I grew up in North Carolina. So even though the earthquake today was the first one I’ve ever experienced, I remember doing earthquake drills in school. Every year in N.C. the schoolchildren do earthquake drills at least once each year. So I know they are done here. My daughter has confirmed that they’ve already done a drill this year only one month into the new school year.
When the earthquake happened today, I had no idea what was happening. I was at home with my two younger children and suddenly heard and felt the ground vibrating. I ran to the front door, expecting to see something huge in the yard. A truck? A plane? I couldn’t imagine what could be that loud and cause that many vibrations, but expected something.
But then it stopped.
I came back in to check the news and learned that I’d just experienced my first earthquake. There wasn’t any damage to the house, but it was clearly a strong quake and it was pretty unnerving. I immediately started worrying about my older daughter at school. I had no way of knowing if there was damage to her classroom, if anyone was hurt, or if the kids were scared. I checked the school’s website, my emails and voicemails, but there was no news from the school.
I got the younger kids in the car and we headed over to the school. From the outside, everything seemed fine. There were no kids outside, no fire trucks or police. I reassured myself that everything was fine and circled around to get into the carpool line.
I must say that I was so relieved to see my daughter standing outside with the carpool kids. I finally knew that she was fine. I realized that the school had competent teachers and staff who all knew what to do in case of an earthquake. They took care of our children today and I was thankful for that.
So when I asked my daughter about the earthquake, I was shocked to hear what actually happened.
When it started, the teacher told the kids to stay at their desks and keep working.
Then she left the room. She. Left. The. Room.
When she came back a few minutes later, she sat down at her desk and began looking things up on her laptop. The kids were eventually told that there had been an earthquake and were told to go on to their next classes.
What happened to the earthquake drills? Why would the teacher LEAVE the children to find out what was going on? At the very least, have the children get onto the floor against the wall. Have another adult stay to help them if the teacher has to leave. Even though we later learned that the earthquake was centered in Virginia and that everyone here is OK, we didn’t know that at the time.
And while I’m here making these crazy helicopter mom requests, why not a quick email to all of the worried parents letting us know that our children are all fine?
I’m so thankful that we only get a big quake every few decades here on the East Coast.
Because the people caring for my sweet, precious daughter aren’t prepared.
Working Mommy says
I thought that a plane was heading for my house…it was the craziest thing I have ever felt! I can’t imagine how concerned you were having your daughter at school. I would definitely complain about the way things were handled!
WM
Mickey says
I know! I told my husband it was like a HUGE helicopter was on our roof….WHOMP… WHOMP… WHOMP… WHOMP… WHOMP…
So crazy!
Sophie S says
About 8 years ago I was up late in bed studying for my last final and all of a sudden my bed started shaking, vibrating, and then moving away from the wall. I noticed other things in my room moving a tiny bit too– the mirror, things on the shelves etc.
It was over in seconds, but it was about 4 am, everyone else was asleep and it was so minute (1.1 on the scale) that I convinced myself I was stressed out and keeping myself up too late with all the studying, so I went to bed. Next morning everyone was going on and on about this supposed earthquake we had here in IL in the middle of the night, lol.
Nicole @ The Daily Dish says
Unbelievable… I cannot believe she LEFT the children. That’s what I don’t understand. Since earthquakes aren’t real common I get that she was confused and didn’t know what it was, but to LEAVE THE ROOM? Unacceptable. I’d have been just as mad as you. What is the point of all those earthquake drills anyway?
And as most people know – you don’t always know what it is when its happening, so maybe that needs to be discussed and implemented into the drills too. Yikes! I’m so sorry – I would have been just as worried. I’m known to go get my kids from school when there’s a big ice storm coming, tornado warnings, etc. so I completely understand. (I’m lucky because the schools are right behind our house but still….)
Steffj89 says
Seriously??? You expect them to email the parents over this? I get being worried, but this is part of the problem with schools today they are so busy catering to helicopter parents and teaching to some goofy test that they aren’t actually teaching kids anything but how to memorize.
Had I been the teacher I would probably have done the same thing…stepped out for a second to check with another teacher to see what was going on.
We never had earthquake drills and I had no idea until someone posted on facebook that you should go outside. Tornadoes….I know the drill, and I too would pick mine up over impending ice storm(mainly because we have had a few of these in recent years and been locked in for 5 or more days.)
Mickey says
The school has an alert now system that goes to all of the parents instantly. It would take 10 seconds to type “Everyone’s fine! No damage.” There were a lot of other parents that drove up to the school and called the office to ask about their children. It would have been less trouble for the school to send a quick email out.
And the teacher didn’t step out for a second. She was gone for minutes. She also has a phone in her room that she can use to call any other room, including the offices. There wasn’t a good reason to leave the kids alone.
Thanks for stopping by. 🙂
Laurie says
You have every right to be upset! Leaving the room, no way, that is unacceptable. You never know if there is going to be an aftershock. I grew up in CA, so it was kinda fun…but it could have been something horrible, you just never know.
Jennifer says
Perhaps a call to the school superintendant is in order….?
Fluff's Enough says
I would contact the school, that is unacceptable. Even though everything was fine they still should have taken precautions to make sure there was nothing more going on.
I posted about my experience as well!
Paula says
If she had never experienced an earthquake before, how
Was she to know what was happening? Is there an intercom system to the office? Was she supposed to yell down the hall to get the info she needed? My only concern is that they didnt take precaution afterwards once everyone knew what was happening – and yes if they have an emergency notification system they should have used it.
Mickey says
Yes, I didn’t mention this in the post, but did in the comments. She has a phone in the room that can call everyone, including the office, other teachers, etc. Her room is also connected through side doors to 2 other rooms, so she could have asked other teachers from the doorway also.