dangerous situations. Therefore, in holding this drill, the school was smart, as it was recognizing that a bomb threat could be as hazardous of a situation as matters such as earthquakes and campus fires.
Once the teachers led their students to the specific areas, they remained there for over an hour, as stated by Costa Principal Dr. Ben Dale. After, teachers designated exit destinations for students based on their method of transportation for evacuation, which helped improve the efficiency of the drill as a whole.
As stated by Dale, one of the areas that needed the most improvement during the actual bomb threat earlier this was the evacuation process. As a result, the administration’s decision to mainly focus on the evacuation process during the drill, by way of a pre-planned evacuation procedure, was a beneficial step to ensure campus security and demonstrated a new sense of organization throughout campus.
Despite the many positive aspects of the drill, the school could improve its procedures in certain areas, such as shortening the length of the drill, as it lasted for two hours. This was not efficient as this time took away from the already-scarce class time of the Office Hours schedule.
Furthermore, in order for this drill to have met its full potential, the administration and teachers should have refrained from informing the student body of the specific details of the drill, such as the date and the duration. According to the poll, many students did not attend school on the day of the drill as they had been told that the drill was going to take place for about two hours and thought it would be unproductive due to its extensive length.
In addition, the drill was undoubtedly helpful in ensuring campus safety but was not as effective as it could have been as much of the student body did not treat the drill seriously, as stated by the poll. Costa could have improved this if the teachers applied stricter regulations, such as collecting student cellphones, to help them take the evacuation seriously in the case of a real threat.
Overall, the school’s recent bomb threat drill was planned with intentions to promote student safety, and, although it was not perfect, it was still a major improvement to the evacuation procedure followed during the actual threat.
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