Fire drills in winter

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Originally Posted by AlyssaEimers

I have been thinking more about this. If you live in a climate when it is cold enough much of the year if you were outside for very long you could freeze to death, then part of the fire drill should entail is getting properly dressed to go outside quickly. If there were to be a fire you would need to get a coat before going outside, so that should be part of the drill.

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The are all required to wear shoes :) and like I said, if it was a real fire in really cold weather they would immediately head towards the alternate building. Our playgroup was caught in one of these once, and they dont even muster them in the field, but head straight for the church if it is cold weather. It wouldnt take longer than a few minutes to get there. I would rather have my child get a bit of frostbite, then not make it out of the building due to smoke and fire.

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Originally Posted by ftmom

Also, I think that one adult grabbing their jacket is way different then 20 kindergarteners trying to get on their winter gear.

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If I am wearing a jacket it means my child is wearing one too. Shame on those teachers for being warm int heir jackets right in front of shivering children. How selfish.

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Originally Posted by KimPossible

Yeah i kind of agree with the rest, that its ok to be done in the cold, as long as they try to pick a milder day and are fast as possible.

As an aside
-20C is really low! I would consider where I live to be a cold weather climate and the rule is that if its below 10F the kids stay inside. But i suppose cold weather climate is relative! :)

But also, not every child comes properly dressed for the cold weather so i think the cut off is reasonable.

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They do have a winter gear 'drive' at city hall at the beginning of the school year to ensure that all kids have access to warm clothes. When I was in Calgary I taught at a school with a lot of immigrants, and they had a pretty large collection of jackets etc for the kids, as a large number didn't have warm clothing. There was always a rack in the office that the kids could come pick coats from. I haven't seen it on such a large scale here, but I received a second hand snow suit this year, and then passed it on when we got another one for a gift. A little girl in DD's class got it, and they think that is really cool :)

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Originally Posted by mommytoMR.FACE

If I am wearing a jacket it means my child is wearing one too. Shame on those teachers for being warm int heir jackets right in front of shivering children. How selfish.

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FTR I meant Stacy grabbing her jacket at work, not the teachers. I agree that it doesnt seem right that they would get to pick up their jackets when the kids cant. Unless the school has some sort of policy about it, but I have never seen that before.

When my daughter was in daycare in Calgary when they did fire drills, each room had a set of blankets that the teacher would bring out and cover the kids for the 5 minutes they were outside. When we had them at work we took our coats but that was because they were hanging by our exit door

There she went out most days unless it was below -15. In Mass, she rarely goes out if it is raining or snowing or windy.... We kind of think it is wimpy.

I think the fire drill should be done how it would be done in a fire. If weather is a concern, it should be addresed in your plan. In your drill, they might only be outside for 2 minutes but in the real thing, it could be a long time.

I've lived in FL all my life. I'm a wimp when it comes to the cold. Anything below 55 and my eyes are watering, teeth are chattering, and bones are aching! If it is freezing outside, my students and I are going out with coats in the event of a drill. Teachers are almost always alerted about upcoming drills (at my school) and I would have the students prepared with coats on. In my experience, getting them to line up and get out the door quickly isn't the issue. The issue is once we get on the sidewalk and there is a mass exodus and kids tend to stray. That's the part of the drill that needs practice. Obviously, in a real drill we wouldn't have our coats already on and we'd just have to suffer through the cold until we were taken to a safe (and warm) location.

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Originally Posted by Alana*sMommy

I've lived in FL all my life. I'm a wimp when it comes to the cold. Anything below 55 and my eyes are watering, teeth are chattering, and bones are aching! If it is freezing outside, my students and I are going out with coats in the event of a drill. Teachers are almost always alerted about upcoming drills (at my school) and I would have the students prepared with coats on. In my experience, getting them to line up and get out the door quickly isn't the issue. The issue is once we get on the sidewalk and there is a mass exodus and kids tend to stray. That's the part of the drill that needs practice. Obviously, in a real drill we wouldn't have our coats already on and we'd just have to suffer through the cold until we were taken to a safe (and warm) location.

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This made me smile as last week we had a warm spell and it hit 55 and I put a t shirt on!

Can't they teach the kids to grab their coats on the way, and put them on once they're outside? That doesn't take up valuable time if they work out a system for it and practice that. I think there are many solutions. I'm also not sure why they'd have to be outside for 20-30 minutes. I just asked my kids how it works, and they said that they are not allowed to put on coats because they are trying to learn to get outside quickly, but they are not kept outside for more than five minutes.

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Originally Posted by freddieflounder101

Can't they teach the kids to grab their coats on the way, and put them on once they're outside? That doesn't take up valuable time if they work out a system for it and practice that. I think there are many solutions. I'm also not sure why they'd have to be outside for 20-30 minutes. I just asked my kids how it works, and they said that they are not allowed to put on coats because they are trying to learn to get outside quickly, but they are not kept outside for more than five minutes.

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It depends on how much time the whole school has to get outside and where they are supposed to be, it's usually only a couple minutes.

How long they are outside would be based on how many classroom's are in the school and having to check in with each one of them to make sure everyone is there( if they walk around doing this it's longer, if they have all classroom's with walky-talky's it's easier). I do believe when they do the drills they have to check every station (i don't know the tech term) where it lights up to tell them where a fire is, and they may have several throughout the school (especially if it's been added unto).

In the Northern areas, I do not believe they should go outside without their coats. I remember one time there was a kitchen fire at my school. We were out on the football field for an hour. It wasn't freezing, but it was cold enough to want a jacket. We all had our jackets on. There was a different time where something happened (I forget what it was), but they took us to a near by church and our parents picked us up from there. It was a bit of a walk still. I must have depended on the time of year. I think even in an emergency you have a few seconds to grab a coat. Not too long ago there was a debate saying with people saying 30 or so seconds was time to save someone's life, surely if you practised and kept the coats near the door 30 seconds would be enough time to orderly grab your coat. IME the fire department does not come in just a few seconds. Here the average 911 time is 7 minutes. In really cold temperatures I would not want to be outside in sub zero temps without a coat for 7 minutes.