We had a meeting once with district employees about earthquake safety. I think this was to update emergency procedures, which was kind of too bad, because the previous flyer we had was copied from a typewritten (yes, typewritten) page that was entitled"
"In Case of Earthquake, Fire, or Bomb Treat."
It was disappointing to lose the bomb treat procedures (who doesn't love treats?), but I guess it had to be updated.
Anyway, the district representative began to tell us about what to do in case of fire or earthquake. She said that each classroom had two points of egress: the door and the one window that opened. I was in one of the portable classrooms, which had one door and two windows, both with bars on them that were fixed in place. (The front window had a couple of bullet holes in them -- yes, bullet holes.)
I raised my hand and pointed out that in some classrooms, there is no secondary exit. I said that my classroom only had one door and that neither of the windows opened.
The district representative's response?
I'll give you a hint. It wasn't "That's concerning; let's bring that up and make sure your students are safe." It wasn't "Oh, you're right, the portable classrooms are not up to code." It wasn't even "Yeah, there's nothing we can do about that so try not to have a fire."
She looked at me and said:
"Oh, look at the ornery one over there!"
Then she moved on.
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