Edgewood Middle School Revises Tornado Plans
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By Craig Brosman-
Families have moved and lives are being rebuilt. In Warsaw educators are finding new ways to keep children safe in case of severe weather.
On Wednesday morning Warsaw Police Department DARE officer Joe Hawn and principals at Edgewood Middle School tested a new plan for tornado safety. Hawn has worked with Edgewood Assistant Principal Tracy Horrell to evaluate the school’s safety procedures in case of a tornado.
“Instead of having everyone come to the center of the building or their lockers, we looked for areas surrounded by brick, that would be more secure,” said Hawn. “We have tried to avoid the southwest area of the school as much as possible, since the southwest is where most of the tornadoes originate.”
Each classroom in the building was given a chart demonstrating where students in the room are to seek shelter.
“There are also charts for when students are in lunch period as well,” Hawn said.
Hawn said the most secure areas of the building were the band area, the locker rooms and the administrative offices.
Each school in the state was supposed to run a tornado drill Tuesday, but Kosciusko County schools tried out new procedures. Hawn said that Edgewood was not the only school that changed its procedures.
“I have worked with Washington Elementary School, Claypool Elementary School and Warsaw Community High School,” said Hawn.
Edgewood Principal Joella Smyth worked with Hawn and Horrell to protect the students in her care.
“After watching a video of a tornado hitting a school we decided to change our procedures,” Smyth said. “We saw that the corridors where students would normally be bent over protected from the tornado was turned into a wind tunnel. There were car bumpers, cars and street signs flying down the hall. We used to think that was safe.”
“When we redeveloped our procedure, we looked for rooms without windows,” Smyth added. “We have had to rethink the whole thing.”
Horrell developed flip charts for the teachers as a quick guide for what to do in an emergency.
Each school in Kosciusko County has a certified safety specialist. Edgewod's safety specialist is Horrell.
After running through the drill at 10:15 a.m., teachers came to Smyth and Horrell to voice their concerns about the new plan. One teacher told Smyth that there was congestion going into the girls locker room and that it might work better if they split the number of kids between the boys and girls locker rooms.
Another told Smyth that the special needs kids had to walk too far to get to their designated area and that it might work better if their destination was closer.
“As a whole I think that it went very well,” Smyth said. “They were very quick and quiet.”[[In-content Ad]]
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Families have moved and lives are being rebuilt. In Warsaw educators are finding new ways to keep children safe in case of severe weather.
On Wednesday morning Warsaw Police Department DARE officer Joe Hawn and principals at Edgewood Middle School tested a new plan for tornado safety. Hawn has worked with Edgewood Assistant Principal Tracy Horrell to evaluate the school’s safety procedures in case of a tornado.
“Instead of having everyone come to the center of the building or their lockers, we looked for areas surrounded by brick, that would be more secure,” said Hawn. “We have tried to avoid the southwest area of the school as much as possible, since the southwest is where most of the tornadoes originate.”
Each classroom in the building was given a chart demonstrating where students in the room are to seek shelter.
“There are also charts for when students are in lunch period as well,” Hawn said.
Hawn said the most secure areas of the building were the band area, the locker rooms and the administrative offices.
Each school in the state was supposed to run a tornado drill Tuesday, but Kosciusko County schools tried out new procedures. Hawn said that Edgewood was not the only school that changed its procedures.
“I have worked with Washington Elementary School, Claypool Elementary School and Warsaw Community High School,” said Hawn.
Edgewood Principal Joella Smyth worked with Hawn and Horrell to protect the students in her care.
“After watching a video of a tornado hitting a school we decided to change our procedures,” Smyth said. “We saw that the corridors where students would normally be bent over protected from the tornado was turned into a wind tunnel. There were car bumpers, cars and street signs flying down the hall. We used to think that was safe.”
“When we redeveloped our procedure, we looked for rooms without windows,” Smyth added. “We have had to rethink the whole thing.”
Horrell developed flip charts for the teachers as a quick guide for what to do in an emergency.
Each school in Kosciusko County has a certified safety specialist. Edgewod's safety specialist is Horrell.
After running through the drill at 10:15 a.m., teachers came to Smyth and Horrell to voice their concerns about the new plan. One teacher told Smyth that there was congestion going into the girls locker room and that it might work better if they split the number of kids between the boys and girls locker rooms.
Another told Smyth that the special needs kids had to walk too far to get to their designated area and that it might work better if their destination was closer.
“As a whole I think that it went very well,” Smyth said. “They were very quick and quiet.”[[In-content Ad]]
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