There was a Student Site Council meeting on Wednesday, October 23; topics included items such as attendance minutes to what to do in the event of a catastrophe were talked about in the meeting.

The power going out Friday, October 18 was definitely not planned and it was evident that the staff was not prepared to handle that situation. The whole process of moving the students every which way and students not being told a plan on what to do made the process unstable. 

A big question was, “Why did you guys [the staff] decide to release the students so early?” 

“I want everybody to know that 20-minute window was a real deal, if we had not made a call within that 20 minutes, we could’ve not excused them until the bell rang.” Says Mrs. Finn, the principal at Taft High.

So, if there was to be another unplanned power outage or anything where the students are to be excused, there would be cutbacks on minimum days to make up for the lost time.

The staff was very appreciative of the students not rushing to the gates to go home before everyone was moved.

The “I Love You Guys” foundation was a topic discussing what to do should the event of a school shooting or catastrophe happens.

“Lock-out, lock-down, evacuate, and shelter” were the four main categories of the video.

Lock-out is when the threat is outside campus, lock-down is when the threat is inside the campus building. Evacuation and shelter were heavily focused on during the video. The evacuate portion stated that if you see an opportunity to escape, take it. The shelter will send out a mass notification with a strategy on what to do.

It is encouraged for students to download Aeries and turn on notifications for future instances where everybody needs to be informed thoroughly.

Moving on to a very different subject, having the Friday after Halloween off was mentioned. It is unlikely that students will receive a free day; teachers should plan on many students being absent that day.